Happy Golden Days

Turns out that musical soul sisters Allison Crowe (piano, guitar & vocals) and Céline Sawchuk (cello, vocals), this holiday season just past, not only charmed the birds out of the trees with their concert performances – they also brought out the “tapers” – those dedicated folks who preserve cultural happenings on record for posterity.

Pretty much from the start of Allison Crowe’s public life, she’s been appreciated by tapers/traders – sometimes known as bootleggers, and often first-or-succeeding generations of Deadheads – fans of The Grateful Dead.

The first Allison bootlegs start around 2000/2001 with the appearance of Deadhead and taper Brad Norman aka Condor at concerts and in-stores. With gusto, Condor’s torch passed to AudioArchivist John MacMillan and others in this music-loving community.

We’ve recently enjoyed a bounty of song/video recordings posted by Victoria, BC’s MacMillan aka Bootleg Santa, and, now, a recording made by one of his confreres has emerged – this being a remarkably intimate capture of Allison & Céline’s sold-out “Tidings” concert at the Cultch last month in Vancouver, BC.

Taper Leif Henderson shares this show with us on his “Dead Perspective” YouTube channel. It’s two hours of “Tidings” music and merriment – reflected in the sepia tones of those golden days of yore: