Coope, Boyes & Simpson
- Genre
- Contemporary | English | Traditional
- Country
- England
biography
COOPE BOYES & SIMPSON
Their voices weave through and bounce off each other with a powerful elegance
Since their first appearance in 1993, Coope Boyes & Simpson?s powerful and distinctive unaccompanied singing and songwriting have taken English roots into radical new directions. Described as "quite simply the best purveyors of acappella song on these Islands", their first CD, Funny Old World, was the rock magazine Qs Roots Album of the Year. Subsequent releases have led to numerous awards and outstanding reviews the BBC Folk Website simply listed all their albums as recommended listening. Tours have already taken the trio throughout Britain, to the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, France and America. Their voices weave through and bounce off each other with a powerful elegance, wrote an American reviewer, its nice to know that, even with the numbing array of technology available, the human voice is still one of the most expressive instruments around.
What the trio does seems simple at first glance: just three blokes who stand and sing in three-part harmony. Their songs, mostly written by Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson, deal with social and environmental issues and the words are clever and sharp. The harmonies are in the folk-country tradition, but with a twist that mirrors the barbed lyrics, a wide pitch range and In Coope Boyes and Simpson's repertoire there is a hinterland of music and culture that makes their work more multi-dimensional than that of the other acts on the bill. Polemical reports of injustice and inequality are woven into tales of everyday lives, told in plain words and distinctive tunes.
COOPE BOYES & SIMPSON
The radical sound of English acappella roots. Traditional songs reworked so they shine and strong, original songs with memorable tunes, soaring harmonies and words that strike a chord.
As passionate a tour de force of unaccompanied singing as you can imagine. Mojo
. If there were such a thing as postmodern folk music, this might be it. The Guardian
"Quite simply the best purveyors of acappella song on these Islands." Rockn'Reel
Impassioned acappella The Daily Telegraph
"Tunes sung with natural, unfettered energy - isn't it fabulous." Classic FM
As If.... Review
Coope, Boyes and Simpson: As if ...
No Masters
**** (4-stars)
From the Young Tradition through to the Unthanks, one of the great strengths of the English folk scene has been the tradition of close-harmony vocal work, and the trio of Barry Coope, Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson have been amongst the finest exponents. They haven't exactly been prolific, but over the past 17 years they have recorded a series of powerful albums in which they have covered anything from carols to songs about the devastation of the first world war, as well as collaborating with members of the Waterson-Carthy clan in that vocal supergroup Blue Murder, and working with the National Theatre on an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful. Now they have released their first trio set in five years, and it's a virtuoso demonstration of their range. There's everything from a sturdy reworking of Clive James and Pete Atkins's pained and powerful Hill of Little Shoes, Richard Thompson's edgy Keep Your Distance and Robert Burns's The Slave's Lament, while their own new songs are equally varied, from Boyes's political warning Under the Stone and updated satire of The Emperor's New Clothes through to Simpson's powerful Haven, a song of hope for a suffering friend, or a bitter reworking of the Who on We Got Fooled Again. It's all sung a cappella, with occasional minimal percussion and magnificent harmonies throughout.
Robin Denselow
forthcoming dates
| date | venue/website link | venue phone no |
|---|---|---|
| 23 Nov '10 | LEICESTER The Musician, Clyde Street, LE1 2DE | 0116 251 0080 |
| 26 Nov '10 | GAINSBOROUGH Trinity Centre, Trinty Street, DN21 2AL | 01427 676655 |
| 17 Jan '11 | COLCHESTER Folk Club, Colchester Arts Centre, Church Street, CO1 1NF | 01206 500900 |
| 23 Jan '11 | COCKERMOUTH Kirkgate Centre, Kirkgate, Cumbria, CA13 9PJ | 01900 826448 |