Blue Christmas - Day 5 on Musical Advent Calendar - "All the Colours of a Song"

Day 5 of our Musical Advent Calendar opens with “Blue Christmas” – from Allison Crowe’s remarkable all a cappella collection, “Souling” (2015). Composed by Jay W. Johnson & Billy Hayes, the song’s first recorded in 1948 by Texan Doye O’Dell - “All America’s Cowboy”. Several popular renditions followed – and, in 1957, another singer/actor, this time from Tupelo, Mississippi, stamped it indelibly as an holiday classic.

Blue Christmas from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

Allison Crowe’s fresh arrangement and performance of an Elvis Presley signature tune launches December’s 25 song videos - blending her own originals alongside music from The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Gary O’Driscoll, Aretha Franklin, Eartha Kitt, Stevie Wonder, Patty Griffin, Phil Ochs and Nat King Cole. (November’s calendar revealed Crowe’s takes on gems heard decades earlier by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell, Ryan’s Fancy, Harry Hibbs, Bell Island’s Ray Mclean +.)

Allison Crowe’s repertoire, including her classic “Tidings” and a cappella “Souling”, unites traditional tunes, carols and hymns, with sounds of rock, jazz, folk, Celtic and soul to celebrate “music for the season and all time”. "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," reflects longtime radio/tv host Rick Dennis. From a vantage point atop a snow-peaked mountain in Canada, print journalist Stephen Smysnuik observes: "Crowe's voice (is) as much a manifestation of Christmas spirit today as Bing Crosby's was in 1942. It's as warm as an open fire; as gorgeous as snow-frosted evergreens; as tender as that hug you give your mother on Christmas day."

Each day through Christmas a new music video link will open @ http://allisoncrowe.com/MusicalAdventCalendar2016.html