Copper, Bob

▪ 2005

Robert James Copper 

      British traditional folk singer and folklorist (b. Jan. 6, 1915, Rottingdean, East Sussex, Eng.—d. March 29, 2004, Brighton, East Sussex, Eng.), was considered by many to be the patriarch of traditional English folk music. Having inherited a 200-year tradition of family singing from his father, grandfather, and uncle, Copper began performing in public with his family at an early age. The family later came to the attention of the BBC, which arranged a live radio broadcast in 1950 and engaged Copper to collect folk music and regional dialects. He wrote books to accompany several Copper Family records, notably A Song for Every Season: A Hundred Years of a Sussex Farming Family (1971) and Songs and Southern Breezes (1973). He also wrote several volumes detailing rural life, including Early to Rise: A Sussex Boyhood (1976). By the time they recorded Coppersongs 3 (1998), the Copper Family had grown to include Bob, his two children, and all six grandchildren.

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