"16 Songs" Video Album from Allison Crowe = Music + Movie Magic

"Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music is what I want to make."

 

That’s how Allison Crowe framed things near the start of this century before launching Rubenesque Records Ltd., one of the world’s truly independent music labels.

 

Through legendary live performances, broadcasts, and a dynamic oeuvre of recordings, globally-acclaimed and loved, Crowe’s distinguished herself among today’s finest songwriters, recording and concert acts, and as a supreme interpreter of popular song.

 

Combining versatility and virtuosity, the amazing Canadian musician transmits emotion into a visceral joy – sharing heart and soul with audiences.

 

Timeless artistic expression has its own tradition in Canada, a land plentifully represented by: wordsmiths & tunesmiths, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young; by jazz pianist/composer Oscar Peterson; classical composer Marjan Mozetich; in theatre and opera – beautiful voices of Teresa Stratas, Richard Verreau, Léopold Simoneau; and other sublime standard-bearers.

 

Allison Crowe’s singularity carries her across the globe and into such company as the Master of the Queen’s Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Britain’s Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and dates with Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Thrilling, fun, and moving, the Nanaimo, BC-born musician traverses Europe and North America from home-base in Corner Brook, Newfoundland earning hoorays even from Hollywood where appreciative movie Director Zack Snyder invited her to cameo in the latest Superman blockbuster.

 

Coming soon Allison Crowe releases “16 Songs” a video album reimagining century-spanning film, three decades of songwriting, and a dozen albums of modern music. Renowned for gorgeous, often ground-breaking, interpretations of Mitchell, Cohen, The Beatles, Pearl Jam +, Crowe’s set-list here is radiantly international, mixing original tunes (Disease, Circular Reasoning, Double-Edged Swords +) with covers of: Annie Lennox & Eurythmics, Radiohead, Tori Amos, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Matthew Good, Hunters and Collectors.

 

"16 Songs" Video Album from Allison Crowe Coming Soon

 

We’ve recently witnessed novel approaches to twinning of music and video releases in the American mainstream. In December 2013, pop superstar Beyoncé paired a video with each of her album’s 14 new song tracks adding three bonus music videos all as part of the “Beyoncé” album physical release. Partial clips of the vids were posted online upon the album’s surprise launch.

 

This Summer “Weird Al” Yankovic built upon the model of his 2011 “Alpocalypse” album. For his July 2014 release, “Mandatory Fun”, pop music’s über-parodist-satirist-accordionist amped awareness by production-partnering with an array of web portals to release eight videos online the same week his album’s 12 music tracks became available.

 

Allison Crowe’s music videos for most of this millennium comprise, either, documentary, live-in-performance, films (eg. the hugely popular “Tidings” series from director Alex Postowoi’s cinéma vérité crew), or, audio recordings with ‘still’ images. The exceptions – a pair of music videos in narrative style - were both made in 2003: “Midnight” (also directed by Steadiman’s Postowoi), and “Scared” (from the transmission2media duo of Angela Kendall and Brian Dutkewich – known for their later work with musical twins Tegan and Sara).

 

Starting with 2011’s luminous “Arthur” – a song exploring love, memory and aging – Crowe’s videos also marry her song recordings with vintage footage from home-movies, silent films and classics of Georges Méliès, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Nadia Sibirskaia, Salvador Dali, Dominique Monfréy, Josef von Sternberg, D.W. Griffith plus other pioneers and visionaries of cinema (impressionists, surrealists, Dadaists, avant gardists, pop-artists+).

 

“The strange thing about cinema, and this would go for television film, is that no one really knows why music is needed. I would say after a lifetime in it I could not tell you why. But it is not complete without it… As a matter-of-fact, I may be bold enough to say that with very few exceptions, a piece of film, or a film cannot come to life without the help of music of some kind,” reflected composer Bernard Herrmann, a frequent collaborator with film director Alfred Hitchcock.

 

The “Master of Suspense”, Hitch himself, observed: “Art is emotion.”

