Allison Crowe's Vox

Allison Crowe Brings Tidings 2011 from St. John's to Victoria

It's coming on the season to celebrate with one of the great voices in popular music.


Expect plenty of rocking holiday cheer, laced with overtones of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles and more when Allison Crowe delivers "Tidings". The 2011 edition of Crowe's annual holiday favourite begins in St. John's, NL, the eastern terminus of the Trans-Canada Highway, and wraps in Victoria, BC, the western terminus.

The internationally-acclaimed musician, born on Vancouver Island, and home in Newfoundland for years now, stirs together traditional Christmas carols and holiday favourites with an organic blend of rock, jazz, folk, gospel and soul. "Be prepared to be amazed," chimes ChristmasReviews.com Longtime NPR broadcaster Ross Hocker calls Allison Crowe's show, "The most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life."

Italian radio calls Allison Crowe "Una voce incredibile per una forza della natura."

As a performing artist, Crowe is akin, in ways, to the late, great, Swedish power-house soprano, Birgit Nilsson, about whom it's said "No record or CD could quite prepare a listener for the real thing, live in the opera house".

Tidings is Allison Crowe's melding of the sacred and secular in "songs of the season" and spirit. Some of the music is familiar repertoire, delivered in singular style. Some is not like anything customarily heard in a holiday-time concert.

Tidings viscerally surveys a musical terrain of carols - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, In the Bleak Midwinter, What Child Is This, First Noel, Silent Night, O Holy Night - performed with rare artistry and passion, and emotive arrangements, alongside the modern canon of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Lennon/McCartney+, and Allison Crowe's original songs, (including the just-composed "Arthur", and the epic "Disease"), that draw on themes of faith, hope, sorrow, joy, redemption, transcendence and more from life's well.

First staged in 2003, Tidings is an exciting experience shared by music-lovers around the world. This holiday season, Allison Crowe, with some very special musical guests, brings Tidings to:

St. John's, NL - D.F. Cook Recital Hall - November 25

Corner Brook, NL - First United Church - December 2

Nanaimo, BC - St. Andrew's United Church - December 10 - Featuring: Christopher Wood; Raymond Salgado; Kiana Smith; Kaleigh Hargrove; Taylor Manns; Emily Blake & Guests to aid The Mind's Eye + Woodlands SS Band and Basketball programs

Vancouver, BC - St. Jame's Hall - December 11 - Featuring guest artist: Juniper Watters

Campbell River, BC - St. Peter's Anglican Church - Dec. 15 - Featuring: The Campbell River Childrens Choir with Director Barbara Prowse to aid Campbell River Hospice Society & CR Food Bank

Victoria, BC - Fairfield United Church - Dec. 17 (NB a shift from original date of Dec. 9) - Featuring guest artists: Haley Walker; & Billie Woods to aid Artemis Place, (girls' educational and life-skills), and HepCBC

On Thursday, December 22, you can join Allison Crowe in her birth-place of Nanaimo, B.C. for the "Light Up a Life" Sing-along - part of the campaign for Haven Society organized by the Old City Quarter Merchants.

Full details of the "Tidings" concerts and sing-along will be posted @ allisoncrowe.com

Arthur / Up to the Mountain - Double-A-Side from Allison Crowe

Allison Crowe releases a double-A-side single - two new song recordings available world-wide for enjoyment in audio and video formats.

In the terrestrial sphere, "Arthur" has its world premiere on CBC Radio's "On the Go" program. Show Host Ted Blades promises to carry things "Up to the Mountain" next.

Blogger "Muruch" is helping Allison Crowe celebrate the music release, and 10th anniversary of Rubenesque Records Ltd. - with the online premiere of Allison's two newest song recordings. And, as a treat for the next couple of weeks, the music is a gift from Muruch

Over at "1 Heck of a Guy" the two song videos make their debut along with this explanation: "Allison Crowe has often been featured on this site, in part for her gorgeous voice and in part for her exquisite songwriting."

Both of those elements, DrHeck, says, are on display in this new release:

"Arthur" - Playing her vintage upright-grand piano, at home in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada, Allison Crowe sings of love weighed through life and time.

"Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)" - Already a lover of American singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, Allison Crowe's introduction to this Griffin tune came from Canadian rock and soul musician Bob Benvenuti when the two Canucks performed at a Christmas "Tidings" concert together. Crowe brings it on home with guitar and vocals - performing as her own Jordanaires for back-up.

