Turtle on KISM + Times Colonist - Allison Crowe In the News

Much of Canada celebrates Victoria Day today. Ideal holiday-time to catch up on some fun music news. Broadcasting from Mount Constitution on Orcas Island, Washington in the Pacific Northwest region of this continent is classic rock station KISM 92.9 where “Locals Only” show host Pooner Clark, a DJ with Idaho roots, interviews special guests. A recent chat with Larry Anschell, founder of storied Turtle Recording Studios and Brad Graham, Turtle engineer/producer extraordinaire, is now online: http://kism.com/locals-only/this-week-turtle-recording-studio (btw, the two DJs pictured with the audio, "Brad and John", are with a different program – they’re not Clark, Anschell or Graham)

Anschell recounts the originally-mobile, 1987-established British-Columbia-based, studio’s history capturing the sound of artists on both sides of the nearby Canada/US border – from Kenny G to Pearl Jam, Sarah McLachlan to Soundgarden and Alice in Chains (http://www.turtlerecording.com/about.html). As well, he and Graham spin current tracks of Jason Mitchell, Five Alarm Funk, Tonye Aganaba, Russ Robson and Sean Simpson.

About 22 minutes into the program, you’ll also hear a new recording from Allison Crowe and Band. Starting in 2001, to date Crowe has teamed up with Turtle on several singles, one EP, three albums and three double-albums. Videos of the artist performing “Hallelujah” and other songs from “Tidings” live-in-the-studio, enjoyed by many millions of people around the world, show Turtle’s studio when it was located beach-front in White Rock, BC. “Introducing / Heirs + Grievances”, the just-released debut double-disc from Allison and Band is recorded live-in-concert by Brad Graham and in the studio’s new, forest, location by Larry “Turtle” Anschell. For their ‘ears’, their integrity, and their special attunement to her honest style of music-making, Crowe and musical partners love working with the Turtle crew.

Introducing “Lisa’s Song” for the KISM radio show, Anschell provides insight into Crowe and her ways: “This was a live recording off-the-floor. She tends to just like to lay it down as real as can be… She’s really an amazing talent. Whenever I hear her, I get goose-bumps. And, you, know, that doesn’t always happen… being as jaded as we are in the recording business. When you’re struck just by real talent it’s an amazing thing.”

In print this holiday weekend, the convivial “Scene and Heard” column in The Times Colonist newspaper, based in BC’s capital city of Victoria (named for the same Queen we celebrate today), updates readers with word on Allison Crowe’s activities from “Newfoundland Vinyl” to her band’s new record release: http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/music/hermann-s-hosts-bluegrass-stars-bob-moses-returns-to-canada-1.2260599

TC rock music+ scribe Mike Devlin notes the video series for “Heirs + Grievances” is building on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/album/3932431 Today we’ll add the eighth song vid to this visual album.

Allison Crowe – Disease (White Rock/Corner Brook) - complete

“Disease” - Allison Crowe’s vocal and piano performance captured in concert on International Women’s Day in 2008 (08/03/08) – at Turtle Recording’s 20^th anniversary celebration. Larry Anschell and Brad Graham co-engineered the audio – showcasing Turtle’s fine-tuned mobile recording expertise heard in music releases from Allison, Pearl Jam, Bif Naked, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Sarah McLachlan and others from the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

"Power-house intense" says an European reviewer, “"the energy of 'Disease' can easily provide electricity to a small country for a decade."

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/disease-08-03-08

Ready to ward off rolling blackouts where e’er they may threaten, this uniquely trans-national creation features Allison Crowe’s live music recorded by Turtle’s dynamic duo, Anschell and Graham, in White Rock, BC – on Canada’s Pacific coast.

Visually representing the live intensity is footage from “A Corner Brook Tidings” – the charming 2012 documentary film directed and produced by Peter Buckle – a project graciously supported by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, with special thanks to Katrina Rice, NLAC Program Officer. Buckle and his camera team crew, Ryan David Butt and Jamie Brace, filmed Allison’s “Tidings” concert in Corner Brook, Newfoundland – on Canada’s Atlantic coast.

Psychedelically fusing this bi-coastal experience is Vimeo’s “Amoeba” enhancer.

Disease (White Rock/Corner Brook)

Allison Crowe performs live - "Disease" -- coast-to-coast 'cross Canada. Concert footage filmed by Peter Buckle and crew in Corner Brook, Newfoundland with audio captured by Larry Anschell and Turtle's co-engineer Brad Graham in White Rock, British Columbia.

Full performance video coming soon to Allison Crowe's facebook, Vimeo, YouTube + pages.

Tidings - twin docs for eyes and ears+

Here's a real treat. Can't rightly call it a sneak-peek, yet, as the experience is auditory. There are twin "Tidings" documents in the works - film-maker Peter Buckle's video-documentary, and audio-engineer/producer Brad Graham's live concert album. Both exciting projects will be released later this year. Right now, we have here a recording of "Disease". A lot of people ask for the "Tidings" version of this Allison Crowe song. Here it is :)

“An’ for every hung up person in the whole wide universe”

It's a mighty long time since another side of Bob Dylan had us gaze upon the chimes of freedom flashing. Decades, too, since there was blood on the tracks. The “idiot wind”, though, is still blowing like a circle around our skulls.

Allison Crowe is a new truth-seeker. She’s a writer of social conscience. One who believes in the power of music.

“To sing is to love and affirm, to fly and soar, to coast into the hearts of the people who listen, to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found,” wrote Joan Baez, musician and plenty more, when she was near the same age Allison Crowe is now.

’t’is high purpose, evermore today, “as we replace marble with plastic”.

The body of work this young Canadian artist is creating is remarkable and varied. Through a repertoire numbering dozens of original songs, she’s fulfilling her stated raison d’etre, making music that is "Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real. True.”

In a concert review this month, Jan DeGrass of the Coast Reporter notes: “In another piece, Crowe savaged the piano with a fierceness that turned our spines to noodles. The song was dedicated to a woman who gave a classical piano performance seen on YouTube only to find that her web audience offered tasteless and ignorant jokes in return. Don’t sugar coat it, Allison.”

No Mother Hubbard soft soap here. The song, Disease, is always riveting social commentary. (Even serving as inspiration to an online discussion of ‘great art’ and the elements of creation.) While unchanged lyrically, the song has grown more steeled musically through its life and release: “Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind.”

Captured in its raging glory, serendipitously on International Women's Day, March 8, 2008, also a fun date of Turtle Recording Studios 20th Anniversary Party in White Rock, B.C., Canada - by Engineer and Producer, Turtle's Larry Anschell - and Co-engineered by Brad Graham:

Disease