Vincent Van Gogh "loved life so bad, his paintings had twice the color other paintings had". So sings Jonathan Richman (on Rockin' and Romance).
And that tells you something about musician Allison Crowe.
A modern lover of music, blogger Muruch frames it like this: "There's really no way to convey through mere words how much the music... moves me, or how I want other people to listen to and adore it as much as I do. Allison sings with such an intensity of emotion, it's easy to see why she's often quoted as saying 'Why music? Why breathing?'... that kind of artistic passion seems extremely rare these days."
"I love singing for people," says Allison Crowe. "It's a way to connect and share with others. Communication is crucial. Just being able to do what I do, to write and sing and perform, makes me feel not only alive, but incredibly lucky. Knowing at any moment everything could change, I don't take one second for granted."
Born 26 years ago, on an island, in the harbour city of Nanaimo, B.C., today Crowe's reach is global. The audience for her music videos and song downloads numbers in the millions.
"Allison Crowe has a voice to fall in love with," says UK music industry journal Record of the Day. "She is from Vancouver Island in Canada, descended from Scottish, Irish and Manx stock. She's exactly the sort of artist who can make serious headway on her own label and that's just what she's doing."
When this phenomenon 'from the islands' reached the mainland she steered a path clear of what Joni Mitchell knowingly calls the record industry's "style inventions". With Ani DiFranco and Loreena McKennitt as models Crowe created her own label. Since 2003, Rubenesque Records Ltd has released five critically and commercially successful albums: Lisa's Song+ 6 Songs; Secrets; Tidings; Live at Wood Hall; and This Little Bird.
"The first thing you notice about Allison Crowe is her voice. Rich and dark, it seems to come from a place most singers can only dream of accessing. Then there are the songs. Filled with raw passion and accompanied by Crowe's eloquent piano playing," writes Clodagh O'Connell (The Courier). Hers is a joyous sound: "Elton John meets Edith Piaf."
A sensation at the UK's John Lennon Northern Lights Festival, "Canadian angel Alison Crowe gave one of the weekend's most magical moments," says The Scotsman. Festival Director Mike Merritt describes Crowe as "awesome" and "spine-tingling", noting her performance "put hairs on the back of your neck! She brought the house down."
A true grassroots success, Crowe's praised not only as a singularly talented songwriter - on themes personal as well as worldly - and as a visceral performer, but, also, as a supreme interpreter of song. Her vital takes on such 21st century standards as Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Joni Mitchell's "River" are applauded as "truly transcendent". Her Tidings CD, a mix of traditional carols plus songs of joy, peace, and redemption from the secular songbook, is an emerging classic: "music for the season and all time".
"Her voice celebrates the music with a bluesy rock-gospel intensity; her controlled vibrato, silken rasp, and powerful projection rivet your attention. This is no casual background music. be prepared to be amazed," says Hamline University Professor Of Law - and CD reviewer - Carol Swanson. "Every song radiates sincerity, creative flair, and emotional intensity."
"It takes a lot of self-confidence to tackle Aretha (Franklin)'s version of 'I Never Loved a Man...' but Allison does and nails it just as good as the Queen of Soul herself. Her piano playing is equally exquisite," says Bob Muller, curator of song covers at JoniMitchell.com in his review of Crowe's newest album, This Little Bird. He sums up: "Treat yourself to one of the mightiest talents on the singer-songwriter scene today."
David Powell, Welsh-based tech writes: "I'm listening to 'Effortless' on (Allison Crowe's) This Little Bird album with my Pro-Ject headphone amplifier turned up about a quarter more than on most modern records. It sounds fantastic because unlike most modern records it hasn't had the **** compressed out of it to raise the loudness."
Vocalist, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, engineer, producer and arranger, Allison Crowe now lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia and Corner Brook, Newfoundland. From these home-bases, (spanning the full 7000 km breadth of Canada), she tours steadily, earning a reputation for exciting live shows that stir together her original songs with much-loved interpretations in an organic blend of rock, jazz, folk, Broadway, gospel and soul.
"Ever wonder what it would have been like to listen to a gifted singer/songwriter from Saskatchewan in a small, intimate hall before she became Joni Mitchell? Don't fret the missed opportunity. There's no need to turn back the clock. Check out Allison Crowe," says Robert Reid in The Record.
"Allison has a special gift that is so very rare in musicians today. She is true to her mind, heart and spirit," says Ross Hocker, long-time public broadcaster with NPR affiliate WGTE. Hocker, whose musical taste embraces Thelonious Monk, Bela Bartok and Charles Gounod, calls Allison Crowe's live performance "the most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life."
"In an entertainment world that increasingly genuflects at the altar of instant fame, Crowe seems an anomaly, building her career slowly and carefully," notes Adrian Chamberlain, of Canada's Times Colonist newspaper.
"Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music is what I want to make," says Allison Crowe.
You can lend an ear...
October 29
This Saturday, November 1, All Saint's Day, bicoastal Canadian
singer-songwriter Allison Crowe figures in a pair of major Leonard Cohen tributes - both originating in the UK.
