Tarry Trousers - Allison Crowe and Band - Heirs + Grievances

Sailing into this happy Mother’s Day weekend – here’s a traditional tune, “Tarry Trousers”, gorgeously raised aloft by Allison Crowe and Band on the group’s debut album “Heirs + Grievances”.

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/heirs-grievances

Newfoundland Vinyl 3

Raising a 'netful of music from Allison Crowe, here's "The Irish Rover", a traditional song popularized by Ryan's Fancy and others much-loved in Newfoundland and Labrador and well beyond.

This week brings the release of “Newfoundland Vinyl 3” - newest in the acclaimed series of albums refreshing folk, traditional, and popular music of Canada’s Atlantic coast. Waltzes, parlour songs, rousing tunes of land and sea emerge from Allison Crowe’s role as Musical Director with Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador’s hit show, “Newfoundland Vinyl”, at the annual Gros Morne Theatre Festival.

Newfoundland Vinyl 3 - album front and back covers

Saltwater Joys

Putting a bow on things, here’s Allison Crowe’s version of “Saltwater Joys” – as culture blog Muruch tags it, the “beautiful finale” to “Newfoundland Vinyl II”.

This essential song’s penned by Wayne Chaulk, who plays bass and guitar in Newfoundland and Labrador’s flat out popular, prolific, music and comedy trio, “Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers” – alongside Kevin “Buddy” Blackmore, on mandolin, fiddle and guitar, & Ray Johnson, accordion and fiddle.

Allison Crowe’s a born islander – and, with heart and talent as great as Canada itself, she’s truly one with those saltwater joys from her birthplace of Nanaimo, BC to her adopted hometown of Corner Brook, NL.

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/newfoundland-vinyl-ii

As the album title suggests, it's a song collection inspired by, and arising from, Allison Crowe's involvement with the hit stage show, "Newfoundland Vinyl" - presented at Canada's Gros Morne Theatre Festival, and produced by TNL.

The album celebrates this creative bond between Crowe, an internationally-loved touring and recording artist, and Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, a professional theatre company founded on Newfoundland's west coast in 1979.

For these past three Summers TNL's engaged Crowe as Musical Director of "Newfoundland Vinyl" - a perennial favourite at the annual GMTF.

TNL AD Jeff Pitcher's conception of a revival of vinyl era, and more, songs of Newfoundland and Labrador put wind in the sails of Allison Crowe's curatorial mission.

"It's here!" says pioneering music blog Muruch, "Allison Crowe just released Newfoundland Vinyl II and it's the perfect follow-up to her traditional folk masterpiece, Newfoundland Vinyl".

Of her immersions as Musical Director with TNL, and the melodic bounty that's landed, Allison Crowe notes: "There is so much wonderful music - you could piece together multiple anthologies and still only scratch the surface of such an extensive and rich collection. Each of these songs is its own story, of land and sea, of people, and each story in-and-of-itself could be an entire show. I'm truly grateful that you are here to hear the story these songs have to offer." She gives special thanks to "the incredibly talented and versatile" casts and crews of TNL's productions for their inspiration.

Happy Birthday, Allison Crowe!!!

Musician Allison Crowe, a true cultural great, turns 33 this November 16 - which is now in Newfoundland, Canada.

 

Here's the artist, clearly good with a line from earliest days...

 

Happy Birthday, Allison!!!

 

 

 

 

Crowe Family photo album

          

“Newfoundland Vinyl” LP Readies to Set Sail

Artwork and the track listing for “Newfoundland Vinyl”, Allison Crowe’s 11th release on Rubenesque Records Ltd., is ready. The album’s music sets sail worldwide next month.

As Musical Director for Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador’s production of “Newfoundland Vinyl: The Flip Side” at the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, Crowe’s active now curating and arranging songs for this Summer’s cast.

It’s a rich and varied collection harvested from the island region’s popular music and oral traditions – and from which she’s culled a selection for her vinyl LP. The album’s 10 tracks traverse parlour songs to country tunes and folk favourites, songs of land and sea that share the strength and the struggles, the heartbreaks and the humour, of a people.

Recognized as one of the great modern interpreters of song, Allison Crowe’s singular performances deliver familiar and much-loved songs afresh and with renewed joy.

Coming next month, then, is Allison Crowe’s take on these songs that, over 200 years, come from, and out of, Newfoundland and Labrador – with ageless melodies and meaning:

Black Velvet Band – lively traditional song recorded on both sides of the Atlantic, including a version by the legendary Harry Hibbs

Easy – penned by Terry Skinner and made a classic radio hit by country star Eddie Eastman

Men Who Die for a Living – Gary O’Driscoll, award-winning songwriter and producer from St. Lawrence and the South coast, wrote this potent elegy “for the miners here and gone”

Cliffs of Baccalieu – Jack Withers' sea-faring song has previously been sailed by such distinct voices as Anita Best and Stan Rogers

Skipper Billy’s Wake – songwriter Ellis Coles’ jaunty mix of moonshine, Screech and more was well popularized by Dick Nolan

Sonny’s Dream – Newfoundland’s “Man of 1000 Songs”, Ron Hynes, created this anthem of the heart and home

Tiny Red Light – a traditional Newfoundland song revitalized in the vinyl era by The Dorymen (popular east-coast combo founded by John Drake and Tom Rose - a pair of lads out of Fortune Bay communities Belleoram and Bay du Nord)

The Mobile Goat Song – composed by St. John’s Tom Cahill, frequent collaborator with “Newfoundland’s First Lady of Song”, Joan Morrissey, who released this fun romp on her 1973 LP “Home Brew”

Seven Old Ladies – a bawdy song which musically plumbs a 1700s nursery rhyme, ("Johnny's So Long at the Fair") – and a tune also recorded by the great Joan Morrissey

Sweet Forget Me Not - first published in 1877, this tender tune by Bobby Newcomb was the first single, and a vinyl hit on the mainland as well, for Cape Shore’s Eddie Coffey

Allison Crowe’s “Newfoundland Vinyl” album launches June 25, 2013.