I'm Alright

Musician Allison Crowe is home on the lovely isle of Newfoundland where it’s Winter-time on Canada’s Atlantic.

When not playing in one snow-pile or another, Allison’s immersed in arranging songs of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

On Canada’s Pacific coast, where the precipitation is in liquid form, the team at Rubenesque Records, Allison’s label, is amassing Abba-Zaba bars – should comedian Dave Chappelle happen to visit and, primarily, to sustain a wondrous period of music curation @ http://music.allisoncrowe.com

A sign of spring, cheering as an early-bird or crocus, is this first music motion-picture of our year – “I’m Alright”.

A rediscovered rarity – this song’s performed only once in concert by Allison Crowe – on her historic 2010 European tour on which she’s accompanied by musician-photographer Billie Woods and road manager Camille Schmah.


I'm Alright from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

In Paris’ Auditorium du conservatoire Gentilly – a spectacle coordinated by impresario Jacques Leforestier – Allison debuted “I’m Alright” – joined for this occasion by guest artist Emily B. Green (Em Verte), oft-MC Jessica Kuijer, photographer Frédéric Raquil, super-fan Ming Cheam – et plus. We look forward to visiting Europe again, reuiniting with our Parisian friends, plus amis old - Agnès Jourdain, Olivier Rohart, Karim Khenoune-Montanaro, Hélène, Céline – and, new - Michèle Marie Joubert, Boukary Magassa +

Maintenant, here’s the music – accompanied by vintage footage from Coney Island, New York, birth-place of the amusement park.

“Is it real?” people ask about the fun and frights in a carnival world of illusion and rides. Ward Hall, the “King of the Sideshow”, answers: “Oh, it’s all real. Some of it’s really real, some of it’s really fake, but it’s all really good.”

May it be so for life.

Chelsea Hotel No. 2

Allison Crowe checks in again with a take on human relations - "Chelsea Hotel No.2" - Leonard Cohen's irregular ode to one whose "heart was a legend".

Allison's joined on this recording by cellist Brendan Millbank - and Kayla Schmah is string arranger and producer on this track from the album "Spiral":

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/chelsea-hotel-no-2

Chelsea Hotel No. 2

Words & Music by Leonard Cohen, Ron Cornelius
Performed by Allison Crowe

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were looking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Weel, those were the reasons, that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh
That was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left

Ah, but you got away, oh, didn't you baby,
you just turned your back on the crowd,
you got away, I never once heard you say,
I need you, I don't need you,
I need you, I don't need you
and all of that jiving around.

I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel
you were famous, your heart was a legend
And you told me again that you preferred handsome men
but for me you would make an exception
And then clenching your fists for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well, never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music"

Ah, but you got away, didn't you baby
You just turned your back on the crowd
You got away, I never once heard you say
I need you, I dont need you
I need you, I dont need you
and all of that jivin around

Now, I don't mean to suggest that I loved you the best,
I can't keep track of each fallen robin.
but, I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
that's all, I don't think of you that often

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

"Elton John meets Edith Piaf" is how Allison Crowe’s tagged in an early newspaper feature – the young Canadian musician interviewed by scribe Clodagh O’Connell when she first ventured from her birth-place on Vancouver Island to mainland North America.

Many seas and seasons later, Allison pays tribute to Sir Elton (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight) and his poetic songwriting partner Bernie Taupin in a live performance of their song “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters” – the duo’s paean to the great city of New York and its people. (Taupin’s lyrics for this joyous tune off 1972’s “Honky Château” EJ album give a bow to the Ben E. King hit and its line “there is a rose in Spanish Harlem”.)

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

1940s NYC is on parade in this film footage from the Prelinger Archives ( http://archive.org/details/prelinger  )

This bootleg audio is captured “hot” from "Tunnel" - a legendary Musikkeller in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Engineer Fayez Chlache in 1981, the year Allison's born, the subterranean music venue and above-ground restaurant + gallery, was nurtured lovingly by Chlache who made it feel “als gäbe es Tunnel schon seit immer" – there has always been “Tunnel”. Upon his passing in 2011 Fayez’s daughter, Magda, maintains Wien’s living room for bon vivants of all ages.

