The Angstones were a Canadian band based in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. Their music combined European and American folk music with humorous lyrics and jazz rhythms.Northern Journey, Release 2.0 by Gene Wilburn

or via Scribd
The lineup consisted of

Peter Kiesewalter Peter Kiesewalter is a Canadian arranger and multi-instrumentalist who plays sax, clarinet, keyboard, and accordion. Career In the 1990s, Kiesewalter was a member of the Ottawa-based bands Fat Man Waving"Fat Man Waving goodbye". ''Ottawa Citizen' ...

on reeds and accordion, Kurt Walther on guitar,

Rob Frayne Rob Frayne (born 1957) is a Canadian jazz saxophonist, arranger and bandleader based in Ottawa, Ontario. He was part of the bands Chelsea Bridge and the Angstones, but his career was interrupted by a serious car crash in 2004. Following that, he co ...

on sax,

John Geggie John Geggie is an Ottawa-based Canadian bassist (double bass) who performs jazz with several Ottawa-based groups and performers.Fat Man Waving Fat Man Waving was a Canadian folk-rock band from Ottawa, Ontario,"Fat Man Waving goodbye". ''Ottawa Citizen'', June 3, 1996. active from 1987 to 1996. The band had a diverse, unclassifiable style which drew on folk, rock, Celtic and jazz influe ...

and

Chelsea Bridge Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank, and split between the City of Westminster, the London Borough of Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensing ...

History

The Angstones released their first recording, ''Kommen Een Der Karz'', in 1992. In 1993 the band performed at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. The next year they released their second recording, ''When Ahab Met Moishe''; the album was nominated for the

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

for Best Global Album at the

Juno Awards of 1996 The Juno Awards of 1996, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 10 March 1996 in Hamilton, Ontario at a ceremony in the Copps Coliseum. Anne Murray was the host for the ceremonies, which were broad ...

. In 1995, they released ''The Hills are Alive'', a spoof of Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. Se ...

''. That year the band performed at the

Winnipeg Folk Festival The Winnipeg Folk Festival is a nonprofit charitable organization with an annual summer folk music festival held in Birds Hill Provincial Park, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The festival features a variety of artists and music from around the ...

and the

Vancouver Folk Music Festival The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (VFMF), founded in 1978, is an outdoor multistage music festival, located at Jericho Beach Park on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia. It takes place annually, on the third weekend of July. The fes ...

. In 1997 the band performed at the

, and in 1999 at the Ottawa Folk Festival. Also in 1999, they released their final album ''Bytown...It's My Town''. In 1999, Kiesewalter became resident House Composer at ABC (

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

). In 2004, in New York, he founded the Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata which, in 2011, and with the blessing of the

Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popu ...

organization, created a touring production of ''The Hills are Alive'', and produced an accompanying CD. Frayne formed the 15-member project Dream Band and co-founded Ottawa's JazzWorks. Mackie went into the film industry. Walther pursued his career as an artist. Geggie became a Professor of Music; as of 2022, he teaches double bass at the

Crane School of Music The Crane School of Music is located in Potsdam, New York, and is one of three schools which make up the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam. Crane consists of approximately 630 undergraduate and 30 graduate students and a faculty o ...

and the

Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec The Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec (CMQQ) is a music conservatory located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Founded by the Quebec government in 1944, it became the second North American music institution of higher learning to be en ...

Discography

*''Kommen Een Der Karz'' (1992), Independent *''When Ahab Met Moishe - Soundtrack From The Motion Picture'' (1994), Canal Records *''The Hills Are Alive'' (1995), Canal Records *''Bytown...It's My Town'' (1998), Canal Records

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Angstones, The Canadian folk music groups Canadian world music groups Musical groups from Ottawa Musical groups established in 1990 Musical groups disestablished in 1998 1990 establishments in Ontario 1998 disestablishments in Ontario