Canadian Crowe's Annual Musical Migration Underway

Musician Allison Crowe, who calls Nanaimo, BC and Corner Brook, NL, home, is set for her annual European migration confirms European road manager, Camille Schmah.

The bicoastal Canadian tours Europe at least once or twice each year and her "Spiral" Europa Tournee 2010 takes flight this month - with concert visits to Frankfurt, Nijmegen, Aachen, Gentilly - Paris, Vienna, Florence, Berlin and Quedlinburg.

From a land that's brought forth such legendary singer-songwriters as Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, this "old world" is witnessing a singular talent of a new generation.

With the release of her newest album, "Spiral", UK music blog "We Write Lists" declares her "Canada's finest songwriter" - building on acclaim from MOJO, TimeOut, the BBC and other UK media. Swedish reviewer Anna Maria Stjärnell says that on "Spiral", Allison Crowe "sings her heart out. She's made yet another album to treasure." Underscoring one of her unique characteristics, this week, "Paris Voice" labels Crowe "one of the best interpreters to come along since Joe Cocker".

Embodying songwriting, as well as interpretive, artistry of the highest order is rare enough. To these, Allison Crowe brings intense energy and honesty in performance - undoing any stereotypes of the modern singer-songwriter as purveyor of flaccid folk, plastic pop, or regurgitated rock tropes.

Longtime Canadian radio and television personality, Rick Dennis, (now creator/host of CICV's "Rick's Country Classics and Folk Favorites"), told his radio audience, after Crowe's appearance at "Special Woodstock", this Summer: "You really have to see Allison Crowe live. The way she splits those notes, it's like light through a prism - all the colours of a song."

For select concerts on her upcoming Euro tour, Allison Crowe is joined by guest artists: Holland's Leontine Snoeren; France's Emily B. Green; and Canadian-Brazilian Billie Rocha-Woods. Details can be found @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/tour.html

23.09 Jazzlokal Mampf - Frankfurt, Germany
25.09 De Lindenberg - Nijmegen, Netherlands
30.09 Aula Carolina - Aachen, Germany
02.10 Auditorium du Conservatoire - Gentilly / Paris, France
08.10 Tunnel Vienna Live - Vienna, Austria
12.10 Teatro del Sale - Florence, Italy
15.10 Osterkirche - Berlin-Wedding, Germany
16.10 Blasiikirche - Quedlinburg, Germany

The essence, articulated by operators of Teatro del Sale in Firenze, home to famed Chef Fabio Picchi and Artist Maria Cassi, is "la ricerca della qualità della vita"!

Spiral Europa Tournee set for launch

"In the flicker of an eyelash - and a nap, I’m off to Germany..."


Word on Allison Crowe's upcoming "Spiral" European concert series is coming this week. For the moment, here's a look at a concert poster - with original artwork by Tara Thelen - whose painting "Look at Me" is the album/CD cover of "Spiral".

Joni Mitchell: for the poses

I love Joni Mitchell ~ for her music, her integrity, her candour.

This entire transcribed chat - Joni interviewed by Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone in 1979 - is a wonderful read. (Just watch for the occasional typo.) It's a candid reflection of the artist and person and a meditation on art and life.

Insightful, funny, sad, wise, there's lots to appreciate. Right now, after listening to the radio and catching some Canadian act doing a Dylan pastiche, well, this passage fits:

"There's only a certain amount of fine work in any idiom. The rest of it is just copyists. Regurgitation. Obvious rip-offs. Mingus has a song, 'If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There's Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.' Sometimes I find myself sharing this point of view. He figured you don't settle for anything else but uniqueness. The name of the game to him - and to me - is to become a full individual. I remember a time when I was very flattered if somebody told me that I was a good as Peter, Paul and Mary. Or that I sounded like Judy Collins. Then one day I discovered I didn't want to be a second-rate anything. I have to remember to be compassionate. Otherwise it really pisses me off to hear somebody getting a whole lot of public roar and, 'Oh this is the newest and greatest,' when it's really just the greatest and newest copy. There are bands coming now that are really good. They're interesting; they've got some vitality and some fire, but - say they're Englishmen who sound like Bob Dylan. I listen to it and it's pleasant on the radio, but as an artist I say to myself, 'If you're that good, how come you can't be yourself?' "