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:

Tapping GIW

"Great Island Wonder" Uncorked

There’s a lot of love expressed when Allison Crowe sings and plays. Love for another. Love for humanity. Love of place. Love of peace. Love of freedom. There’s heartbreak and loss, too. Exorcism. Transcendence. "Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music” – the artist’s raison d’etre.

“Great Island Wonder” is the official release of a concert bootleg that’s long circulated in torrent trading circles. Mélanie Bilodeau of Denman Island, on Canada’s Pacific shores, presented this concert to her home community and neighbours on Hornby Island, BC in 2005 – it’s captured resonantly by Audioarchivist John MacMillan: https://allisoncrowe.bandcamp.com/album/great-island-wonder

A sister, companion in ways, to “Live at Wood Hall” recordings of concerts earlier that Spring – this night’s undercurrents surface in song debuts of “I Don’t Know”, “You”, “Skeletons and Spirits” and reflect a different sort of intensity.

This date was soon followed by a cross-Canada tour, embarking birth-place Nanaimo, BC and reaching St. John’s and Corner Brook, Newfoundland, on Canada’s Atlantic coast, where Allison Crowe made her new home. Bi-coastal love established then is grown ever-deeper now. (Another shift – this may be the final concert capture of entirely vocal-piano repertoire. By her next tours of Canada and Europe Crowe was including guitar songs, as well, in her set. In more recent years she’s added fiddle and bodhran.)

Sharing the tape – John MacMillan describes this ‘Live on Denman Island’ doc in these ‘Personal notes’:

“To be honest, this was a fairly ‘dark’ show - there seemed to be demons rearing their ugly heads for this concert. The song selection is pretty, um, deep and somewhat, well, I dunno what to call it. Not to go into all the dreary details, but I was beginning the end of a relationship with a partner who was the catalyst of making this show happen, and I believe Alley was going though a breakup that kind of came to a peak at this show. Like I say, the song selection and audience banter seems to reflect this stuff that was going on behind the scenes. Despite the personal hardships, I think it is a brilliant performance, with some humour thrown in as well. Allison Crowe is a great songwriter, a fantastic musician, and an amazing vocal talent. I hope you enjoy this recording as much as I enjoyed the show.”

(MacMillan’s ‘Technical Notes’ to the recording are found on the “Great Island Wonder” album page.)

The album’s front cover, foto by Allison Crowe’s released earlier this year. Here now is the back-side: Straits of Georgia and Part of Vancouver Island (Map) – adapted from “Ocean to Ocean, Sandford Fleming's Expedition Through Canada in 1872” (pub. 1873).

Great Island Wonder

For the love of music, for the love of all life, this February 14, whether you celebrate Valentine’s or V-Day, or however, simply, you mark another day of existence – there’ll be a special soundtrack coming from Allison Crowe.

A rare batch of “Great Island Wonder”, (named, also, for the love of bootlegs), is 18 song performances straight from the heart – and banter galore – captured by audio archivist John MacMillan in concert on Canada’s Denman Island a dozen years ago. This show, hosted by Denman’s Mélanie Bilodeau, offers a repast – an edible, audible, document of the artist’s solo repertoire at one delectable moment in time.

Album art was originally anticipated to be wholly cartographic in nature – however, with such an Hipgnotic foto now facing us, the song+ info will be mapped out solely on GIW’s back cover to be released with the music on 14.02.2017.

Album cover foto: Allison Crowe

I Don't Know + Phantom of the Opera

Lights out… for this motion picture music mash-up – Allison Crowe’s “I Don’t Know” haunts the original cinematic interpretation of Gaston Leroux’s gothic novel, “The Phantom of the Opera”.


Music captured live by audio archivist John MacMillan, Denman Island, BC, Canada. String arrangement and production comes from Kayla Schmah, in Hollywood, USA. It’s first released on the album, ‘Spiral’: http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/i-dont-know

Footage, like some spectral documentary, is from the unrestored version of the 1925 silent film - which features the genius of Lon Chaney as The Phantom.

I Don't Know

"I Don't Know": another rediscovery for Allison Crowe's "Spiral" is this song, which prior to this album/CD release had been performed only once - on Denman Island, Canada, in 2006. Audio archivist John MacMillan preserved the song and it's an ideal fit for Allison's passionate vocals and piano wedded to Kayla Schmah's urgently beautiful string arrangements and orchestration.

Wake Up

"Wake Up": Performed just twice over the years, one of those concert dates - at the Chilliwack Arts Centre, British Columbia (near dear friend and tour merch monkey, Reena Kudhail) - was captured by audio archivists John MacMillan and Condor (a new, proud, Papa!) Kayla Schmah, "Spiral" producer, arranged strings for the song, and it's rejoined Allison's repertoire - to much appreciation :)

the upward Spiral

...or further up the Spiral, as it were.

