(What's so Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding

“This song puts into words a lot of the things I'm feeling in a way that I have a hard time verbalizing clearly. It's been covered a lot. There's the Elvis Costello version which to me has a defiant protest like quality to it (as well as a kind of unique coolness that only Elvis can do in his own way) and the original which is deeply felt and how Nick Lowe sings it today is almost pleading. It really says so much. I hope to fall somewhere in the middle.”

 
Recorded by Allison Crowe for "Cover Me" blog's 10th Anniversary! Celebrate @ http://www.covermesongs.com/2017/10/cover-me-turns-ten.html  Mixed by Larry "Turtle" Anschell.

"Cover Me" Turns 10: Allison Crowe Brings Peace Note to Celebratory Album

“Ray Padgett founded the blog Cover Me in 2007 and has run it ever since, growing it into the largest blog devoted to cover songs on the web, with 80,000 individual readers a month. His music writing has appeared in SPIN, MTV, Vice, Consequence of Sound, and more, and he’s been interviewed as an expert on cover songs by the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. He lives in New York City and also works as a senior music publicist for Shore Fire Media, where his clients have included Ben Harper, Lana Del Rey, and Maxwell.” Today, Cover Me’s 10th birthday, Ray releases a present to music-lovers that’s been six-months-in-the-making:

“We wanted to do something special to celebrate our tenth birthday. And we wanted to celebrate not just ourselves, but celebrate the cover song itself. So we put together this little album Cover Me Turns 10: A Covers Tribute to Covers as a gift to our readers. We contacted several dozen of our musician friends and asked them to cover a cover. That is, to honor the many great songs we might not even know without an iconic cover – Aretha Franklin reinventing Otis Redding’s ‘Respect,’ Quiet Riot amplifying Slade’s call to feel the noize, Prince learning that nothing compares 2 Sinéad O’Connor.

We’re honored that so many of our favorite musicians contributed, and frankly speechless at how great a job they did. So speechless, in fact, that we asked them all to introduce their own work with a few sentences...” Celebrate @ http://www.covermesongs.com/2017/10/cover-me-turns-ten.html

Allison Crowe’s cover of “(What’s so Funny ‘bout) Peace, Love and Understanding”, closes this special tribute album.

Album cover art design by Sean Balkwill

If It Be Noel - Day 9 on the Musical Advent Calendar

It’s possible that everybody knows – certainly “Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered” has pegged today for “Allison Crowe’s Delightful Performance of The First Noel”: http://cohencentric.com/2015/12/16/video-allison-crowe

If it be Noel, December 5 is Day 9 on Allison’s Musical Advent Calendar. Each day through Christmas a new link to celebrate this season will open @ http://allisoncrowe.com/MusicalAdventCalendar2016.html

Arthur - Allison Crowe and Band Euro Live Bootleg Sparkles in Cohencentric Setting

Gem of a music-lover’s blog, “Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered”, reveals facets of artistry on display in a rare bootleg of Allison Crowe and Band. The recording, just unearthed from an European audio-trove, features the quartet performing a song sparkling in the diamantine prose of Allan Showalter, Cohencentric’s master wordsmith:

“ ‘Arthur’ is elegantly, efficiently lapidarian, interweaving deeply personal questions of devotion and loyalty, Arthurian legend, intense romantic longing, and, of course, sex. It is, in a word (albeit a conveniently coined term) – Cohenesque. The video for ‘Arthur’ is also a visual treat, featuring sweet, awkward, altogether fetching clips from home movies, shot in Johannesburg and the Natal Coast of South Africa, of the honeymoon of two young people of my own parents’ generation.”

http://cohencentric.com/2016/10/03/allison-crowe-band-arthur-euro-live-bootleg

Merry Christmas!!!

“In My Life” - those with us, those absent or departed. Sharing love, joy, and peace:

Allison Crowe takes us on a magical musical tour with The Beatles and more on “Tidings”: http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/tidings

‘Salt Water Music’ has crested the air-waves on CFRC 101.9 FM sailing out of Kingston, Ontario since May 2007. Rob Carnell, the show’s captain and DJ embarks on Fridays, 6 – 8pm EST with a vessel full of the finest music from Canada’s East Coast.