#8 of 16 Songs

             

It's a bird, it's a plane... it's Allison Crowe

Krypton Chronicle’s Rennie Cowan today posts to DailyMotion her interview with Allison Crowe from the red-carpet World Premiere of “Man of Steel” – which happened at New York City’s Lincoln Center in Summer 2013:

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25f6ii_man-of-steel-world-premiere-interview-with-allison-crowe-by-rennie-cowan_shortfilms

 

 

MAN OF STEEL WORLD PREMIERE - Interview with Allison Crowe... by rennie-cowan

 

The chaotic fun of that adventure is well-captured in Rennie’s clip.

 

The genuine kindness and support of Hollywood film director Zack Snyder, producer Deborah Snyder, their super-professional team, and the many good folks we met at every stage, still lifts us up! Up! And away! 

"Let It Be" - Allison Crowe performs The Beatles

“In My Life” - Allison Crowe performing a “John song” was our first video commemorating the 50th anniversary of Beatlemania in North America. With her take on a “Paul song” – here’s Allison now with “Let It Be”, again captured in real-time by film director Alex Postowoi and crew and audio engineer Larry “Turtle” Anschell (and in higher fidelity than previously available online).



The ‘Tidings’ album version of the song - http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/let-it-be - was recorded a year or two earlier, as was Allison’s version of “Let It Be” that’s part of the NYC-produced “It Was 40 Years Ago Today” tribute album – a compilation also featuring Dee Dee Ramone, Sylvain Sylvain and other DIY, indie, alternative and punk rock musicians (released on February 9, 2004).

Beatlemania Hits Fab 50: Allison Crowe Performs "In My Life"

“Beatlemania, as it is called, affects all social classes and all levels of intelligence,” The New York Times reported in December 1963.

We’ll hear all manner of takes on similar themes over the coming month, with this February 7 marking the 50th anniversary of The Beatles landing at JFK International (New York City’s Idlewild airport rechristened on December 24, ’63 in tribute to the recently assassinated US President). The group’s appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show – broadcast over the three succeeding Sundays - electrified a new continent.

Plenty came before, and much has happened since, Pan Am Flight 101 delivered the Fab Four aboard a Boeing 707-331, known as the Clipper “Defiance”, to a world ready for joy and release.

 Celebrating the musical legacy of John, Paul, George and Ringo – here’s Allison Crowe performing “In My Life” – captured in real-time by film director Alex Postowoi and crew and audio engineer Larry Anschell at Turtle Recording studios by the sea in White Rock, BC, Canada.

(This is an higher-fidelity video recording than has been previously available!)

And, here’s another performance of the song by Allison – recorded, audio-only, at Turtle a couple of years earlier: http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/in-my-life

Songbook Salute

Celebrating “Man of Steel” – the Zack Snyder-directed Superman movie in which Allison Crowe appears in a cameo – we’ve created Songbook - an oeuvre-spanning album of tracks representing each album+ release from Rubenesque Records Ltd. (12 Years Free & Strong: 2001 - 2013)

May you enjoy these 22 song performances from Allison here and now.

album cover above - for Allison Crowe's "Songbook"

Drawings by Allison Crowe, and design/artwork by our long-time graphics collaborator, Alix Whitmire.

+ more word, credits, and thanks to follow the music…

Man of Steel Premiere - NYC After-Party

Musician Allison Crowe with Movie Director Zack Snyder at the "Man of Steel" World Premiere After-Party.

Super Night of Nights - Man of Steel Premiere

The premiere of the new Superman movie - the Zack Snyder-directed "Man of Steel" - happens at the Starr Theatre in Alice Tully Hall at NYC's Lincoln Center.

Here's Allison Crowe on the red carpet at Lincoln Center.

Allison flanked by Director Zack Snyder and Producer Deborah Snyder - stepping outside the Starr Theater where MoS has just premiered.

Allison with "Man of Steel' music maestro Hans Zimmer - celebrating the movie premiere - after-party at Skylight at Moynihan Station.