Movie, stage show, and
vinyl LP find Canadian musician flying high in unique style
“Weirdly
typical” is how the dean of Canadian rock music critics, Tom Harrison, describes
the newest album from Allison Crowe. That fun billing aptly suits the approach
Crowe’s taken to establishing herself as one of the great voices in popular
music – as singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, live performer and
more.
The 31-year-old bi-coastal Canuck celebrated in New York City
earlier this Summer at the red carpet premiere of “Man of Steel” - the epic new
Superman movie directed by Zack Snyder in which Crowe cameos as “Singer in
Cassidy’s” – the bar where Clark Kent busses. MoS tops Yahoo!’s “Ultimate Summer
Movie Poll”, (in this, Hollywood’s highest-grossing Summer ever), via its fresh
science fiction vision crafted by a stellar cast and crew. The Warner Bros.
mega-production has now grossed over $650 million at the global box
office.
Allison Crowe flew directly from festivities in NYC to rural
Newfoundland for the release of her newest album – a collection of traditional
tunes and vinyl-era songs of the region on which she provides all voices,
instrumentation and production. “Newfoundland Vinyl” finds its name and
inspiration in TNL’s hit musical show that’s delighted audiences these past two
Summers at the Gros Morne Theatre Festival.
And the recording’s struck a
chord ’round the planet. Muruch, on its own site and the No Depression blog, was
first to rave: “It has the timeless beauty of a classic folk album." The Celtic
Music Fan blog, calling it an “one-of-a-kind must-have album”, says “There
is something about this album that makes the songs become the soundtrack of your
life.” The Province newspaper’s Tom Harrison off the top underscores the quirky
nature of things – selecting the album “CD of the Week” and noting it’s not a
CD: “Crowe’s ninth record is weirdly typical of her in that it defies
convention, stick-handles around the pop idiom, shows imagination and daring,
and opts for vinyl.” East Coast Kitchen Party, an hub for Atlantic Canada’s
arts, entertainment and lifestyle news, points to the distinctive kitchen
party-type approach to creation: “It seems simple, but it really is a classic
treatment of the classic songs that are performed by Crowe. She has renewed with
stylish vigor traditional songs that deserve new life and interpretations.” ECKP
offers: “This record was made for sitting back in the big chair while relishing
a favourite drink. Maybe Screech. It will probably bring a tear to the eye of a
few. It’s that good.”
(Screech, a potent mainstay of Newfoundland life
and lore, is an island tradition since the days when salt fish was shipped to
the West Indies in exchange for Jamaican rum.)
“Newfoundland Vinyl”,
Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador’s GMTF stage production, has just wrapped its
two-month run. Allison Crowe, the show’s song curator and musical director, is
home in Corner Brook, NL readying a panel presentation for the geek and
nerd-fest that is Atlanti-Con 2. Atlantic Canada’s colourful convention
celebrating sci-fi, fantasy, comics, gaming, anime+ happens September 28 and 29,
2013 at the city’s Sir Wilfred Grenfell Campus, MUN.
In dog-eat-dog
entertainment world, Canada's Allison Crowe dishes unique success - pictured here, Allison's friend, Link
This time last year
Crowe was preparing to rejoin Canada’s
Royal Winnipeg Ballet for a second
engagement performing songs of Leonard Cohen on-stage with the company’s amazing
dancers. The
RWB, inspiring and vital as ever, will mark its 75th anniversary in
2014. Right now, a very different sort of institution, also high-flying and one
with which Allison Crowe’s honoured and delighted to meet and experience in
collaboration, turns 75. To salute
Superman reaching the milestone,
Canada Post
and the Winnipeg-based
Royal Canadian Mint this week issued philatelic and
numismatic tributes. The
Man of Steel leaped onto the world stage in Action
Comics #1 – a joint creation of great friends, Toronto, Canada-born illustrator
Joe Shuster and American writer Jerry Siegel (born in Cleveland,
Ohio).
In a recent feature, “
Canadian Music Rocks the Global Stage”,
Epoch Times’ nation reporter Justina Reichel tells readers: “Singer-songwriter
Allison Crowe is well aware of what it takes for a Canuck to achieve commercial
success internationally.” The uber-independent musician’s choices on “the long
road to success” are, indeed, weirdly typical – and, for her, an artist of
supreme talent and integrity, the only way to fly.
Labels: Allison Crowe, Celtic, East Coast Kitchen Party, GMTF, Justina Reichel, Leonard Cohen, Man of Steel, Muruch, Newfoundland, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Superman, TNL, Tom Harrison, vinyl, Zack Snyder