(can I tag Trent Reznor in this note?!)
(turns out - no)

Finally, my 7th album is complete. Wait a minute - did i say SEVENTH?! WTF?! The reality of time and age starts to set in when I count albums. I feel old lately. (blame the event of last year's 10 year high-school reunion - which I was unable to attend)

Let's just say "new" album - ahhh. That's better.

So, my NEW album, Spiral, is finally out (digitally - the hard copy of same is not to be completed til the end of this week) and I am SO freaking excited about this one.

All of those little ideas I've always had, the little sonic bits and pieces that I've wanted, the arrangements and orchestrations, the instruments, were brought to life by some of my best friends. Have I ever rapped away to you the virtues of being independent? Well if I haven't, I'm sure I will. One of the greatest parts of doing whatever I want (besides THAT fact in and of itself) is that I get to work with people that I actually LIKE.- nay, LOVE.

I was certain at the outset of this that the next album had to be different - I just wasn't sure how. I wanted big production sound but as always have wee production budget (meaning everything ends up being mostly homemade - current technology lends itself to this beautifully)

I had the wonderfully talented musicians, and friends, on my side. Billie Woods, Dave Baird, and Laurent Boucher. Check. We played together, even went on tour. Remember that whole thing with the UK. welll, the stuff after that was awesome. Check.

What's this? A cellist? Brendan Millbank. Boo ya. Just happens to be my neighbour in Nanaimo. Done.

Moving along...

Next question - how to capture?

I've been engineering my own albums for a while now, learning as I've been going along - so I was sure I'd be able to do a good deal of it - though the perfection of, and gear for, some certain sonic elements still elude me. Enter the mix between myself and Larry Anschell - Turtle Studios super dude. (has done mobile recording for Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains - as well as countless successful studio recordings - his studio has an arcade!!!! SRSLY)

The combination of things was decided. I did a lot at home, some already existed, I travelled to some homes, some was live, some was Larry - perfect for all the little bits we needed. You know, Adrian himself caught pieces of Dave's background vocals and all of Brendan's cello.

And what about all those other strings I want to hear in my brains? How the…?

After hitting wall after wall of limitations, both financially and idea-wise, finally, a breakthrough in the form of Kayla Schmah - the ridiculously talented string arranger and producer who I have known for, oh... let's see... at LEAST 10 years. 11? 12? Do i really want to go there? Wasn't I feeling old already? Let's just say we used to sing Indigo Girls and Vonda Shepard songs together on Salt Spring Island at Summer Stock in some year that was still the 90's.

I was lucky enough to have Kayla offer to shape the album in to something beautiful and different altogether. She's sensitive to all the sounds, and knew just what to do - things I never would have even been able to imagine - landscapes of sound I didn't even know existed other than in Lord of the Rings (sorry for the uber-nerdy comparison, it's just that I REALLY REALLY love Lord of the Rings) She made it so I didn't have to listen to tiny little bits of things and adjust their relative volumes. She's also a new mom. I love her endlessly.

Finally, it was coming together.

What about art? Something different... something new... something not my face... (which is always beautifully photographed and made to look really pretty by Billie Woods - she's f**king awesome) (pardonnez-moi...)

Enter Tara Thelen - the painter of the paintings used for this album's artwork. Seriously? I can use these? Are you kidding? I am so freaking lucky it's ridiculous. lol After a lovely telephone conversation with Tara and a bit of time deciding on which of her many amazing paintings to use for this album, we decided on "Look at Me" and "I Found You". Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

Ok so what about layout?

Alix Whitmire - web-designer and cover art designer for a great number of my albums and all around amazing lady who is also an incredibly talented knitter and lover of fibres... She just always knows what looks awesome, including Billy Argel's font, Ginga. Seriously. I love the font. And Alix knows just what to do with it- I can't wait to see it in hardcopy, what with the metallic foils and things with the mixes of colours... YAYYYYY!!!!

I can't forget, too, Condor and John MacMillan - who recorded tracks live way back in the day that have found themselves years in the future on this particular piece - and soundboard operators the world over.

Add in everybody - add in everything - and finally, the culmination, aurally, of what I've imagined and wanted since I used to listen to Counting Crows' August and Everything After until I wore out copies and copies of it from when I was a pre-teen and well after...

I've got it. It's done. I'm pumped. I hope you like it. Thank you to everyone who helped me do this - and to Adrian du Plessis for listening carefully again and again more times than I ever could before my brain would bleed.

Thank you.

Allison :)

next up, the euro-tour in April... stay tuned...

"...the music of what happens" ~ Finn mac Cumaill

Spiral is now on Allison's music pages @



+ on CD Baby and iTunes and these sounds will soon be everywhere ( :

Here's a special video album of Spiral:




Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!