Allison Crowe April – Week 2

Week 2 of “Allison Crowe April” on CHMR 93.5FM – and DJ Jason Cantwell and alter ego Mark Jabroni remain safely outside the station, keeping health #1 on all our playlists.

Saluting Jason & Mark’s and the line-up of Friday shows – “The Friday Morning Markout”, “Ring Rust” and “Uberswank” – we celebrate this Good Friday with a favourite tune of theirs, from Allison Crowe – live-in-concert  – “Disease”:

Disease - Tidings Concert Live - Day 7 on the Musical Advent Calendar

"Power-house intense" is how one European reviewer describes this song: “The energy of 'Disease' can easily provide electricity to a small country for a decade." This tune and Allison Crowe's wildly exciting performances lead to her being likened to innovative Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky and famed German Liedermacher Konstantin Wecker. “Gänsehaut-Musik” (goose-bump music) Peter Baier calls it in Süddeutsche Zeitung. 

Allison Crowe’s longtime friend and bassist, Dave Baird has observed Allison’s “not an everything’s-gonna-be-alright kind of girl”. (This statement uttered in bemused response to the miscalculation of an established music label exec that she’d tailor herself and her lyrics to the industry’s proscribed role for women artists.) 

No song-by-committee charades here. Of love, Allison Crowe writes with passion and honesty – be it flowing through open-hearted “Oceans” or the evocation of life’s fragile bonds in “Arthur”. Ditto for all the emotions and conditions of our common humanity. 

It’s only natural, then, that the social commentary of “Disease”, when expressed by Allison, fits her “Tidings” concert repertoire, along with sacred hymns, cheering carols and renewed popular, folk+ songs. 

Five years ago this weekend, Allison Crowe had recently filmed a cameo for a new Superman blockbuster, “Man of Steel”. She’d flown from her Atlantic home in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, to her Pacificcoast birthplace, Nanaimo, British Columbia. (Such travel accomplished via traditional airline service – not by latching onto Henry Cavill or tugging on Superman's cape.) 

Separately, a documentary film was in the works, as well – intended to share the “Tidings” concert experience with the world. Some wonderful footage was captured, and some awesome audio. However, a twist of fate, determined that the visuals were of concerts filmed in Newfoundland and the music audio was of shows recorded in British Columbia. Here we can add another observation – Allison does not perform anything the same way twice. 

In short, this is why the video accompanying this music is a still image – a screen cap from the doc that a resourceful film-maker, NL’s Peter Buckle, managed to create despite the lack of music audio. He very skilfully shifted focus from a concert performance film to that of a thoughtful, talking-heads-moreso, look at the meaning of this season – joy, grief, and all else. Hear, now, this song’s music captured by audio engineer, BC’s Brad Graham. 

Disease ~ Allison Crowe's "Tidings Concert" from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

Disease

An all-time great rock song and performance kicks off “16 Songs”. Here’s Allison Crowe live-in-concert – captured by Turtle Recording’s Larry Anschell (Engineer and Producer) and Brad Graham (Co-Engineer). 

Lyrical and social themes “as we replace marble with plastic” mesh visually with “Dreams That Money Can Buy” – the avant garde cinematic creation of German surrealist, Dadaist+ Hans Richter and collaborators. "The Girl with the Prefabricated Heart", the second of DTMCB’s seven dream sequences, is shaped by the rich vision of French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, Fernand Léger. This experimental feature film received the Award for the Best Original Contribution to the Progress of Cinematography at the 1947 Venice Film Festival.

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

Writing in Süddeutsche Zeitung, a major German daily newspaper, journalist Peter Baier sets the stage (in this translation): “From the outset the Canadian songwriter wins the favor of the audience and increases the expectations with her coloratural laugh. Allison Crowe plays the piano with a strong grip. Its sound fits perfectly to her slightly-smoky, expressive, in short: Great voice. Sometimes her playing recalls the keyboard-capers of Konstantin Wecker and then there are moments to bring to mind Modest Mussorgsky’s „Pictures at an Exhibition“.

(And in the original text: Bereits mit ihren ersten Ansagen gewinnt die kanadische Songwriterin mit eigenem Label die Gunst des Publikums, lässt mit ihrem Koloratur-Lachen die Erwartung auf Weiteres ansteigen. Mit kräftigem Zugriff spielt Allison Crowe das Klavier, zu dessen Klang ihre leicht rauchige, ausducksstarke, kurz: große Stimme hervorragend passt. Manchmal erinnert ihr Spiel an die Tasten-Eskapaden eines Konstantin Wecker, dann wieder gibt es Momente, die an den Stil von Modest Mussorgsky's „Bilder einer Ausstellung“ denken lassen.)

“Amazing composition,” says another in the musician’s broadly international audience, “there is so much intellect in the music writing of Allison Crowe, which you don’t see anywhere these days, not from the new artists nor the established ones.”

