Les Shelleys
Biography
Les Shelleys are an acoustic guitar/vocal duo from Los Angeles, consisting of FatCat's folk asset Tom Brosseau and his singing partner Angela Correa, better known as the indie-pop singer/songwriter Correatown. Their debut album together, is a collection of tracks taken from a vast body of recorded works - beautiful, harmony-heavy voice and guitar arrangements of American standards and folk traditionals from various points of the last century.
Introduced and encouraged in 2002 by California-based songwriter/film-maker Gregory Page, Brosseau and Correa began with a repertoire of Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Sister Tharpe. There is an undeniable timelessness to Tom and Angela's work here - something we have seen before in Tom Brosseau's FatCat releases under his own name (three full length albums and a handful of singles) - a gracious and praising nod to the frankness and honesty of the great folk songwriters whose work they recount.
By eschewing textual complexity in favour of a simple acoustic guitar and voice combination, Tom and Angela allow a focus on the purity and sweetness of their intermixed voices. Tapping into those inherently romantic and tender qualities of vocal harmonies that serve pop and folk music so well, an instantly likeable, charming personality is given to a time-tested songbook.
Tom was born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota and now resides in LA. He comes from a family background steeped in music - growing up in a house with instruments lining the walls, and learning to play at an early age. He was taught guitar by his grandmother, whilst his grandfather played in a band called Buck and the Bucanneers, that included fiddle and double bass. His grandfather also had a great collection of records, and Tom's early influences included Guy Lombardo and The Inkspots.
Originally from the small town of Yuba City in Northern California, Angela Correa has lived and traveled over much of the world. Over the course of her musical career she has released three full-length albums, two EPs, and licensed songs to other media. She and Tom toured the UK together - performing songs by Correatown, Tom Brosseau and Les Shelleys - to rapturous response.
Their debut, self-titled album as an ensemble was released by FatCat in August 2010, a flooring collection of arrangements ranging from Bob Dylan to Peter DeRose to Woody Guthrie.
