Life's Secrets

Allison Crowe’s oeuvre comprises more than 200 songs – found online in the “ABC List” @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/ABC.html

"Anything I do sing, it's part of my life," said Billie Holiday, whose supreme voice is captured on recordings from last century. The same is true for Allison Crowe, a great voice alive today.

“Secrets (That Aren’t My Own)” – on Allison and Band’s debut double-album, “Introducing / Heirs+ Grievances” – features Allison’s vocals and piano-playing, accompanied by cellist LIN:

Introducing / Heirs + Grievances Release!

"Introducing / Heirs + Grievances" is released!: http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/heirs-grievances

When critics liken you to Edith Piaf, Elton John, Aretha Franklin and Modest Mussorgsky, it’s a good sign you’re truly one-of-a-kind. So it is with musical explorer Allison Crowe who, since creating her own record label in 2001, uniquely inhabits the world of song – continually adding breadth and depth to a richly expressive repertoire for piano, vocals, guitar and bodhran.

Crowe’s “supernaturally agile and exquisite voice” is complemented ideally by her international touring band: Céline Greb (cello, vocal harmonies); Sarah White (mandolin, vocal harmonies); and Dave Baird (bass). Longtime friend, musician and photographer Billie Woods contributes guitar and vocal harmonies to the band’s recordings. The combo’s gorgeously thrilling hybrid of Canadiana, Celtic, jazz, roots, folk, soul and original rock bridges vital originals with fresh interpretations of classics by Annie Lennox and Gary O'Driscoll.

Alongside multi-genre concert and recording projects over this past year the Nanaimo-born, Newfoundland-based artist’s active as music curator and arranger for acclaimed stage productions of: Atlantic Canada’s folk and popular song; the collaborative works of Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill; and choral renderings of traditional Christmas carols.

A singular artistry and virtuosity make Allison Crowe performances legendary - and fun. In the Scottish Highlands she brought down the house on a bill with Carol Ann Duffy, Britain’s Poet Laureate, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Master of the Queen's Music. In Hollywood Superman movie director Zack Snyder is outspoken in his respect and admiration. Touring with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet audiences responded with spontaneous standing ovations.

"The most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life,” says longtime American public broadcaster Ross Hocker. “Allison has a special gift that is so very rare in musicians today. She is true to her mind, heart and spirit. She also has a most wonderful humor which envelops her audience."

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

"Heirs + Grievances" is the debut studio album of Allison Crowe and Band (and the 20th release on Crowe's label, Rubenesque Records Ltd.) The digital album contains 13 exciting tunes and honestly potent performances. It’s a magnificent set of songs from Allison Crowe and her extraordinary band of musicians. The physical CD comes with a bonus, live, set – “Introducing”. Enjoy!!

The Ship Sails On

When Allison Crowe first appeared on national television in her home country of Canada (some 14 years ago), television host Vicki Gabereau, “Canada’s Queen of Chat” observed: “You don't sound like anybody else, honey. Nobody sounds like you."

This holds true today for the musician (vocals, piano, guitar, bodhran, fiddle) and her bandmates: Billie Woods (guitar, vocals); Celine Greb (cello, vocals); Sarah White (multi-instrumentalist); & Dave Baird (bass, vocals).

The group group’s hybrid of Canadiana, Celtic, jazz, roots, folk, soul and original rock delivers on Allison Crowe’s mission to make "Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music”.


The band is soon to share its sound world-wide via concerts and recordings. Here’s a sample of what’s cooking as we join Allison, Billie, Celine and Dave at home with “You All Haunt Me”.

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

Arthur - Allison Crowe Band - 30.06.2015 bootleg #3

"Arthur", third song in the bootleg video collection of Leslie Colly, brings together Arthurian notions with ruminations on aging and the bonds of love.

Allison Crowe (vocals, piano) is joined by bandmates Billie Woods (guitar), Celine Greb (cello) and Dave Baird (bass) – live from All Saints by-the-Sea, in the musical hot-house of Salt Spring Island, BC.

 

Circular Reasoning - Comes 'round Again

“Circular Reasoning” spins here with a 1933 and 1/3 Betty Boop classic from Fleischer Studios.