It’s an intellect revealed in part via inspired musical choices and its energetic expression is visceral in nature. Energy flows from the performer on-stage to engulf concert-goers as well. Spontaneous eruptions - stomping feet, clapping hands, rhythmically pulsing bodies – accompany this song (a recent bootleg video from Jazzhaus Freiburg further testifies to this rocking reality).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6t4Gk15IB4

#1 of 16 Songs

        

Allison Crowe video from Europe tour

In an courtyard tonight in Haarlem, Holland – there’s finally internet connection enough to upload a video from Allison Crowe’s “Heavy Graces” tour! Plenty more images – and, with any luck, more video – from the latest chapter in the musical story of one of the modern greats:

Musician Allison Crowe performs her song "Disease" -- before a rocking audience at Germany's Jazzhaus Freiburg on Muttertag -- Mother's Day -- 2014. This tune and Crowe's wildly impassioned performances have drawn her comparison in Europe to innovative Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky -- and the famed German singer-songwriter ("Liedermacher"), composer, author, and actor, Konstantin Wecker.

This hand-captured video is, obviously, lo-fi in sound+ -- still, it captures some of the excitement of this night -- representative of Crowe's triumphant May 2014 "Heavy Graces" tour of Germany and Italy. The Canadian artist enraptured audiences who called her back for two or three encores each night.

At Jazzhaus - Allison Crowe takes to a stage that's hosted: Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton, Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, BB King, Jimmy Cliff, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves, Maceo Parker, Betty Carter, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Billy Cobham, Terry Callier, John Mayall, Spencer Davis, Nigel Kennedy und mehr greats.

Vielen dank! Grazie mille! Thank you, everyone!

Disease ~ Allison Crowe's "Tidings Concert" (song 8)

An highlight for many experiencing "Tidings Concert", and, from the outside, perhaps unexpectedly so, is Allison Crowe's performance of "Disease". It fits in Allison's exploration of the many emotions and colours of the season, of life itself, and, has become a tradition, ever-evolving, in its singular way. "Power-house intense" is how one European reviewer describes it, saying: "the energy of 'Disease' can easily provide electricity to a small country for a decade."

Free to Fly

It's four in the afternoon and not raining. Not in Baltimore. Not in Cleveland where the world's first rock concert happened - sixty years ago this weekend.

In 2006, the wonderful songwriter and jug-band-Jedi, John Sebastian, told The New York Times: "The (record) industry has been in the corporate noose for so long, it doesn't even have a leg jiggle left. There's no one left saying, 'Wait, we want to make art'."

Keith Richards' tranfusion at a Swiss clinic is urban legend. The new cultural blood that's coursing through our digital world is ready to become truly legendary. A force :)

It's a fantastic voyage from the "Moondog Coronation Ball" to now.

Among this week's way-stations, we hear from the newest blogger to enter ourstream: THW - the UK music blog of The Human Wreckage - very kindly features Allison today, and says: "In a nutshell; Allison Crowe is what is missing from the music industry. She has a strong mind, follows her heart and just oozes talent." With Allison blazing her own path, and such pioneers as Ani DiFranco and Janis Ian showing what's possible, making music stronger than the corporate establishment, these are the best of times for music-makers andmusic-lovers!

Sister THW blog - Forget the Freak You're Just Nature - presents Allison's captured-live-in-the-studio performance of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".

And the buffet is laid out at Muruch - enriching blogger on music, literature and film, and a site familiar to fans of Allison Crowe. Muruch premieres a new recording of "Disease" - an exciting early listen to "Tidings Live" :)



Tough Mama. Katey Sagal and the Sons of Anarchy.

Allison Crowe, with Zimmy's "world of illusion" at her feet, is free to fly. "Free to possess truth in one soul and one body".

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 :)

Disease (08/03/08)

An international review declares "the energy of 'Disease' can easily provide electricity to a small country for a decade." Here is Allison Crowe captured live by Turtle Recording's Larry Anschell and Brad Graham. "Once more shifting genres, moods, and techniques, 'Disease'," says 1 Heck of a Guy, "is a passionate look into the dark side of human connectedness manifest in a song played with operatic ferocity."

Disease + walking octopi

"Disease", ever-evolving social commentary from Allison Crowe. In concert today it can be 10 minutes in performance, and you may hear Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" or Cranberries' "Zombie" in its middle. During "Tidings" season, Bohemia's "Good King Wenceslas" finds way into the song...)

Here it is on the day walking octopi are discovered - more about that on the banter track



On the same weekend Allison Crowe's concert performances are captured "Live at Wood Hall", scientist Christine L. Huffard and colleagues release a study of "Underwater Bipedal Locomotion by Octopuses in Disguise" along with videos of Octopus marginatus, which resembles a coconut:



and Octopus (Abdopus) aculeatus, a clump of floating algae:



(The original vids are no longer on YouTube, stil, these short clips show the same octopi walking.)

“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