Rubenesque Records Ltd., Canada's most independently successful music label, celebrates its 10th anniversary with this characteristically passionate performance pairing.

 

Here, above, is “Arthur” - as it’s heard on the new release.

 

NB The single version of "Up to the Mountain" is on guitar. We're fortunate to also have this video of a piano performance - Allison live-in-the-studio - "Out of the Fog" in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

Warmest thanks to the team behind this popular news and arts magazine - Michael Fisher, Television Producer, Bruce Lane, camera - and all the OotF crew at Rogers television.

Music everywhere... Yes, your Blueness

Exciting times - even in the rain! We aim to have Allison Crowe's double-A-side single available digitally before the end of this month. More news on this two song recording - "Arthur" / "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)" coming in the next few days. Here's a look at the single cover art - photo by Allison!

 
Next month, August 23, marks the tenth anniversary of Allison's label, Rubenesque Records Ltd. Along with virtual cake and balloons, we'll make it a special celebration together :)

Allison Crowe’s New Double-A-Side-Single, and Album Plans

Acclaimed musician is ready with new recordings and fresh direction

Musician Allison Crowe, one of the world’s great songwriters and live performers, releases a double-A side digital single this Summer featuring a piano-based original song “Arthur” and an interpretation of Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)” on guitar.

The bicoastal Canadian artist is in pre-production of her eighth album - advancing a series of critically and commercially successful recordings. Her label, Rubenesque Records Ltd., is celebrating ten years of establishment-free creation.

In a recent interview with Helen Jayne Reid of CornerBrooker.com Crowe reveals some of the creative impetus to her next full-length release. She cites the heavier, industrial, production sound heard in “from the choirgirl hotel”-era Tori Amos, and the recordings of Nine Inch Nails. NIN’s Trent Reznor is also exemplary as a creator not bound by the corporate calculation of popular music today.

Recognizing the truth of John Lennon’s lyric, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”, Allison Crowe is giving a window of 12 – 18 months to solve intricate production puzzles with the current album collection of ten songs and a poem, ‘Snow”.

While in pre-production this Summer, Crowe performs a single live show – as part of TNL’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival concert series in Cow Head, near her Atlantic home of Corner Brook, Newfoundland.

Allison Crowe’s double-A-side single, “Arthur” and “Up to the Mountain” is set for release next month (July, 2011 – on iTunes et al).

The Magic's in the Music

At the start of this millennium, Allison Crowe embarked from her Pacific Ocean home, Vancouver Island, to perform a pair of concerts in Seattle, Washington, at a “Worldwide Jammer Convergence” of Pearl Jam fans. There was no roadmap for her success.

Today, Crowe is an internationally-acclaimed and much-loved singer-songwriter. Readying for another season of touring, and creation of her eighth album/song collection, she’s navigating a life in music.

Ahead of the 20th century recording industry’s entry into the digital age, Allison Crowe emerges in a new DIY generation. Decades earlier, punk, and, resonantly, pop culture revolution in the 1960s, erupted. Then, institutionalized payola and greedy elements smothered music radio. “Company men”, as John Lennon labeled them, took over – on stage as well as in the boardroom.

Rock’s bold promise to squeeze your lemons was reconstituted in this new era - a branding pitch hot-blooded as ice-tea. In 2006, John Sebastian, jug-band music-maker, writer of classic songs for The Lovin’ Spoonful, tells The New York Times: "The industry has been in the corporate noose for so long, it doesn't even have a leg jiggle left. There's no one left saying, 'Wait we want to make art'."

Rock and roll spirit, magnificent and wild as rebellion, lives on - vital tendrils reaching out through the casement. On Allison Crowe’s path, classical and jazz roots meet with teenage influences Ani DiFranco, PJ, Tori Amos and Counting Crows. Independents DiFranco, Loreena McKennitt and Janis Ian show there is a way – and it’s different for each.

Coursing freely, Crowe’s real “story” is her immense creativity – talents and gifts of writing and musicianship, (voice, piano and guitar), which she shares openly. Communicating emotion, crossing over language, sex, religion, race, age and other dividers, performing original compositions and as interpreter.

Forming Rubenesque Records Ltd. to market her recordings, since 2003 Allison Crowe has released a series of seven albums/CDs singularly remarkable in its diversity and quality of writing and performance – and delivered epiphanies amid concert fun and excitement. (Testifying are music writers the world over – find a sampling below and more @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/pressquotes.html)

"Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music is what I want to make," Crowe says. Embracing the web, she and her audience have found each other - big-time. 