Musical time starts counting again with Allison Crowe’s “Sylvan Hour” wonderland: http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/circular-reasoning-sh


Circular Reasoning from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

“Sylvan Hour is truly a masterpiece” says pioneering culture blog Muruch. (http://www.muruch.com/2015/05/allisoncrowe-sylvanhour.html)

Discover this music from a remarkable artist at a personal and creative crossroads in her life. “Sylvan Hour” is an album of songs bridging west and east, piano and guitar, then and now…

For fans of Allison Crowe at her purest, this is voice, one accompanying instrument – one take. Real-time performances in the sequence they’re played and sung by Allison in a log-home on Salt Spring Island, BC, Canada.

That afternoon the musician was in the midst of migrating from her birthplace of Nanaimo, BC, on Canada’s Pacific, to a new nest in Corner Brook, NL, on the Atlantic coast. Soon to fly east, Crowe bade farewell to those near and dear on western shores – including compatriot Kayla Schmah on Salt Spring, neighbouring Vancouver Island.

Decades earlier Schmah’s parents had made an epic trek to the Pacific Northwest from Central Canada – in a repurposed donut truck. Planting themselves in the Gulf Islands archipelago, they lived at first in a converted parachute in the woods. From the ground up the home-steaders then built a family dwelling out of Douglas Fir – their “sylvan castle”.

Allison and Kayla, as musicians had shared stages together from their teens onward (and, years later, becoming a film-scorer in Hollywood, Schmah brilliantly orchestrated and produced Crowe’s album “Spiral”.) Among the friends together on SSI this day was Ryan Adams (who, like Schmah was a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music and was en route to becoming an in-demand tv/film audio engineer in Los Angeles).

With mics and a laptop set-up in the living-room, Adams captured this set of the newest songs in Allison’s repertoire – originals including “Skeletons and Spirits”, “Running”, and “Silence” as well as a trio of covers (interpreting songs famously by Joni Mitchell, The Lovin' Spoonful and Aretha Franklin).

Also gorgeous, but differently so, essentially group versions of most of these songs were released near the end of that same year (2006) on Allison Crowe’s album “This Little Bird” (the title track a celebration of her migration). “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” is the sole sylvan session recording released before – it’s presented now within the full hour of music for all time.

Enjoy this most natural of talents – in this most natural of settings.

Muruch Intros Subscription Service

Discerning culture blog Muruch, which has been illuminating the riches of music and other popular culture online for near 15 years now, very, very kindly introduces people today to Allison Crowe’s new Artist Subscription on Bandcamp http://www.muruch.com/2015/05/allisoncrowe-bandcamp.html - saying, "no other artist has such a flawless record of artistic authenticity as Allison Crowe".

(And, for folks watching the calendar, we’ve been so overwhelmed with such kindness this week the album release of Allison’s “Sylvan Hour” will be this coming Tuesday, May 5 - to enable some more fun things to come together…)

Allison Crowe's Artist Subscription Launch

Allison Crowe’s artist “subscription” launches!

It’s a new way forward for independent music-makers and music-lovers on Bandcamp – which has hosted Allison’s music for years.

An artist can now share their own creative flow individually and directly (as well as being part of such global music-streaming subscription services as Spotify, Tidal and all).

This subscription, for $40 USD per year, gives you all the new music Allison Crowe creates – delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. The music is available for continual streaming, and for permanent download (in your choice of digital audio formats).

By subscribing you also receive – as downloads and for streaming – all the music recordings from Rubenesque Records, Allison’s label: “Lisa’s Song + 6 Songs”; “secrets”; “Tidings”; “Live at Wood Hall”; “This Little Bird”; “Little Light”; “Spiral”; “Arthur/Up to the Mountain”; “Tidings Concert”; "Newfoundland Vinyl"; "Heavy Graces"; "Tarry Trousers"; "Souling"; "Newfoundland Vinyl II"; “Crowe: Covers, Live + Rare”; and "Songbook".

The universe as it unfolds also includes access to the Allison Crowe fan community, and a 15% discount on all physical merchandise eg. CDs, LPs (and things Allison’s yet to conceive or create).

The doors of perception are opening wider – Allison and Link, Rubenesque’s top dog, welcome you @ http://music.allisoncrowe.com/subscribe

Minus 15

“-15 degrees Celsius... Methinks I'll wait a bit to do any gardening, just in case” tweets @Allison_Crowe

 

Home Studio Hazards

The many dangers of the kitchen recording studio. (crockpot not included) - tweets @Allison_Crowe



(the cat in black is Johnny Cash)

Northern Lights

Rustically shimmering, "Northern Lights" opens up Allison Crowe's "Little Light" album. Real life transmutes into this song of love - inspired by the beauty in the skies above, and, especially, during those Summers spent in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.


