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Big Sea

by Rev Simpkins

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    32 page full colour saddle-stitched book of lyrics and artwork, designed and illustrated by Tom Knight. 148 x 148mm

    Includes unlimited streaming of Big Sea via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 11 Rev Simpkins releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Apple, Pissabed Prophet, Saltings, For Every Number (EP), Poor Child for Thee: 4 Songs for Christmastide, Big Sea, Advent (Single), Sing Your Life EP, and 3 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      £36.80 GBP or more (20% OFF)

     

  • Limited edition CD and hardback book
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD with 32 page full colour hardback book of lyrics and artwork, designed and illustrated by Tom Knight. 148 x 148mmm.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Big Sea via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
In a hard-lit room Bleached and sterilized News of suspect cells Worms through baffled eyes Oh, won’t you come again, Lord Under creaking boughs Down a sodden lane ‘midst the broken black He recites a name Oh, won’t you come again, Lord Darkness calls to dark Deep embraces deep Wisdom’s voice stands dumb Empty places speak low Oh, won’t you come again, Lord Witness whispered light Creep from winter’s night Seeps across the plain It’s time to turn again Oh, won’t you come again, Lord
2.
Big Sea 03:25
Give me life, give me life, give me life, abundantly Bring all your breakers, all your swells And batter me, roll in big sea Come on and take a piece of me Give me life, give me life, give me life, abundantly Oh, Lord, don’t leave me sickening here Crash down on me, roll in big sea Come on and take a piece of me Give me life, give me life, give me life, abundantly “Break, blow, burn and make me new” Come ravish me, roll in big sea Come on and take a piece of me Let me kiss, let me fight Let me bleed and let me bite Let me taste and smell and feel and see Let me praise, let me bless Let me preach, Let me confess the hopes and doubts that press on me Let me sing, let me write Let me hold her in the night Let me tease my kids and get their tea Lord, give me life So come on and take a piece of me
3.
Creeksailor 03:33
Creeksailor, won’t you carry me over please? Show me the stars’ bold certainties Speak of the breezes, the tides, the sands Oh, still my shaking tiller hand There’s no depth that she fears She knows the problems come when the shallows appear We set out sharp on some mercury morn We rode the silver and we grieved the dawn We skimmed the mud flats, caught the curlew’s call, felt the freighter’s rotten ribs, and poked the dead barge’s pall There’s no depth that we fear We know the problems come when the shallows appear Well, if you fix your eyes on those lights above And ignore the shingle’s slide, the movement of mud, Then the lap of the marsh, oh, the suck of the tide, the mystery of the mist will draw you down inside But there’s no depth you need fear Just know the problems come when the shallows appear
4.
Pelican 05:24
Pelican feeds the hungry and needy I kneel before her My throat like an open grave Food cannot fill me Water dilutes me Nothing contents me Pelican, pity me She tears her breast, her children to refresh By her I am blessed, led to life from living death Though death entreats me Her life flows sweetly Given so freely Given in flesh & blood She tears her breast, her children to refresh By her I am blessed, led to life from living death Pelican feeds me Loves me completely Though I’m unworthy She gives so graciously She tears her breast, her children to refresh By her I am blessed, led to life from living death She crowns the whole earth, the heavens and seas The Pelican tears her breast for me She’s queen of what was and what is to be The Pelican tears her breast for me She gives of herself in infinity The Pelican tears her breast for me She’s compassion and love, she’s strength and glory The Pelican tears her breast for me
5.
Psalm 04:34
If I climb up to the heavens If I make my bed in the grave If I take the wings of the morning Till I reach the end of the seas If I cry out, “surely the darkness shall suffocate me” You show me the night is bright as the day When I fall and when I’m rising You search out all of my ways All my thoughts you know completely All the words my tongue tries to say You press in before and behind me Oh, where can I go to hide from your face? In the womb you knit me together You wove my frame in the depths of the earth All my tunes form part of your music In your book are writ all of my days I grasp for your thoughts, but they’re more than the deserts’ sand And when I come to the end, you’re still with me
6.