Sharing barrels of fun and life’s true tales, today’s Christmas episode carries sounds of Dawn Chubai, Ian Sherwood, Coco Love Alcorn, Stephanie Beaumont’s Sea and Be Scene, Sleepy Driver (we’ve all been there post-meal!), and, says the good ship’s manifest, a full cargo of tunes from Allison Crowe’s “Souling” album – which serves up a cappella such traditional favourites as “The Wexford Carol” (from the full menu @ http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/souling-bonus-tracks-edition ) - and, for dessert, a treat from Crowe’s “Tidings Concert” http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/tidings-concert

 

This evening, park your sleigh, join Santa, the reindeer and us all for a joyous ride with Rob Carnell on Canada’s “Salt Water Music”. Climb aboard from anywhere in the world - listen online @ http://www.cfrc.ca from 6 to 8pm EST tonight (check your local clock and compass for coordinates).

"Silent Night" - Allison Crowe from "Tidings".

Christmas Carols By & Memories From Allison Crowe

he jolly elves at “Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered” are well into the spirit of the season. And they have on their juke-box music from a certain bi-coastal Canuck, as the blog notes: “Allison Crowe’s resonant, rich, gorgeous voice seems as much a manifestation of Christmas as an instrument for singing holiday songs.” We join now Santa’s helper at the blog, Allan Showalter, and sing in Christmas!

Allison Crowe is on Muruch.com's Top 10 albums of 2015 - twice!

Murúch, the pioneering blog that’s been sharing music and culture notes with the world since 1999, has been making a list – and checking it twice for releases from Allison Crowe.

“Muruch.com’s Top Albums of 2015” is coming to town – online you can enjoy all twenty discerning picks via playlists and widgets from Spotify, Bandcamp and Soundcloud @ http://www.muruch.com/2015/12/2015albums.html



"Allison’s supernaturally agile and exquisite voice is especially stunning" on Sylvan Hour

Clocking the top ten albums of the year, Murúch’s fine hand points to “Sylvan Hour” at #10. “Recorded live in a log-cabin in the Canadian wilderness during a cross-country journey, Allison Crowe’s new album, Sylvan Hour, may be her best yet… Allison’s extraordinary voice is in its purest state accompanied only by guitar and piano,” says the site’s original review. “The music seems to rise from deep with her chest, sometimes ripping out of her throat in full roar, other times being restrained and shaped with the skill of a master sculptor. Sylvan Hour is truly a masterpiece.” http://www.muruch.com/2015/05/allisoncrowe-sylvanhour.html

2015 is the year that Murúch branched out into music supervision – curating, assembling and releasing a collection of visual art, music and spoken word poetry to benefit RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network organization and helpline originally created by Tori Amos. “Muruch.com for RAINN” features contributions from two dozen artists including: Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, My Brightest Diamond, Pamela Means, Jen Hopper, Poe, Johnette Napolitano and Allison @ http://www.muruch.com/2015/11/rainnbenefit.html

Murúch has long been a champion of independent creators and, in a range of music genres, has an history of supporting new and left-of-centre artists who’ve gone on to broader public appreciation - acts such as Gaba Kulka, Amanda Palmer, She & Him, Lorde and Soak.

The blog’s profound understanding, and sharing, of music by Allison Crowe is so constant and resonant that Murúch, launched 15 years ago in West Virginia, sails o’er the bounding cultural main with a bi-coastal Canuck at the bow as musical mascot.



Curated collection of Allison Crowe's Greatest Makes Muruch's Top Albums of 2015

Capping more than a decade’s worth of releases by Crowe as a, primarily, solo artist, #3 on the Top Albums of the year list is a joint expedition across frontiers, the blog’s newest curation: “Muruch.com Presents: Allison Crowe”: “this spectacular, career-spanning collection features Allison Crowe’s most magnificent original songs as well as her mesmeric interpretation of ‘Hallelujah’ and other classic covers. Muruch.com also created the album’s cover art from photographs taken by our Editor in Newgrange, Ireland.” http://www.muruch.com/2015/10/allisoncrowealbum.html

Tune in, turn on and voyage this holiday season and beyond with the year’s finest albums – from Allison Crowe, Beth May, Alessia Cara, Rhiannen Giddens, Brandi Carlile and more - as chosen by Murúch.

"Muruch.com Presents: Allison Crowe"

In 1999 a teen-aged Allison Crowe was already building her legend as a musician – radiating from her birthplace of Nanaimo, BC to perform in nightclubs and bars up and down Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific coast.

That same year, across the continent in the USA, a West Virginia-based poet and cultural commentator was launching one of the first, and now longest-running, legal-mp3 music websites. Under the banner of “Murúch”, the Irish word for “mermaid”, pioneering Editor/Head Writer Vic and her team of writers and photographers still plumb the currents of music, books, film and other arts.

