Superman to Super Songs: Allison Crowe Changes Tack as "Newfoundland Vinyl" Sets Sail

"Newfoundland Vinyl", the newest album of music from Allison Crowe, is out now on Rubenesque Records.

The limited edition, 180 gram vinyl, LP is available in Canada at Gary Bennett Music in Corner Brook, NL, Fascinating Rhythm (Nanaimo), Lyle's Place (Victoria), and Salt Spring Sound (Salt Spring Island), BC, Canada - and online, worldwide, in digital formats @ allisoncrowe.com, on Bandcamp, iTunes and more.

As Musical Director for TNL's production of "Newfoundland Vinyl: The Flip Side" at the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, the Canadian musician, born in Nanaimo, BC, on the Pacific, is active now in her Atlantic setting, curating and arranging songs for this Summer's GMTF cast.

It's a rich and varied collection harvested from the island region's popular music and oral traditions. 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 joys, heartbreaks and the humour of people.

As well as being a premiere songwriter, musician and performer of original material, Crowe's recognized as one of the great modern interpreters of song - via her internationally-acclaimed and much-loved versions of songs by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, and plenty more greats - Allison Crowe's singular performances deliver familiar and much-loved songs afresh and with renewed joy.

Crowe's just returned to her home in Corner Brook, NL, after attending the World Premiere in New York City of "Man of Steel", the Zack Snyder-directed Superman epic in which she has a cameo. MoS is currently the #1 box office draw on planet Earth. (Had things not gone so wrong on Krypton, it'd surely be a smashing success there as well.) Next she rolls on to Cow Head, in Gros Morne National Park -- and says:

"I am so grateful to have been asked by Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, two years in a row, to put together songs and musically direct for a show called 'Newfoundland Vinyl'. As part of the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, I get to work with extremely talented and fun people each Summer in a gorgeous setting - Cow Head, NL. From the vast and encyclopaedic sea of beautiful music to come from, and out of, Newfoundland and Labrador, here is a collection of some of the songs from this year's show."

The GMTF season runs May 31 through September 14 - and "Newfoundland Vinyl: The Flip Side", written and directed by Jeff Pitcher, is on the boards July 12 - August 30, 2013!

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/newfoundland-vinyl

http://www.theatrenewfoundland.com/gmtf.html

"Newfoundland Vinyl" - Allison Crowe's newest music release on the record rack at Lyle's Place, Victoria, BC, Canada

Here, now, 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 'His Nibs' 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 Bay Bulls and NL's southern shore, 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, Louise Morrissey 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 cheerful 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 and his Coffey Mates


Songs performed, arranged, engineered and produced by Allison Crowe - home in Corner Brook, Newfoundland.