Tanglefoot, Captured Alive (Borealis, 2003)
The group known as Tanglefoot began as a three-piece in the early 1980s. They played Canadian folk songs with... shall we say... vigour! The group grew and changed, but their enthusiasm continued, and they began to write their own material. This new recording, done live at the Flying Cloud Folk Club in Toronto over three nights in May 2003 is (except for one traditional tune) all original material. But it sounds completely authentic. The songs, the subject matter, and the performances are strong and lusty.
One look at the band and you think, "Hey! Check out the hippies, man!" Shoulder-length hair and silk shirts abound. But the sound is closer to Stan Rogers. Now one concert-goer is quoted as saying "Stan Rogers meets Van Halen," but they're not that bad. I think of them as Stan Rogers with a sense of humour. Some day I'm going to publish my Stan Rogers stories, but suffice it to say that in my experience with him, old Stan tended to take himself pretty seriously. Tanglefoot, on the other hand, are a gang of runaway comedians. The inter-song banter is quite hilarious.
Captured Alive is Tanglefoot's sixth CD. It is filled with great ensemble playing, hearty singing, and fine solos. There are four lead vocalists, each with his own approach, and the group vocals blend beautifully. Guitarist Steve Ritchie joined the band in 1988; bassist Al Parrish came aboard in 1994; Terry Young brought his mandolin, guitar, banjo, harmonica and whistle to the mix in '99. They are the main singers and songwriters. Bryan Weirmer joined in 2002 on keyboards. Fiddler Joe Grant retired in May 2003, and was replaced by Terry Snider. Grant continues to write for the band, and sings several leads on this album. Both Joe and Terry S. play fiddle on this album.
The songs are folky, and deal with some specifically Canadian issues. The first track is "Secord's Warning," which tells the story of Laura Secord (a capella with hand claps), who (legend has it) tramped miles to warn the British about the American army's plans she had overheard. She has become a Canadian legend, and Grant and Ritchie's song accords her all the respect due her, with fantastic harmonies. All the instruments are out for "Seven a Side," a tale of an historic hockey game played in the early 1900s in Wiarton, Ontario, when each team had seven players, as the title suggests. We take our hockey pretty seriously up here!
"One More Night" recounts the death of a silver mine on the north shore of Lake Superior. I have to admit that this one reminded me a bit of the Folksmen (from A Mighty Wind). "Keppel Township Love Song" is introduced by a brief story about the family farm. The love song is sweet, even moving. Next is a humourous song about Prohibition. A Canadian from Kingston was involved in selling bootleg liquor (a profitable enterprise); his name William Allen, hence the nickname "Dollar Bill." A quick banjo-picked song about the first passenger airline flight in Canada, in the Silver Dart, is "McCurdy's Boy." Sponsored by Alexander Graham Bell in 1909, this flight was piloted by John A.D. McCurdy, who was "always keen to fly!"
The rest of the songs are of similar ilk: footnotes from Canadian history expanded and set to music. It's thrilling to find someone doing this in the Great White North, where we are often happy to buy into legends from below the 49th parallel. Do you have a Louis Riel song? Captured Alive has a real solid folk sound, lots of acoustic guitars, and fiddles, mandolins, some keyboards, and those potent vocals. Bravo, Tanglefoot!