“Murúch’s RSS feed is syndicated on Hype Machine, Elbo.ws, Livejournal, Facebook and Twitter… The site has been featured on VH1’s Best Week Ever Blog, The Woodstock Film Festival website, MSN’s Money Central Blog, Technorati’s Top 100 Music Blogs and The Guardian’s website.” Rolling Stone has reposted the site’s content, and its reviews are quoted “in countless press releases, Amazon and Wikipedia pages and even album liner notes”. Cited, as well, by the University of Maryland as an example of excellent critical writing – the fuller story of Murúch can be found @ http://www.muruch.com/about and http://www.muruch.com/2000/07/muruchhistory.html

Along their courses, sometime before Allison Crowe migrated to Canada’s Atlantic shores, making her home in Corner Brook, Newfoundland a decade ago, “Murúch” discovered Allison and has been a steadfast champion of her music ever since.

Mutual admiration and respect has grown through the years such that Allison’s honoured to be described these days as Murúch’s “musical mascot”.

“Muruch.com Presents: Allison Crowe” is a digital album, coming very soon, comprising the blog’s personal favourites from Allison’s recorded repertoire. Curated by Murúch, it’s a 21-song playlist that’s, both, passionately individual and universal.

Cover art is also by Muruch.com – pictured here on the album’s front is the entrance to Newgrange, the great national monument of Ireland that predates Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt. Photographed this Summer in County Meath, the triskele symbols on the giant stone carry forward from pre-Celtic and Celtic times to our age (even giving design to the centre-piece adapters for vinyl “45” RPM recordings).

It’s apt entry point for the intersection of 15+ years rocking and rolling by Allison Crowe and Muruch.com.

Some Diurnal Aural Awe on Spiral

It feels entirely fitting, as Allison Crowe and bandmates ready for recording sessions, the first non-solo tracks for Crowe since her album “Spiral”, a lovely review of that 2010 song collection appears now in “Some Diurnal Aural Awe”: http://somediurnalauralawe.blogspot.ca/2015/09/allison-crowe-spiral-album-review.html

 

“Honest and Heartfelt, Both of Them” subtitles Some Awe - a writer, poet, and retired English teacher whose deep love and appreciation of music is woven into blog form.



And here’s the music from “Spiral” – produced wonderfully by Kayla Schmah: http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/spiral-2

Muruch.com for RAINN Benefit Album Features Three Allison Crowe Songs

Culture site Muruch, one of the web’s longest-serving supporters of music, this month launched its dream-project into the world – a benefit album for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network organization and helpline (originally created by Tori Amos):

“Muruch.com for RAINN moves from the horror of sexual trauma to the incredible courage of survival, benefits the most worthy cause and is a magnificent, genre-crossing collection of music, poetry and art.”

“Muruch’s musical mascot Allison Crowe (she sang ‘Ring of Fire’ in Man of Steel) donated not 1 but 3 songs to our Muruch.com for RAINN benefit album. You can hear the first, ‘Words,’ below and get it along with 24 other mp3s by donating $10 (or more) directly to RAINN through Muruch’s RAINN.org fundraising page.

“The album also features music and poetry by Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano, American Gods/Coraline author Neil Gaiman, My Brightest Diamond, Amanda Palmer, The Voice‘s Kat Robichaud, Midlake, Flogging Molly, Poe, The Mynabirds, Allison Crowe, Crystal Good, Kevin Kantor and many more.”

The first song from Allison featured is “Words” - http://www.muruch.com/2015/07/wordsrainn.html – described this way by Muruch when it capped the blog’s list of Top 50 Songs of 2013:

“Though Allison apparently only took up the fiddle for the recording of this album, she already sounds like a folk fiddle pro in the standout track ‘Words’. What a lush piece of work that song is! There’s a touch of Celtic folk in the instrumentation, haunting backing vocals and a slow building, seething tension until Allison unleashes her wail toward the end of the song.”

“Scared”, is second in the trilogy of songs Muruch presents on its benefit album http://www.muruch.com/2015/07/scaredrainn.html  Of this track, released on Allison’s debut disc, “Six Songs”, the musician says:

“This song is about not being afraid to stand up for yourself and what you believe in, to speak out even in the most adverse of circumstances.”

“Phoenix” is the third song Muruch includes from Allison’s on the benefit album - a song recording from “Sylvan Hour” - Allison Crowe’s album released this Spring - http://www.muruch.com/2015/07/phoenixrainn.html

Enjoy the music – in audio and video – and, please, support the Muruch.com for RAINN project and cause :) Thank you!

Sweet Dreams

Music is, of course, steeped in lore.

Allan Showalter, entertaining and illuminating chronicler of life, love, lust and all @ “Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered” has noted that the “Suzanne” of song, who “feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China” – is the muse Suzanne Verdal, pouring into 1960s life along Montreal’s St. Lawrence, filling Cohen’s cups with Bigelow’s “Constant Comment” blend.

