Saturday, April 30, 2011

Alive and Breathing

Ramble-tamble sounds of "Alive and Breathing" - Allison Crowe (voice, piano) accompanied by Laurent Boucher (percussion) and Dave Baird (bass and a rare performance on guitar). Another song emerging from the fertile writing period after Allison explored and ultimately rejected the mainstream record industry. (That period's, so far, lasted 8+ years! There's another fertile period of years - before that courtship.)

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Friday, April 29, 2011

A Case of You

"A Case of You", Joni Mitchell's song about Leonard Cohen, as performed by Allison Crowe. Say Swedish music writer Anna Maria Stjärnell: "Crowe gets to the heart of the mystical, intoxicating song. 'You're In My Blood Like Holy Wine' has rarely been a line better delivered."

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Allison Crowe 2011 Tour Launch Tonight


Allison Crowe's tour launch is tonight in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada - the same city in which Leonard Cohen inaugurated his world tour in 2008! We're buoyed to find "1 Heck of a Guy", the world's most popular "blog rife with Leonard Cohen-based hilarity, essays on broomcorn, and proposals for a county seal featuring Dick Tracy that is written by a psychiatrist", kindly salutes Alley & crew setting sail!

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Skeletons and Spirits

In the days of 45 rpm singles, this song, "Skeletons and Spirits", could form a "double A-side" with "Effortless".



A favourite Allison Crowe tune for many, including other performers, it's also been the music to a fun range of videos - including this recent animation by Norwich, UK-based Christina Worby.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Effortless

Allison Crowe's "This Little Bird:" album opens "Effortless"-ly. Dave Baird plays bass, and Laurent Boucher is on drums, Tibetan bells and other percussion. The visual art is created by Billie Woods, photographer, and Alix Whitmire, graphics, direction and design.

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On the road again

Allison Crowe is on the move! Concerts, tv performances, a special visit to a school, all the fun and more that comes with rock and rolling these coming weeks... Here's a pic Allison took from the car, setting out from her home in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada.


Dates ahead:

Friday, April 29 ~ Charlotte Street Arts Centre, Fredericton, New Brunswick - to aid "A Brush of Hope" - The Kidney Foundation of Canada
Saturday, April 30 ~ The Music Room, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Monday, May 2 ~ Fairview Heights School, Halifax, Nova Scotia - "Pizza & Piano"
Saturday, May 7 ~ D.F. Cook Recital Hall, MUN, St. John's, Newfoundland

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Me and Bobby McGee

"Me and Bobby McGee" penned by Fred Foster and Kris Kristofferson, closes this second concert of Allison Crowe "Live at Wood Hall". Allan Showalter, Buddha of the Broomcorn, blog-master @ http://1heckofaguy.com says, "Allison Crowe is the best thing to happen to 'Me And Bobby McGee' since Janis Joplin changed Kristofferson's lyrics."



(Applause/thanks)

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Monday, April 25, 2011

Imagine

Saturday, April 23, 2011

I Dreamed a Dream

"I Dreamed a Dream" - Words & Music by Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg. Culture blog Muruch calls Allison Crowe's performance the definitive version of this song from Les Miserables. "Les Miz" fans have their faves, and that's the nature of music and musicals. The passion of Allison live, heard in all she performs, is here, as Fantine...



(Applause/banter)

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Friday, April 22, 2011

Secrets (live)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Disease + walking octopi

"Disease", ever-evolving social commentary from Allison Crowe. In concert today it can be 10 minutes in performance, and you may hear Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" or Cranberries' "Zombie" in its middle. During "Tidings" season, Bohemia's "Good King Wenceslas" finds way into the song...)

Here it is on the day walking octopi are discovered - more about that on the banter track



On the same weekend Allison Crowe's concert performances are captured "Live at Wood Hall", scientist Christine L. Huffard and colleagues release a study of "Underwater Bipedal Locomotion by Octopuses in Disguise" along with videos of Octopus marginatus, which resembles a coconut:



and Octopus (Abdopus) aculeatus, a clump of floating algae:



(The original vids are no longer on YouTube, stil, these short clips show the same octopi walking.)

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Finally

"Finally". A song co-written by Allison Crowe and Stephen Clevette. Loves past, loves present... and, true to the message of Counting Crow's Adam Duritz, one of Allison's primary songwriting inspirations, she believes to this day it is the “heart that matters more”.