On Last.fm, the world's largest online music catalogue and recommendation site, (where her song tracks enjoy over 100,000 listeners and nearing 700,000 plays), Allison Crowe’s been voted by some very discerning music-lovers into the "Singer-Songwriter of the Week" group's Hall of Fame – joining Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Townes van Zandt, Carole King, Neil Young, Van Morrison, other legends, and a handful of younger artists. Crowe, 29, is the only singer-songwriter under 30 selected – closest her age in this august company is Conor Oberst (32) and Sufjan Stevens (35).

On Jamendo, the planet’s premiere platform for free music and a community of Creative Commons music authors, Crowe’s original songs have been played over one million times by 200,000 regular listeners. On YouTube, the video site which serves as a top music discovery forum, Crowe’s music videos have over 10 million, (un-bought and un-rigged), listens/views. Add one-million-plus plays and downloads of original music from her own website, and the totality represents a musical connection achievable in pre-internet times only by gold-to-platinum-selling acts with label muscle flexing major financial support. 

For Allison Crowe, wholly-independent, this exposure also translates into sales, as people still want physical CDs, and, so far, more than 500,000 paid downloads/streams (via iTunes – and such ‘etailers’ as CD Baby, Amazon, Emusic, among others, which serve their own music-buying bases).

Bicoastal Crowe calls Corner Brook, NL, and Nanaimo, BC, home. Outside her native land, Canada, she’s especially popular in the USA, Europe, and, increasingly, Australia, New Zealand and South America. Running her own operations, it’s an incremental process to physically traverse the globe and perform. Bonds initiated online strengthen in the flesh. It’s the stuff of legend.

A sensation in the Village Hall, Durness, Scottish Highlands, just a few years ago, Allison Crowe’s on a bill with Carol Ann Duffy, currently Britain’s Poet Laureate, and the Royal Academy of Music Players under the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Her set included Beatles' favourite “In My Life” - for members of the Lennon clan, local villagers, musicians and global celebrants come together for the "John Lennon Northern Lights Festival." Crowe’s latest European tour wrapped, this past October, in the birthplace of a nation, atop Germany’s fabled Harz Mountains. Medieval Quedlinburg, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, hosted Crowe who performed for an SRO crowd inside Blasiikirche, and an overflow audience circling outside the historic church.

Publicly, Dance Ensemble students at Lindenhurst High, New York, gambitsurya in Chennai, India, young folks ’round the world are singing and dancing to Allison’s music for their communities, for themselves. In the present semester, Christina, Polly, Jess, Jil, Tamanna, Shamima, Nilufa, and Sabina, high school and college students at disparate UK learning institutions have made Allison Crowe songs, “Skeletons and Spirits”, “This Little Bird”, and “Lisa’s Song”, course projects in Media and Video. In Hollywood, director Zack Snyder, (300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch), helming the reboot of the Superman movie series, tells ArtistDirect: "Right now, I've been trying to find a really good cover of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic.' I can't find one that I really like with all five verses, so that's a problem. I was going to call someone up like Allison Crowe and be like, 'Can you record a version of this?' That's how my brain works!”

Privately, families are paying their last earthly respects to loved ones accompanied by Crowe’s musical voice. Mothers are welcoming their newborns to this sound. 

Music and more @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com

 

What people say about Allison Crowe:

"Una voce incredibile per una forza della natura." ~ Reset Radio (Italy)

 "There are some voices that speak (or sing) for themselves. You know the ones. Voices where it doesn’t matter what they sing. Voices where it doesn’t really matter what instruments support them. Solomon Burke has such a voice. Jeff Buckley had it. Allison Crowe has it too." ~ Ray Padgett, Cover Me (USA)

 "Canada's finest songwriter" ~ Stephen Thomas, We Write Lists (UK)

 "Ever wonder what it would have been like to listen to a gifted singer/songwriter from Saskatchewan in a small, intimate hall before she became Joni Mitchell? Don't fret the missed opportunity. There's no need to turn back the clock. Check out Allison Crowe." ~ Robert Reid, The Record (Canada)

"Once famously described by the Vancouver Courier as possessing a style akin to 'Elton John meets Edith Piaf', the Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe is renowned for her ability to blend control and melodrama." ~ MOJO (UK)

"One of the best interpreters to come along since Joe Cocker" ~ Bob Bishop, Editor, Paris Voice (France)