 

“16 Songs” is an artful collection of Allison Crowe musical works with visuals from great creators and innovators - film-makers, animators, painters, photographers: Fernand Léger, Jean Vigo, Buster Keaton, Dave Fleischer & Max Fleischer, Edwin S. Porter, Man Ray, Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, Winsor McCay, Augusto Genina, René Clair & Georg W. Pabst. Iconic images and figures - Louise Brooks, Lois Lane and Clark Kent/Superman, Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, and Kiki de Montparnasse - populate the video album playlist.

 

“Oh, this is wonderful, it really is,” says Slovenia’s Milka of an advance screening, “I love it.” The art-aficionado from Izola comments: “It is marvellous amalgamation of Allison's voice and movie's poetry. Both benefit from each other and give a viewer another dimension for song's interpretation. While the movie, not known to me, suddenly takes me to place where one never ages. Love it.”

 

Curtains rise on Allison Crowe’s “16 Songs” video album daily from the New Moon of September 23 to the Full Moon of October 8, 2014. Visit your favourite online video portal to know how it feels.

"Best of the decade" and beyond

Entertainment website Muruch announces its top 25 albums of the decade – on a list that ranges from The Dresden Dolls to Muse, the eclectic blog places Allison Crowe’s “Live at Wood Hall” in the number 8 position, commenting:

“Oh that voice! Still gives me chills. I’ve posted about Allison Crowe so many times over the years that I consider her Muruch’s musical mascot. As I said in my 2007 review“there’s really no way to convey through mere words how much the music on Allison Crowe’s Live At Wood Hall moves me”. Forget Susan Boyle, Allison sang the definitive cover of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’.”

It’s been a year in which Crowe elevated her artistry beyond levels consistently seen in rock music for decades. A decade of international touring and online presence combined with inventive and inspired writing and recording and peerless live shows has translated into making the bi-coastal Canadian one of the world’s most popular, successful, and truly, independent musicians.


Allison Crowe climbs every rung with rare artistry - Photo by Billie Woods

Crowe’s achievement could only be reached free of the status quo, side-stepping the mainstreaming rackets of, both, corporate record labels and institutionalized funding agencies. It’s a revolution, not just in her home country, but, on a global scale.

A review from the latest concert on her “Tidings” tour, which wraps this weekend in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, exemplifies peoples’ response to Allison Crowe’s singular nature as one of the most moving singer-songwriters and interpreters of any generation.

Eric McLean, band leader of the Nanaimo Blues All Stars, (and President of the Old City Quarter Association), wrote of Crowe’s December ’09 concert in that city: “I have seen and met, hordes of great performers over the years, from Clapton, Jeff Beck, Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, Sara, Little Feat, to Grappelli, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, etc, etc, etc, and I honestly believe that (Allison Crowe is) in the same league.” McLean sums up the feeling of many, saying: “I really felt that I was in the presence of something great.”

Allison Crowe’s seventh CD, “Spiral”, is due to be released in early 2010.



* NB A friend in Scotland, where folks, naturally, take great pride in Susan Boyle, wrote to express concern that it's "an unnecessary swipe being taken at a Scottish personality" by the music blog. I am certain, and have confirmed directly, the writer means no harm to Susan Boyle or Scotland!

In the context of knowing the reviewer is an huge fan of "Les Mis", they're not saying to forget Susan in entirety. Their simple, and passionate, view is that with respect to the song "I Dreamed a Dream", Allison best captures its mood. Their turn of phrase is not meant to extend beyond that artistic point.

From here, at least, it seems media marketing maven Simon Cowell et al have been rather callous in their exploitation of Susan Boyle, and there's been disregard for her health and well-being.

That's a separate issue, I know. Still, if you care for artists as people, health matters more than the fame or money. It's not evident how much an operator like Mr. Cowell cares about the human toll.

Knowing the business side of the record industry, one can only hope that the singer from West Lothian comes through it all better than many who are fodder for the machine.