“Newfoundland Vinyl” LP Readies to Set Sail

Artwork and the track listing for “Newfoundland Vinyl”, Allison Crowe’s 11th release on Rubenesque Records Ltd., is ready. The album’s music sets sail worldwide next month.

As Musical Director for Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador’s production of “Newfoundland Vinyl: The Flip Side” at the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, Crowe’s active now curating and arranging songs for this Summer’s cast.

It’s a rich and varied collection harvested from the island region’s popular music and oral traditions – and from which she’s culled a selection for her vinyl LP. The album’s 10 tracks traverse parlour songs to country tunes and folk favourites, songs of land and sea that share the strength and the struggles, the heartbreaks and the humour, of a people.

Recognized as one of the great modern interpreters of song, Allison Crowe’s singular performances deliver familiar and much-loved songs afresh and with renewed joy.

Coming next month, then, is Allison Crowe’s take on these songs that, over 200 years, come from, and out of, Newfoundland and Labrador – with ageless melodies and meaning:

Black Velvet Band – lively traditional song recorded on both sides of the Atlantic, including a version by the legendary Harry Hibbs

Easy – penned by Terry Skinner and made a classic radio hit by country star Eddie Eastman

Men Who Die for a Living – Gary O’Driscoll, award-winning songwriter and producer from St. Lawrence and the South coast, wrote this potent elegy “for the miners here and gone”

Cliffs of Baccalieu – Jack Withers' sea-faring song has previously been sailed by such distinct voices as Anita Best and Stan Rogers

Skipper Billy’s Wake – songwriter Ellis Coles’ jaunty mix of moonshine, Screech and more was well popularized by Dick Nolan

Sonny’s Dream – Newfoundland’s “Man of 1000 Songs”, Ron Hynes, created this anthem of the heart and home

Tiny Red Light – a traditional Newfoundland song revitalized in the vinyl era by The Dorymen (popular east-coast combo founded by John Drake and Tom Rose - a pair of lads out of Fortune Bay communities Belleoram and Bay du Nord)

The Mobile Goat Song – composed by St. John’s Tom Cahill, frequent collaborator with “Newfoundland’s First Lady of Song”, Joan Morrissey, who released this fun romp on her 1973 LP “Home Brew”

Seven Old Ladies – a bawdy song which musically plumbs a 1700s nursery rhyme, ("Johnny's So Long at the Fair") – and a tune also recorded by the great Joan Morrissey

Sweet Forget Me Not - first published in 1877, this tender tune by Bobby Newcomb was the first single, and a vinyl hit on the mainland as well, for Cape Shore’s Eddie Coffey

Allison Crowe’s “Newfoundland Vinyl” album launches June 25, 2013.