(Applause/banter)

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Playboy Mommy (live, solo)

"Playboy Mommy". Says Allison Crowe: "There's a freedom of artistry listening to and learning the songs of Tori Amos. A raw, emotional, sometimes confusing, wackiness. It’s okay to pound the notes out if you’re angry, so long as you remember to delicately fondle the notes later on. You can be strange and beautiful."



(Applause)

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Monday, April 18, 2011

Pray for Rain

"Pray for Rain", one of Allison Crowe's songs, (and there's a fair number that are like this), that fits a full-tilt rock band, turning amps to 11, and, as well, Allison solo and acoustic - underscoring the power and the passion of her songwriting.



Here's the applause track

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Running

"Running" - in concert from Allison Crowe. A lovely song requested each time Allison performs in Edinburgh :)



Here's the applause track

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Saturday, April 16, 2011

How Long (live)

"How Long", by Allison Crowe (along with "Immersed") is in the tradition of songs that show record execs can sometimes inspire great music! (Whether intentional or not.) Joni Mitchell's more explicit with her "Free Man in Paris", but, as we've noted before, Allison's lemonade is a good squeeze. Here's the applause track

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Crayon and Ink (live)

Launching the second night/disc of "Live at Wood Hall" is "Crayon and Ink". As with all of Allison Crowe's songs and performances, its beauty doesn't need me to reflect anything. So, I'll just move to the back of the hall, and share the music. There is a banter/applause track - it's applause only, and we can clap along...

Welcome to the weekend!

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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Allison Crowe’s Rock and Roll Recipe: 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.

Allison Crowe’s Spring Show comes to: Fredericton, NB (April 29), to aid The Kidney Foundation of Canada’s “A Brush of Hope” campaign; Halifax, NS (April 30); and St. John’s, NL (May 7).

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)

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Believe Me If All (Those Endearing Young Charms) - live

"Believe Me If All (Those Endearing Young Charms)" - a traditional Irish Aire with words by Thomas Moore is performed acapella by Allison Crowe.



Here's the banter/intro track - and, the applause closing this first night/disc of "Live at Wood Hall"

Sláinte mhaith!

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A Murder of One

Epic.

That describes Allison Crowe's take on this Counting Crows' song. Allison revealed to UK blog, 'We Write Lists': "Along to ‘A Murder of One’, at the top of my lungs, I wailed out my cry for independence in the time of an oppressive relationship, driving and singing in an almost meditative screaming chant 'change change change'." Here's the Banter/intro track

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

In Love In Vain

"In Love In Vain", Words & Music by Leo Robin, Jerome Kern. Allison Crowe's intro to this jazzy, encore, song is here

Enjoy :)

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Monday, April 11, 2011

Whether I'm Wrong (live)

Allison Crowe's "Live at Wood Hall" concerts followed her "secrets' CD. Naturally, songs from that album are prominent in her live sets that Spring. Here's "Whether I'm Wrong", featured, on its release the year before, by UNESCO-endorsed New Songs for Peace project. In the banter/intro - Allison makes a musical promise kept the next night... Now, imagine peace :)

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Bill

"Bill", words by P.G. Wodehouse & music by Jerome Kern (w. Oscar Hammerstein II for "Show Boat"). Allison Crowe's intro reveals her love of musical theatre, and, particularly, Broadway. She's performed in The Laurie Beechman Theatre, a 42nd Street cabaret in New York City, and's been invited to join India.Arie, Matt Morris and other fine players in a production.

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Saturday, April 09, 2011

What About You (live)

"What About You" live, does not include the Uillean pipes heard on the "secrets" version of the song, but, of course, it DOES include the Allison pipes! In the banter track Allison Crowe gives a wee explanation of the song's origin. Such genesis often remains a secret encoded in the music.

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Friday, April 08, 2011

Fire

Had Allison Crowe been born in a different era, she'd have set her piano alight at Monterey, or, maybe, added her colander to the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Here's "Fire", which bridges Allison's rock/grunge band roots and her solo singer-songwriter mystic. A song for Heather and you :)

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Thursday, April 07, 2011

Sea of a Millon Faces (live)

"Sea of a Million Faces", live, comes with this song intro. Originally on Allison Crowe's "secrets" album, the song's an up-tempo concert favourite. The following track, after the song performance, is simply thanks/applause

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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Independence Day

Ani DiFranco is inspiring to Allison Crowe for so many reasons. Here's a musical one - "Independence Day". Allison has been performing this song in concert pretty much since she took to the stage as a teenager. The passion level is ever constant. Track banter/intro for this song

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Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Sweet Cuppem Cakes@ 7thumbsup's blog

As well as making lemonade, Allison Crowe takes her zest for life - and makes cakes. Today, they are "Sweet Cuppem Cakes". There's recipes, photos, even a winking dog - just follow the Link :)

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Immersed

"Immersed", live. The song is a visceral exemplar of the musical alchemy by which Allison transforms leaden experiences into golden rock and roll. In other words, she makes lemonade out of lemons. Here's banter for this track. From Chennai, home to some of India's top choirs, comes gambitsurya's very individual take.