Our songs are raised to shrieks above the waves We curse the gales which blow us to our graves None for you None for me There’s no mercy in this sea No hope, no fight, no faith, and no respite We bid the storm rock us into night None for you None for me There’s no mercy in this sea And in that moment everything seems lost Love has no virtue, selfishness no cost None for you None for me There’s no mercy in this sea Yet asleep in the stern There is mercy flowing free Now he awakes Now he rebukes the sea Cries, “Peace. Be Still!” and all the billows cease None for you None for me There’s no mercy in this sea Yet asleep in the stern There is mercy flowing free
7.
My sweet love Rose faithfully chose to be burned in the fire All for the Word loved, read and heard in the tongue of her fathers Meekly suffered the candle’s pain Martyred praying in Mary’s flames How was my love less than enough to cause sorrow in parting? What Love is this? What God of bliss would turn lovers to martyrs? Anger, wedded to sorrow deep, holds me, while you in white robes sleep, or so I am told Cold candlelight fights with the night on the page of my Bible I search to find the heart & mind of my Rose Given glorious liberty Freedom I would lose readily to hold my Rose I am poured out like the waters, O Lord, And through my ribs flows the wax of my heart I am poured out like water, O Lord I cry for thee, my Rose, my Rose
8.
Still the night Silent the snowbound lane Firelight freezes in broken panes Stories are told again Summoning joy and pain and love Comes the dawn Empty the morning sky Croak the song, “redemption is drawing nigh!” Tell out that ancient tale How all the mothers wailed for their babes Soon the noon Brings the cold sun to bear Showing up, revealing and laying bare Innocents suffering now Hear how the mothers wail for their babes On Holy innocents’ Day
9.
I am a stranger here below And what I am it’s hard to know I am so vile, so prone to sin I fear that I’m not born again When I experience call to mind My understanding seems so blind All feeling sense seems to be gone Which makes me think that I am wrong
10.
Hands 06:25
I have glimpsed it beside a grave As the earth falls from my hand I have heard it in a mourner’s wail I don’t pretend I understand I have seen it in a baby’s gaze Pouring water from my hand I perceive it in the tracing of a cross I don’t pretend I understand How Love is strong as death But who am I to deny either? I have felt it standing among friends As the bread breaks in my hand I have known it in the Word I love so well I don’t pretend I understand How Love is strong as death But who am I to deny either? It’s spoken plainly in a dying breath grasped in the touching of two hands It fills your sorrows, it fills your joys But don’t pretend you understand How Love is strong as death But who am I to deny either?
11.
Welsh Jane 04:10
Under a half harvest moon Hung in blood test maroon We ride out singing old Dylan tunes Dim drive down slim dog-leg lanes To Shingle Street again I’m so happy to be sat with Welsh Jane Though North Sea gales have no sympathy They make me feel so alive Tumbling out from the car into a night full of stars Ships’ lanterns flicker faint from afar Smoke blends with salt in the air The wind’s blast ruffles our hair We squint for a horizon that’s not there Though North Sea gales have no sympathy They make me feel so alive Oh, endure with me Come hope with me, Welsh Jane Come, be known as you know me Great love grows patiently Swells rock the bells in the buoys Chimes join the clamour and noise Of that big sea’s familiar voice Waves spit out stones at the shore Then gulp them back once more To be cherished in some deep briny store Though North Sea gales have no sympathy I couldn’t feel more alive Oh, endure with me Come hope with me, Welsh Jane Come, be known as you know me Great love grows patiently…
12.
When you find all the words you should pray quite absurd And the hope you once preached is eluding you When you sing from your heart of the depth of the dark And the psalms you recall speak of faithlessness “Out of the depths I cry to you!” When the heat of life’s sun scorches all you’ve begun And old certainties fade with the morning mist Do not fear, do not scare, make this doubt your true prayer And you’ll find that your words join the Son of Man’s “Out of the depths I cry to you!” From the cross he cried out with those words of your doubt And he cries with you now in your loneliness So learn suffering’s place in the darkness of Grace Let that absence draw faith from your restless heart “Out of the depths I cry to you!”
13.
Sing your life like it’s a song Sing it tender, sing it strong Weep with others as they weep Oh, sing of truth when talk is cheap And when you can, sing joyfully Let your melody run free Oh, sing your life like it’s a song When the world’s all din and noise Keep some music in your voice If you’re hated or provoked Then sing with passion, Sing in hope that if you share a melody You might make friends of enemies Oh, sing your life it’s a song Sing your life like it’s a song And as that tune rolls on and on The more honestly you sing You’ll find that others soon join in And as your melodies entwine May your harmony be fine Oh, sing your life it’s a song While breath remains within me I shall not keep from singing