This Sunday, Berkeley Place blog serves up a fresh pot of its “Greatest of All Tunes” feature – starting with Allison Crowe’s elemental reading of “Sweet Dreams” – originally a new wave smash for Eurythmics (the duo of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart) in 1983.

Crowe’s acoustic performance was distilled during creative discussions with Hollywood movie producer Zack Snyder (amidst the production of his 2011 film “Sucker Punch”).

Bigelow’s own “Sweet Dreams” is a blend of chamomile and mint it promises “will calm your nerves and sooth your soul.”

Inviting you now to enjoy Allison’s take, along with sonic servings from AlbertOne, Thought Coalition and Tujamo, Berkeley Place says:

“Brew am I to disagree.” 

Muruch Seeks Music & Poetry for RAINN Benefit Album

Believing in one’s dreams and making them real – to help make the world a better place - is what Muruch, the culture blog, is doing now – “assembling an album of music and spoken word poetry solely to benefit RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network organization and helpline originally created by Tori Amos.

Muruch Presents: A Benefit Album for RAINN will feature music by Allison Crowe and Pamela Means, poetry by Muruch’s Editor Victoria and WV Poet/TED Talker Crystal Good with other contributions by artists and writers to be announced…”

Get  involved with this soulful project via Muruch’s website @ http://www.muruch.com/2015/05/rainn.html and on Muruch’s RAINN Fundraising Page @ https://fundraise.rainn.org/fundraise?fcid=454243

Tonight Will Be Fine on Cohencentric

Cohencentric blogs “DrHGuy” and “1 Heck of a Guy” recently saw curtains drop on their years of entertaining and illuminating the world via their creator’s singular “pastiche of posts with song, dance, snappy chatter, and notes on prose, poesy, love, lust, life, & Leonard Cohen”.

Happily, the stage-lights are shining again on the fruits of love’s labour from Allan Showalter, “arguably the greatest living Cohen expert” – and we see these two websites have re-emerged in a union that promises to delight like 'tea and oranges that come all the way from China'.

Suited now as “Cohencentric: Leonard Cohen Considered” the blog is curating its more than 14,000 pieces previously posted, and adding new items. Here, Allison Crowe’s cover of “Tonight Will Be Fine” is re-framed:

Bird on a Wire

"Allison Crowe's cover of Leonard Cohen's classic 'Bird On The Wire' is mournful and, true to the lyrics of the song, conscientiously abjures cheap conventional sentiment or ginning up the type of pseudo-consolation that relies on false promises of living happily ever after, e.g., that irreparable conflicts will somehow be resolved, emotional damages repaired, or the pain of personal loss alleviated. Yet, Crowe's voice and phrasing convey such empathy and intimacy that solace and succor are nonetheless granted through grace.

It's a great cover of a great song."


Bird on a Wire from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

Those words could only have been penned by Allan Showalter.

Liel Leibovitz, author of “A Broken Hallelujah - Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen” has tagged him “arguably the greatest living Cohen expert” and, for years, Showalter (aka DrHGuy) has proven to be the most erudite and entertaining writer to turn their mind to illuminating the world of the iconic poet, songwriter and author - and to share such treasures freely online.

This weekend, the Spook Lights have gone out o'er the good doctor’s beloved blogs – '1heckofaguy.com' and 'drhguy.com'.

Allison Crowe, (and her barnacled manager), be humbled and honoured to have received the attentions and appreciation of Allan Showalter. Allison’s music featured numerous times on those blogs that have been deep sources of delight for Cohen-philes, and fans of Anjani Thomas, Sharon Robinson, Perla Batalla, Adam Cohen, The Webb Sisters and so many more artists+.

We hope the world may again some day be brightened by the mysterious DrHGuy’s singular “pastiche of posts with song, dance, snappy chatter, and notes on prose, poesy, love, lust, life, & Leonard Cohen”.

For now, we’ve pulled out the cornbroom to dust-up this commemorative edition video of “Bird on a Wire” in loving salute to ‘1 Heck of a Guy’ – Allan Showalter.

Human Voices: Muruch's "Words" Video Premiere

Today, one of the world's original and most passionate music blogs, Muruch, drawing from a deeply personal well, premieres its video for "Words", a song recording from Allison Crowe, with images from photographer George Hodan.