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Monday, April 04, 2011

By Your Side

"By Your Side" ~ this ballad from Allison Crowe is a soundtrack to lives and videos. "Live at Wood Hall" features songs as separate tracks to applause and stage banter. The idea, (mine), is to enable people to enjoy the concert/album's 23 songs on iPods+, with the banter/applause tracks optional. Turns out this is confusing in practice. Here's banter for this song.

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Sunday, April 03, 2011

There Is (live)

"There Is" opens up Allison Crowe's double-album set, "Live at Wood Hall" - two concerts on consecutive nights at the Conservatory of Music in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada to aid Artemis Place (alternative schooling and life skills for at-risk girls). Music captured by Larry Anschell of Turtle Recording. Album photos by Allison, Billie Woods, and graphic arts and design by Alix Whitmire. Show's starting...

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Saturday, April 02, 2011

Angel

"The sounds fumbling from 'Surfacing' played out as soundtrack to a large chunk of my teenage-hood," Allison Crowe tells UK music writer Stephen Thomas ('We Write Lists' blog). Naturally, then, Allison chose a song from that Sarah McLachlan album to close her "Tidings" collection. Here it is, "Angel", ethereal and real.

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Friday, April 01, 2011

"Una grande artista"

Buongiorno!

Allison Crowe performs her first concert in Italia - at Firenze's Teatro del Sale - in 2010. There's more to come as fans from the top to the tip of 'the boot' join join audiences across Europe and fall in love with Allison and her musica.

The team at Italy's Life Style Radio, headed by Fabio Rango Mazzarella and Vladimiro Guindani, now present a video advert featuring Allison Crowe - "Quanto c'è di unico al mondo?"



Presto!

Here is an English-language version of the ad ~ "The best like you!"



Take in the cosmos, earth's great seas, skies, the pyramids of Egypt, Mahatma Ghandi, and Allison Crowe, "una grande artista". The musical excerpt is from "Lisa's Song".

Molto buono!!

Ciao for now :)

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Shine a Light

Mick Jagger was still looking for some tea and sympathy, & long before Keith Richards was a tropical pirate, "The Glimmer Twins" and co. in The Rolling Stones were in the south of France, recording an epic song collection, "Exile on Main Street". Here's Allison Crowe and her live-off-the-floor take on one of those tunes, "Shine a Light" (accompanied by Dave Baird, bass, and Kevin Clevette, drums).

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Allison Crowe enters Last.fm Singer-Songwriter Group’s Hall of Fame

Allison Crowe's voted by some very discerning music-lovers into the "Singer-Songwriter of the Week" group's Hall of Fame on Last.fm (the world's largest online music catalogue and recommendation site).

The Canadian artist joins existing members in the:

HALL OF FAME

Allison Crowe
Annie Lennox
Billy Joel
Björk
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley
Bob Seger
Bono
Bruce Springsteen
Carole King
Cat Stevens
Conor Oberst
David Bowie
Donovan
Don Henley
Elton John
Eric Clapton
Freddie Mercury
George Harrison
Heather Nova
Herbert Grönemeyer
Jackson Browne
James Taylor
Jimi Hendrix
Joan Baez
John Denver
John Fogerty
John Lennon
John Mayer
John Mellencamp
Johnny Cash
Joni Mitchell
Kate Bush
Kurt Cobain
Leonard Cohen
Lou Reed
Mark Knopfler
Michael Stipe
Mick Jagger
Neil Diamond
Neil Finn
Neil Young
Nick Cave
Nick Drake
Paul McCartney
Paul Simon
Peter Gabriel
Phil Collins
PJ Harvey
Ray Davies
Reinhard Mey
Roger Waters
Ryan Adams
Sarah McLachlan
Sheryl Crow
Stevie Wonder
Sufjan Stevens
Tom Petty
Tom Waits
Tori Amos
Townes Van Zandt
Tracy Chapman
Udo Lindenberg
Van Morrison


Allison Crowe is ever grateful for the tremendous fan support and the international community that shares music, recommendations and appreciation of singer-songwriters – at home, in concert, and online.

Music, and sharing it with other people, is one of life's joys.

Love it! :)

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