about

9/10 Vive le Rock:
‘[an] astonishing album…if you can imagine Tom Waits collaborating with the early Captain Beefheart on a set of folk-psych songs, you’ll be somewhere close to the sound of ‘Big Sea’…utterly intriguing from start to finish.’

5/5 RnR:
‘There is an extraordinary intensity about this album…and [its] dark but sublime musings on mortality, sin and the divine…intelligent and articulate work couched in never-less-than-interesting, and often breath-taking musical arrangement…I can only say I’m deeply grateful for a unique encounter.’

''Big Sea' resonates to the sound of redemption…Rev Simpkins and his Phantom Notes cohorts are indeed on a journey to the light but it is a journey powered by poetic poise and psychedelic folk influences and, while the emotions expressed creak and sway like a sailing ship in a storm, there is always, and I mean always, light on the horizon.'
BluesBunny

'[A] collection of bristling anthems, flinty, chiselled from the same block that gave us Captain Beefheart and The Fall…Each song, in its own way, burns with the same fire. The furnace is stoked with emotional fuel mined many miles underground, compressed over many centuries, crushed shiny black with rage and ignited by Rev Simpkins to burn fiercely in an outburst of musical radiance”
Essex County Standard

'musically and visually a thing of sheer beauty…absolutely stunning…one of the most impressive releases to come my way in 40-plus years in the radio industry'
Stephen Foster, East Anglian Daily Times

BIG SEA by REV SIMPKINS
ARTWORK by TOM KNIGHT
FOREWORD by STEPHEN COTTRELL, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK

Big Sea, Rev Simpkins’ new album and 32-page illustrated book is a life-affirming meditation on hope during dark times. This new collection of exuberant and eccentric songs was written during the Rev’s diagnosis, treatment and recovery from cancer and drummer James De’ath’s illness with sepsis. What resulted was an emotive celebration of the peaks and troughs of life and death told through off-kilter songs about east coast creeks, shattering storms, mystic pelicans and the Colchester martyrs.

Artist Tom Knight’s illustrations and typesetting of the lyrics add further life to the album’s striking images and sentiments.

The Reverend Matt Simpkins is the fourth generation of his family to be ordained priest in the Church of England. Prior to ordination, Matt was a professional musician. He collaborated with Kenney Jones of the Small Faces to reconstruct the orchestral parts of their 1968 psychedelic masterpiece Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, and gained notoriety through his raucous and melodious exploits in FuzzFace and heavy-weight hollering in gospel fiddle duo Sons of Joy. The Reverend’s 2008 LP, Babbler & Crow, and 2009 LP, Lions were praised by the national folk and music press, and were heralded by the legendary poet-musician Martin Newell. Eleven years since the last Rev album, Matt’s unexpected illness brought with it an opportunity to make new music.

Rev Simpkins’s distinctive sound is a brew of outlandish tunefulness, string-snapping fingerpicking, and sanctified psychedelia. Shades of the Kinks, Captain Beefheart, and Pavement meld with church choirs and pipe organs, pre-war Gospel Blues, strings, brass bands, and Bert Jansch style finger-twanged guitar. Big Sea features singer-songwriter Ady Johnson, Daniel Merrill (Dead Rat Orchestra, Sons of Joy), and Toby Bull (FuzzFace) and was recorded in Cornard (Suffolk), Colchester (Essex) and Cairo (Egypt) in the spring of 2020.

The book, which is available as a hardback or a heavy-weight saddle-stitched paperback, was designed by artist and author Tom Knight. Tom, who comes from Mersea Island, is described by The Sunday Times as ‘skilled…multitalented…deserves to be better known’.

credits

released September 25, 2020

This album is dedicated to Siân
‘…awake and asleep, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death…’

Produced by Matthew Simpkins

Recorded in Cornard (Suffolk), Colchester (Essex) and Cairo (Egypt)

Engineered by Karl Younger (good engineering) and Matthew Simpkins (bad engineering)

Artwork, and design by Tom Knight (tomknightillustration.co.uk)

Photography by James Fletcher

All songs: words, music and arrangement (p) and © copyright 2020 Matthew Simpkins. Except Holy Innocents’ Day: words, music and arrangement (p) and © copyright 2020 Matthew Simpkins and Martha Simpkins.

The Reverend Matthew Simpkins: vocals, guitars, bass guitar, violin, viola, ‘cello, organs and synthesizers, stylophone, nonsense.

The Phantom Notes
James De’ath: drums
Karl Younger: bass
Toby Bull: trumpet, saxophone
Daniel Merrill: violin
Adrian Johnson: harmonica
Siân Simpkins: french horn, patience
James Simpkins: Bb horn (Asleep in the Stern)
Martha Simpkins: trumpet (Asleep in the Stern), vocals (Holy Innocents’ Day)

Especial thanks to Tom Knight, the musicians, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Stephen Cottrell, Jason Whittaker, and Adam Wisher.

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Rev Simpkins UK

Notorious sinner-songwriter, folk symphonist & Anglican priest.
The Rev’s unique psychedelic gospel and gritty folk owes as much to the Old Testament, & the dark folk tales & barren landscapes of Essex & Suffolk, as it does to his musical heroes Bert Jansch, Captain Beefheart & the Kinks. He comes from a long line of priests whose fiery performances characterise his own style. ... more

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