Northern Lights from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

It’s a song Allison Crowe's carried with her from Canada to perform at the 'John Lennon Northern Lights Festival' in Durness, Scotland.

http://music.allisoncrowe.com/track/northern-lights

Accompanying the music, Yukon-based David Cartier, Sr. shares his wondrous photographs of the Aurora Borealis on flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcartiersr/sets/72157594420812359

Here's what David says about this source of inspiration:

" When men lack a sense of awe, There will be disaster "
- - - - Lao Tzu --- The Tao Teh Ching

“Awe is what THIS is all about!!

The Aurora is an experience of breathtaking beauty... the viewing makes you feel like you are connected integrally with an amazing cosmic force ..... Aurora watching is as addictive as any drug and a whole lot more satisfying. Once you become addicted, you stay out all night, lose sleep, forget about social commitments, nearly get wind burned and frostbit and it's all, deeply, worth it!!

Every human being who can manage it should make a pilgrimage to the subarctic auroral zone in order to see and feel this at least once in their life.

Many of these were taken with an amazing old Russian Kiev-19 35mm SLR. This camera , which I still use for night sky photos, NEVER freezes up or has any shutter problems in the cold, even at minus 60!! The more expensive Japanese and German cameras which I own always, or at least often, stop functioning in the deep cold.”

Alleyluja - Happy Birthday+!!! ~ November 16

“Hallelujah – you'll never guess what happens next!” ’s’how this might be tagged if it were ‘click-bait’. Instead, it is an affectionately playful bit of fun to share on November 16 in celebration of this 33rd birthday of Allison Crowe. Simply: “Alleyluja” :)

Born in Nanaimo, BC on Vancouver Island and home now, for years, in Corner Brook, on the island of Newfoundland, nests that span the great expanse of Canada, Allison Crowe is singular in so many ways.

Her gifts and talents as vocalist/instrumentalist, composer, lyricist, arranger, performer and more place her among the greats of popular music.

In concert, people come for her varied repertoire of originals – favourites such as “Disease”, “There Is”, “Skeletons and Spirits”, “Crayon and Ink”, “Whether I’m Wrong” and plenty other songs she’s created since the start of a career launched professionally more than half her lifetime ago.

Loved as well, Crowe is, for her peerless interpretations – be they sea shanties of Newfoundland, or vital covers of modern classics composed by Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, Phil Ochs, Ani, Tori, PJ or CCs…

Hear, in this bootleg from Firenze, Italy, from a concerto at Teatro del Sale, "Alleyluja".

          

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

          

For the Roses - Joni Mitchell Birthday Tribute

November 7 – today – we celebrate the birthday of Joni Mitchell, Renaissance woman of heart and mind.

 Joni’s “For the Roses” is performed by Allison Crowe in tribute.

16 Songs

“16 Songs” now showing in your home theatre – on any size screen. Allison Crowe’s century-spanning mashup of great music and movies is a global cultural festival that can be enjoyed in “Couch Mode” – which, its host site, Vimeo, explains is: “The chillest way to watch all your favorite Vimeo videos from the comfort of your couch, Lay-Z-Boy® or any other plush sitting apparatus.”

Steep the tea, brew the coffee, mull the wine, pour anything that you wish to enjoy this golden hour+ http://vimeo.com/couchmode/album/3076464/sort:preset/106154608

And, if your player doesn't show this player - you can find  "16 Songs” directly @ http://vimeo.com/album/3076464

       

Double-Edged Swords

All aboard for another journey in the luminous company of Louise Brooks (1906 – 1985). The iconic American actress and dancer stars here in a scene from "Prix de beauté” (“Beauty Prize” aka “Miss Europe”), a 1930 feature film directed by Augusto Genina and written by René Clair & Georg W. Pabst.

Double-Edged Swords from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

On track with Allison Crowe (vocals, piano, engineer) for this recording of “Double-Edged Swords” is: Billie Woods (guitar); Dave Baird (bass); Laurent Boucher (percussion); Larry Anschell (engineer); and Kayla Schmah (producer).

#13 of 16 Songs

Effortless

“Day Dreams”, a film short from the 1920s, the most prolific and transcendent decade in the creative output of actor-director+ Buster Keaton, is here revisited for the eleventh music video in Allison Crowe's "16 Songs".