"J'ai rarement été bouleversée à ce point par une voix féminine. Pure comme de la glace, puissante et même violente... qu'il est impossible de ne pas mettre son coeur en jeu en l'écoutant... faîtes place à une virtuose nom de Zeus!" ~ SplinterMuse (France)

"Ihre gestalteten Emotionen umfassen sowohl stürmische, dramatische Prozesse, Wut, Verzweiflung, aber auch spielerischen Übermut und einen unbändigen Lebenswillen. Im Kontext dazu stehen ihre zarten, hingebungsvollen Empfindungen, eine Lyrik, in denen sie die breit gefächerte Facette ihrer gesanglichen Begabung zum Klingen bringt." ~ Barbara Kirchner-Babinecz, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (Germany)

"the most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life." ~ Ross Hocker, WGTE/NPR (USA)

Up to the Mountain (Patty Griffin) - Allison Crowe + "Faces" by Phil Robbins

Allison Crowe is, again, cooking up musical soul food in her kitchen. That's where she's recorded "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)" - from the pen of the sublime Patty Griffin. Allison serves as her own Jordanaires - providing backing accompaniment to the lead vocals and guitar :)

Allison's delighted by a recent opportunity to participate in a visual art project in the friendly and vibrant cultural community that is Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada -- home on the Atlantic range to the much-loved and acclaimed singer-songwriter.

 

"Friday March 4th 2011, I performed 'Faces: Broadway' a projection onto windows of the old Black Thorn Stick Cafe location on Broadway," says Philip N. Robbins, one of the creators, noting "this projection creates an implied conversation, or narrative, between all of the participants in the videos."

CornerBrooker.com, the city's culture and news web portal (http://cornerbrooker.com/2011/03/faces-on-broadway) explains: "This was part of a project by Phil Robbins and Jillian Parsons (often known for their work with Stockpile or Larger Than a Cat) called Faces: Broadway which was a lead-up to Phil's larger project, Faces: Newfoundland."

Expressing a fascination "with the haunting portraits by Richard Avedon specifically his 'In the American West' portrait series," Robbins is broadening the "Faces" canvas -- and "crowdfunding" -- aiming to sail successfully over the mercantile mosh pit to cover costs. You can learn about this project @ http://www.philipnormanrobbins.ca and aid the cause @ http://rockethub.com/projects/1082-faces-newfoundland

Allison Crowe is among the "Faces: Broadway" -- and, here, Phil and Jillian's video imagery projects a spirit as natural as the musical performance.

http://music.allisoncrowe.com

7ThumbsUp.wordpress.com ~ Allison Crowe's recipes for life

I imagine some famous chefs, when not in the kitchen, or on camera, relish the opportunity to serve up notes on a piano or guitar, or dish out an aria or folk-tune.

Musician Allison Crowe, concert and recording phenomenon, when not on the road, also creates by home-cooking – sharing off-stage recipes and reflections in her "7 Thumbs Up" blog - "A Celebration of Life, Love and Food".

 

“I grew up with the Galloping Gourmet Graham Kerr hehehe, (he was CRAZY), and learned how to make an omelette from watching Julia Child.” Crowe starts listing other favourites: “Michael Smith (creative, makes delicious food you can do at home with what you have, but also gourmet). Jamie Oliver is amazing - he leads food revolutions. (I wish I could live in his house, with his wife, too, and also their gardener - they have this huge garden and outdoor kitchen. Maybe I can visit!). Ina Garten, decadent, guilt-free (and for other reasons, reminds me of my friend Joanne Christensen a lot). Nigella Lawson (Nigella is why I love figs… she's like the sensualist of the crowd). Fabio Picchi (hehe I met him at Cibreo, when I performed at Teatro del Sale in Florence. He’s pretty awesome.) Anthony Bourdain for sure (I haven't had Food Network for a long while). Gordon Ramsay (especially his OLD show where he helps people). Laura Calder (she’s why I make Boeuf Bourguignon… she reminds me of my friend Helen a lot, also the sensualist type). Giada de Laurentiis (she makes amazing Italian does Giada. My bassist, Dave, is smitten.) David Rocco’s Dolce Vita (he does very cool rustic Italian stuff and there’s a Fabio connection!) also, the Surreal Gourmet guy, I have a soft spot for Bob Blumer hehe

I pretty much like all of them… I’ll stop at that or the list won't end.”

