Allison Crowe's ABC

Knowing your ABCs has been a musical joy ever since the Jackson 5. Now, updated with her debut band release, “Heirs + Grievances” is Allison Crowe’s ABC list of songs @ http://allisoncrowe.com/ABC.html

Allison Crowe - illustration by boki.b - Vienna + Buenos Aires

This page links to the artist’s full repertoire – over 159 unique song recordings released over 26 albums, singles, EPs and compilations (and still more tunes not yet recorded). Original songs, interpretations, a cappella, piano, guitar, solo and band tunes, traditional, alternative, sea shanties, hymns, carols and aires. Allison Crowe’s body of work encompasses rock, folk, jazz, Canadiana, Celtic, and soul among many-splendoured genres. Hers is a remarkable, singular, oeuvre and a voice without peer in popular music this century. Show you what it’s all about…

Counting on ABCers from American Bandstand, The Jackson 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho7796-au8U

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

             

Tonight Will Be Fine

Combining heart, soul and vision - in words, music and images - Allan Showalter, the much-loved Leonard Cohen+ blogger, presents this video:


Tonight Will Be Fine (Leonard Cohen) - Allison... by rimbaud22ca

Allison Crowe performs Leonard Cohen's song, "Tonight Will Be Fine", accompanied by images from the fabulous and free-spirited photog Billie Woods, a painting by Vienna's boki.b and pics of posters by dedicated German concert promoter "Andreas" - and North American rock poster legend Bob Masse.

And, there be a related DrHGuy blog post as well @ http://drhguy.com/2013/04/03/ten-women-singing-leonard-cohen-songs

Canadian Crowe's Annual Musical Migration Underway

Musician Allison Crowe, who calls Nanaimo, BC and Corner Brook, NL, home, is set for her annual European migration confirms European road manager, Camille Schmah.

The bicoastal Canadian tours Europe at least once or twice each year and her "Spiral" Europa Tournee 2010 takes flight this month - with concert visits to Frankfurt, Nijmegen, Aachen, Gentilly - Paris, Vienna, Florence, Berlin and Quedlinburg.

From a land that's brought forth such legendary singer-songwriters as Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, this "old world" is witnessing a singular talent of a new generation.

With the release of her newest album, "Spiral", UK music blog "We Write Lists" declares her "Canada's finest songwriter" - building on acclaim from MOJO, TimeOut, the BBC and other UK media. Swedish reviewer Anna Maria Stjärnell says that on "Spiral", Allison Crowe "sings her heart out. She's made yet another album to treasure." Underscoring one of her unique characteristics, this week, "Paris Voice" labels Crowe "one of the best interpreters to come along since Joe Cocker".

Embodying songwriting, as well as interpretive, artistry of the highest order is rare enough. To these, Allison Crowe brings intense energy and honesty in performance - undoing any stereotypes of the modern singer-songwriter as purveyor of flaccid folk, plastic pop, or regurgitated rock tropes.

Longtime Canadian radio and television personality, Rick Dennis, (now creator/host of CICV's "Rick's Country Classics and Folk Favorites"), told his radio audience, after Crowe's appearance at "Special Woodstock", this Summer: "You really have to see Allison Crowe live. The way she splits those notes, it's like light through a prism - all the colours of a song."

For select concerts on her upcoming Euro tour, Allison Crowe is joined by guest artists: Holland's Leontine Snoeren; France's Emily B. Green; and Canadian-Brazilian Billie Rocha-Woods. Details can be found @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/tour.html

23.09 Jazzlokal Mampf - Frankfurt, Germany
25.09 De Lindenberg - Nijmegen, Netherlands
30.09 Aula Carolina - Aachen, Germany
02.10 Auditorium du Conservatoire - Gentilly / Paris, France
08.10 Tunnel Vienna Live - Vienna, Austria
12.10 Teatro del Sale - Florence, Italy
15.10 Osterkirche - Berlin-Wedding, Germany
16.10 Blasiikirche - Quedlinburg, Germany

The essence, articulated by operators of Teatro del Sale in Firenze, home to famed Chef Fabio Picchi and Artist Maria Cassi, is "la ricerca della qualità della vita"!

Spiral Europa Tournee set for launch

"In the flicker of an eyelash - and a nap, I’m off to Germany..."


Word on Allison Crowe's upcoming "Spiral" European concert series is coming this week. For the moment, here's a look at a concert poster - with original artwork by Tara Thelen - whose painting "Look at Me" is the album/CD cover of "Spiral".

Dateline Vienna: 'Tradigital' boki.b's Vernissage & Art

"I draw because I am happy! I draw because I am free!" This motto of Croatian-born, Austrian-based, visual artist boki.b, has a counterpart in the raison d'etre of musicians from Nina Simone to Allison Crowe.

It's natural, then, to see boki.b's recent vernissage (art exhibition) in Vienna, Austria include images of the Canadian singer-songwriter alongside other musicians and entertainers who inspire the artist: Erykah Badu, Anjelica Huston, Lauryn Hill, Tori Amos, Sarah Brightman, Kokia, Madonna, Beyoncé Knowles, Giorgia Fumanti, Zoe Mace, Laetita Casta, Lucy Lawless, Norma Jeane Mortensen, Nicole Kidman and Gary Oldman.

What is unusual is the innovative technique used by boki.b (born Boris Budisa) to create his works. "I would describe my art as tradigital. It's TRAditional and DIGITAL. It's like painting with a brush on a canvas - but only on PC (personal computer). It's air- and paintbrush on PC," he explains. "It's not easier than painting on a canvas but it's (a different process) without blots. It's like a litho on a canvas."

He starts by drawing a sketch. This hand-drawing is next scanned into a PC and then 'painted' using with Fireworks, Photoshop or Paint. When boki.b's finished the illustration/painting stages, the artwork is saved on a USB-stick. It's run to the printshop, layered on canvas, then stapled to a frame and hung as with traditional method paintings.

This combination of old-world aesthetics with the most modern of technologies is making a success of Budisa's talents in Japanese anime, artist portraits - even a line of shoulder-bags "Ma Luna". Fans of Allison Crowe, particularly in Europe, may know boki.b's art through his design of tour posters and banners for Crowe's 2008 European concerts in Paris, Vienna, Prague and other cities.

On display last month - two artworks featuring Allison Crowe (click on the images below to view larger size):



'soul' ~ by boki.b (painting 30 X 100 cm.)



'emotion' ~ by boki.b (painting 60 X 30 cm)

Danish photographer, Stine Rasmussen, now based in Wien (Vienna), has posted a slide-show of the popular exhibit. Just click on "diashow zeigen" on this page to see images of the vernissage which opened the same night that Allison Crowe performed underground at Tunnel-Live-Vienna.

Bezirk Zeitung has published a feature on boki.b - his art and the recent vernissage. Just click on the image below for the full story (in German).



feature on boki.b in Bezirk Zeitung

Allison Crowe returns to Vienna for an encore performance at 'Tunnel' on October 3, 2008.



Piano at Tunnel-Live-Vienna ~ photo by Stine Rasmussen