Effortless from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

Unafraid in ideas and body, Keaton’s genius flowered in the freedom of his own film unit working outside the studio system. A century on, musician Crowe engages a parallel track in her own art, rewarding audiences with a peerless body of recordings and live performances produced free of industry forces.

“Effortless” is first released on “This Little Bird” album (Allison Crowe – vocals, piano, engineer, producer; Dave Baird – bass; Laurent Boucher – percussion).

#11 of 16 Songs

Running

Joseph Frank Keaton, Kansas-born into a family of vaudevillians, “Buster”, as he’d tell it, was given his nickname by legendary illusionist Harry Houdini (partner to Joe Sr. in a traveling show).

Over the course of his life Buster Keaton (1895 – 1966) created a world of cinematic magic from his own genius. Of the actor, comedian, stunt-artist, writer, film-maker and more – film critic Roger Ebert succinctly notes "in an extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies.”

Running from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

After immersion in Buster Keaton’s silent features and shorts, Ebert observed “his movies, seen as a group, are like a sustained act of optimism in the face of adversity”.

Here’s an excerpt from a 1922 short, “Day Dreams”, (directed by Keaton and regular collaborator Eddie Cline, produced by Joseph Schenck), on track with Allison Crowe’s song “Running” - like so many of her recordings, performed live (captured by engineer/producer Larry Anschell).

#7 of 16 Songs

         

Song of the Summer: "Circular Reasoning" + "Prix de beauté"

Song of the Summer - dive in!

In advance of the upcoming full Allison Crowe video show – here’s “sneak peek” fun in the form of her song “Circular Reasoning” with visuals from a 1930s French silent film that also became a talkie.

"Prix de beauté” (“Beauty Prize” aka “Miss Europe”) is directed by Augusto Genina, written by René Clair & Georg W. Pabst and stars a radiant Louise Brooks.

Enjoy :)

Allison Crowe has a 16-song-video-series that launches September 2, 2014. Pairing a spectrum of recordings from the Canadian musician with visuals from great artists and innovators of the 20th and 21st centuries - film-makers, animators, painters, photographers and more… - it’s a multi-media expression of Crowe’s mission to make "Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music." ( http://allisoncrowe.com/bio.html )

And, this collection confirms the diagnosis of Dr. H Guy aka Allan Showalter, the world’s inimitable blogger “On Life, Love, Lust, & Leonard Cohen” – who notes: “Once you’ve heard one Allison Crowe song, You’ve heard one Allison Crowe song." ( http://1heckofaguy.com/2009/01/27/wedding-song-allison-crowes-small-masterwork )

Much more on this all, naturally, to come – once we’ve celebrated Summer in this part of the world. Right now, it’s time for bathing suits, ice-cream, fresh berries, bicycle bells… any and all other of life’s simple joys and pleasures.

Sláinte!

Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms - Allison Crowe Live - Jazzhaus Freiburg

Allison Crowe delivers one of her encore tunes acapella - on Mother's Day at Jazzhaus Freiburg, in Germany. (This being the latest, and, perhaps, last, in our live bootleg video series. At least until the next tour...)

This traditional aire takes its lyrics from the writings of Thomas Moore. An international hit at the beginning of the previous century for the great Irish tenor John McCormack (who recorded it in 1911 and, again, in 1935), and Australia's legendary coloratura soprano, Dame Nellie Melba (in 1909).

Allison Crowe's Celtic roots show when she performs "Believe Me If All (Those Endearing Young Charms)".

Recordings of this tune are found on Allison's "Live at Wood Hall" (http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/live-at-wood-hall) and "Tidings Concert" (http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/tidings-concert) albums.And, it's an "hidden" track closing her "Secrets" album (http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/secrets).

"Irish Music Daily" provides delightful background to this beautiful song @ http://www.irishmusicdaily.com/believe-me-if-all-those-endearing-young-charms

Believe Me If All

Traditional Irish Aire w. words by Thomas Moore
As performed by Allison Crowe

Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow,
and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy-gifts fading away,

Thou wouldst still be adored,
as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart,
Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,
And thy cheek unprofaned by a tear,
That the fervour and faith of a soul can be known,
To which time has but made thee more dear:

No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,
But as truly loves on to the close,
As the sun-flower turns to her god, when he sets,
The same look which she gave when he rose.