Muruch + Music = Win, Win

There’s 10 days still to shake the world, and enter Muruch’s marvelous musical contest for your chance to win a copy of Allison Crowe’s “Newfoundland Vinyl” LP + d/l code – the collection of songs about which the veteran, West Virginia-based, music blogger says: "It has the timeless beauty of a classic folk album." (read the full review @ http://www.muruch.com/2013/07/allison-crowe-newfoundland-vinyl.html 

It’s fun, it’s simple, and you only live once! (unless you’re James Bond… or a cat)


For the scoop, visit Muruch’s reminder post - http://www.muruch.com/2013/07/giveaway-reminder-win-allison-crowes-new-album.html - and/or the original invitation to claim your prize music - http://www.muruch.com/2013/07/giveaway-win-1-of-5-allison-crowe-vinyl-lps-digital-downloads.html

Good luck/bon chance!!

Muruch blog shares music joy many ways

Muruch's marvellous Summer flag unfurls some more with a contest/give-away of Allison Crowe's new album. Of "Newfoundland Vinyl", the West Virginia-based blog says: "It plays like a lovely, vintage collection of traditional Irish and Canadian folk ballads, lively sea chanteys and drinking songs, parlour songs and country tunes with surprising retro, girl-pop harmonies woven throughout. The album is full of dazzling melody and such a unique charm." (Enjoy the full review @ http://www.muruch.com/2013/07/allison-crowe-newfoundland-vinyl.html )

The site shares four song tracks - "Black Velvet Band", "Tiny Red Light", "Seven Old Ladies", and "Sweet Forget Me Not" - and offers you a chance to receive one of these special LP/download albums @ http://www.muruch.com/2013/07/giveaway-win-1-of-5-allison-crowe-vinyl-lps-digital-downloads.html

To hear Allison's "strong and spectacular" voice deliver these songs of Newfoundland and Labrador - and to possibly win the music collection - simply visit Muruch and post your comment :)

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

Rock Liebster - 1 Heck of an Award

Capping a week of fresh delights, I woke this a.m., St. Patrick’s Day, to find Allison Crowe’s blog, for which I serve as caretaker, is a recipient of the prestigious Liebster Award.


I learned this by visiting “1 Heck of a Guy” – everybody’s favourite Leonard Cohen-centric blog written by a psychiatrist and “featuring song, dance, snappy chatter plus notes on prose, poesy, love, lust, life, and beyond."

There, the erudite blogmeister Dr. Heck, aka Allan Showalter, reveals the exceptional roster of blogs upon which the Liebster's bestowed. He explains the nature of things, especially fitting on this day for pledging fealty to friendliness - with or without a Guinness in hand.

Even the name of the award brings forth cheer, musically echoing, as it does, this German-language performance by the Fab Four - Sie Liebt Dich:



together with this also fabulous recording by T. Rex – Jeepster:



(One of today’s bands, The Black Keys, say, seems a natural to update Marc Bolan’s lyrics for the digital age: “Girl, I’m just a Liebster for your blog”.)

In handing out a Liebster to Allison Crowe's blog, the always entertaining, (and, to some, mysterious), Dr. Heck, says:

“Allison Crowe’s official site not only offers information, videos, and music about the next Canadian singer-songwriter but not infrequently issues a shout-out to other artists that have left an impression on Ms Crowe, including Leonard Cohen. In any case, Adrian du Plessis, who serves both as Allison’s personable manager and webmaster of the site writes prose that is entertaining, informed, and, on occasion, not unlike pirate lingo.”

Allison and I have savoured drinking in the history and import of this charming recognition. Thank you, danke, merci, grazie, and more, Dr. Showalter!!

In the spirit in which it’s delivered, and, further, to fulfill the duties and obligations of accepting a Liebster Blog Award, over the coming days, we shall choose other blogs to so honour in kind.

Stay tuned...

Sweet Cuppem Cakes@ 7thumbsup's blog

As well as making lemonade, Allison Crowe takes her zest for life - and makes cakes. Today, they are "Sweet Cuppem Cakes". There's recipes, photos, even a winking dog - just follow the Link :)

Cover Me Covers Crowe

Cover Me, the covers blog penned New York-based music writer, Ray Padgett, (SPIN, Consequence of Sound, Mashable and others) features In the Spotlight: Allison Crowe

"There are some voices that speak (or sing) for themselves. You know the ones. Voices where it doesn’t matter what they sing. Voices where it doesn’t really matter what instruments support them. Solomon Burke has such a voice. Jeff Buckley had it. Allison Crowe has it too."

So begins a posting which well showcases a cross-section of Allison's cover work - Rolling Stones, Cyndi Lauper, Pearl Jam, The Beatles and, says Padgett, "the best version of Leonard Cohen’s oft-covered 'Hallelujah' ".



Check out Cover Me for this Allison installment, and, for lots more on the art and fun of interpretation.