Moira Smiley & Voco
Circle, Square, Diamond & Flag
Stompin' gorgeous Americana harmony, w/ banjo & cello
Moira grew up in the revival of these incredible old songs. She writes new songs to join in, and her award-winning group, VOCO soothes and rocks out to both new and old.
Shape-note singing bloomed in New England between 1790 and 1830. It was written by mostly itinerant, rural composers with driving rhythm, un-sentimental lyrics and the use of “fa so la” solfege (to teach sight-singing).
This program won the support of a Meet The Composer “Creative Connections” grant.
This EP is a fierce, fearless celebration of four voices raised together in a beautiful room. Banjo & cello lay down the groove and the still landscape for the weaving voices.
moira smiley & VOCO tour the US, Canada and Europe. You can find where they are by going to: www.moirasmiley.com or www.myspace.com
This is roughly 1/2 of what VOCO does...the Americana half...here's the skinny:
moira smiley & VOCO - Powerful, emotional music with lush four-part vocal harmony and delicious vaudevillian combo of cello, accordion and banjo. Original improvisation-built songs steeped in Appalachia and Eastern Europe. Voted #1 a cappella band in the U.S. in 2007, VOCO is the energy of street singing and the elegance of a string
quartet. Just released September, 2008, moira smiley & VOCO’s Live EP "circle, square, diamond & flag" is starting to receive rave reviews.
Sweet, hard-driving Americana mixed with crooked eastern European dance and dissonance. It's rounded out with rompin’ stompin'percussive movement. Joyous, magnificent, hair-raising harmonies – music that mourns and dances at the same time. Called "fascinating and multi-lingual" by the LA Times, "Persuasive,near perfect musicians"by Herald Times. VOCO takes their music to festivals, listening rooms and headphones across the U.S. and Canada. VOCO's singing is lyricism in motion - utterly unique
Folk: Appalachian Folk