Life is a bowl of cherries - macerated. So far, on the “7 Thumbs Up” blog, it appears that Allison Crowe knows you’re coming and she’s baked some cakes: there’s an X Box Cake, a Super Meat Boy cake, Caffeinated Triple-Bypass Brownies, an Eggless Mocha Cake… For those who cannot live on dolce alone – there’s recipes for Pumpkin Gnocchi, Roasted Potato Pizza, Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Midnight Mac’n’Cheese, Tomato Quinoa Bread, Baked Salmon with Quinoa and Veggies, Citrusy Hoisin Chicken Lettuce Wraps, plus, ‘specially for Beaumont Hamel, Canada Day, Rosemary Bread and Toutons. And, redolent of Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm”, just to think that it all began with SUPER EPIC RAINBOW CAKE!!!!

The music here is a dash of Allison at sound-check, bootlegged from a Thanksgiving Day concert. Fittingly, the soundman on this occasion surprised us by wheeling over, and flipping the top on, the unusual housing for his mixing board – a bbq grill.

It's Snowy Rock and Roll but Allison Crowe Likes It. She's In Good Company.

Allison Crowe, one of the greatest voices and natural talents in popular music, is home in snowy Corner Brook, Canada this Winter, writing and recording songs before launching a new concert touring year.

So far, in 2011, Crowe has captured basic vocal, piano and guitar tracks for five originals - "Arthur", "By Any Terms", "Chasing the Rain", "Don't Breathe", and "Pull You Through" - and, for more fun, she's covering two 'Americana'-hued songs by sublime singer-songwriter Patty Griffin - "Mary" and "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)".

It's a welcome, extended, stay in one spot, after a hectic 2010 that saw Allison Crowe again navigate concert dates between her Atlantic and Pacific ocean homes, and expand continental touring territory. Crowe's latest album, (of seven), "Spiral", made best of lists from America to Europe and beyond.

Arts and entertainment blog Muruch, naming "Spiral" one of the top releases of last year, says: "Her voice flawlessly flows between the most pristine soprano and gut-wrenching, full-bodied wails. I hear Allison Crowe sing, and I remember the effect music is supposed to have on you."

Crowe's reputation encompasses her original songwriting, and singularly exciting live performances - and her art of interpretation. On her most recent visit to the City of Lights, Paris Voice Editor Bob Bishop called her "one of the best interpreters to come along since Joe Cocker".

Allan Showalter, author of the uniquely popular Leonard Cohen-centric blog, "One Heck of a Guy", expands on this theme: "Allison, whose covers include not only outstanding versions of Joni Mitchell's 'River' and 'A Case of You,' Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah,' 'The Beatles' 'In My Life' and 'Let It Be,' Lennon's 'Imagine,' and Cyndi Lauper's 'Time After Time,' but also the most provocative and seductive (forgive me, Aretha) take I've heard on Ronnie Shannon's 'I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You).' And, I stand by my conviction that Allison Crowe is the best thing to happen to 'Me And Bobby McGee' since Janis Joplin changed Kristofferson's lyrics."

On YouTube, Allison Crowe's audience is approaching nearly ten million (non-rigged) views. When makers of Hollywood movie, "Sucker Punch", were searching for how to reinvent the Eurythmics (Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart) song, "Sweet Dreams", they called on the "mistress of coversongs" as Crowe's been crowned by "Cover Lay Down" blog. Director Zack Snyder loves Allison's approach so they asked her to strip the song to an emotional core Actress Emily Browning performs the movie version (out later this month).

http://www.covermesongs.com/MP3s/Premieres/SweetDreams.mp3

In present culture, it can seem anachronistic that popular music was once a fertile community for rebellion and honesty, and the mainstream of pop and rock artists aspired to something more substantial than a bauble in a corporate chain. As rare as her talent is Allison Crowe's integrity. Like inspirations Janis Ian, Ani DiFranco, and a few others making music today, she does not "play the game".

Allison Crowe's path less-travelled brings her to Fredericton, New Brunswick, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John's, Newfoundland for concerts this Spring - before her next European tour. Details of all shows and music is available @ www.allisoncrowe.com

Skeletons and Spirits - Animation by Christina Worby

 

Post V-Day, here's the flip-side to love's bliss.

Directed and produced by Christina Worby, City College Norwich, England comes this trippy video of Allison Crowe's song "Skeletons and Spirits".

Happy Valentine's

There is love in the air - as there should always be! Here, now, is some vintage emotion from Allison Crowe.

 

This is the version of "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" from Allison's "This Little Bird" album. It's the song which brought Aretha Franklin to a big audience 44 years ago. And two hearts still beat as one :)

The lovely Valentine image is courtesy VintageHolidayCrafts.com