MOJO magazine's feature issue (December cover date) on Cohen hits the stands in Europe (and will soon reach North America+), along with the special tribute CD "Cohen Covered" which contains Crowe's recording of "Joan of Arc" - a lesser-known exemplar of Leonard Cohen's poetic genius (from his 1971 album "Songs of Love and Hate").
MOJO's tribute to "The Incredible Resurrection of Rock's Greatest Poet" contains a career retrospective, by rock historian and journalist Sylvie Simmons, alongside a separate piece by Phil Alexander, and more, with plenty of photographs plus input from Leonard Cohen himself. The tribute CD, containing tracks from Allison Crowe, Judy Collins, Dion, Linda
Thompson, Katie Melua, Nick Cave, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, and other bright talents spanning the decades, accompanies this MOJO issue.
Also, on Saturday, November 1, from 19:00 - 20:00 London time, BBC Radio 2 broadcasts a special documentary, "The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall", celebrating "Hallelujah", Leonard Cohen much-loved modern masterpiece in popular song.
BBC reports: "Guy Garvey, front man of Mercury Award winners Elbow, examines the Leonard Cohen classic Hallelujah by talking to the artists who have covered it. Marking 25 years since Hallelujah was first recorded, Guy explains why the track has been analysed by both academics and theologists and looks at how the song has graced anything from teen dramas to Hollywood blockbusters."
Allison Crowe was interviewed for this BBC documentary, and recorded performing "Hallelujah" in Liverpool on a recent concert visit to Northern England for Beatles Week 2008 festivities. Currently, Crowe is back in North America and readying for her annual 'Tidings' holiday concert series. Between now and Christmas Day, the young artist, acclaimed as an excitingly original songwriter and performer, as well as a supreme interpreter, will perform concerts reaching from her home in Corner Brook, Newfoundland to her home in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.
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October 7
Canada's bicoastal musical marvel Allison Crowe is among those
invited by MOJO magazine to celebrate Leonard Cohen, master of song, on a soon-to-be-released tribute CD. Crowe contributes her cover of "Joan of Arc" - a favourite first heard on the 1971 Cohen album "Songs of Love and Hate".
It's been a wonderful year for appreciation of poet and songwriter+ Leonard Cohen - highlighted by all the live performances, and, the love that's flowed famously at the Glastonbury Festival and more concerts across North America and Europe.
MOJO magazine, one of the world's great music publications, has put together a delightful tribute - one well-designed and timed to raise the banner high over a year that's been very special for lovers of Cohen, just turned 74. As they explain it: "The November 1 issue of MOJO (cover dated December) is celebrating deep and moving music, the kind of stuff we need in the run up to the holiday period. The accompanying MOJO cover mounted CD will be made up of 15 tired and emotional masterpieces from the pen of veteran songwriter Leonard Cohen."
Here be the final running order of the tracks on the upcoming tribute album:
1 Suzanne 3:42 - Ian McCulloch
2 In My Secret Life 4:23 - Katie Melua
3 Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye 3:02 - Claudine Longet
4 Sisters Of Mercy 3:34 - Dion
5 Story Of Isaac 4:09 - Linda Thompson
6 Priests 4:01 - Eyeless In Gaza
7 Joan of Arc 4:55 - Allison Crowe
8 Hallelujah 5:46 - Susanna And The Magical Orchestra
9 Avalanche 5:13 - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
10 Chelsea Hotel No.2 4:19 - Josh Ritter
11 Take This Longing 6:16 - Phil Campbell
12 Tower Of Song 3:46 - Martha Wainwright
13 Song For Bernadette 4:21 - Judy Collins
14 Famous Blue Raincoat 5:08 - The Handsome Family
15 Tonight Will Be Fine 2:45 - Mr David Viner
Alongside the MOJO cover-mount CD, there's expected to be plenty of love for Leonard Cohen reigning o'er the magazine's print and online editions, in Q magazine, and on MOJO Radio next month.
Allison Crowe is currently at the mid-point in her third European tour of 2008. It's a visit that's seen her perform to passionate audiences in Frankfurt, Paris, Siegen, Vienna, and now Prague, Czech Republic - after which she flies to the Highlands of Scotland for a concert in Durness, a fundraiser for the John Lennon Memorial Garden. Following this weekend in the Highlands, she performs in Edinburgh, before returning to North
America where she'll ready her annual Tidings holiday concert series in support of a host of charities from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts.
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September 24
Last month, Canadian musician Allison Crowe brought the house down at Liverpool's historic Royal Court Theatre - her final performance during Beatles Week 2008 - the largest ever Beatles celebration, and one of Europe's greatest festivals.
Now, the organizers of last year's John Lennon Northern Lights Festival, voted the UK's Best New Festival, have invited the exciting performer to Scotland to headline a special concert in aid of the John Lennon Memorial Garden.
Allison Crowe's third European tour of 2008 launches tomorrow in
Frankfurt, Germany (more details on this tour will be announced
tomorrow). Here are details from Scottish organizers on the "Northern Lights Benefit Show" happening October 11, 2008:
NORTHERN LIGHTS BENEFIT SHOW TO AID JOHN LENNON MEMORIAL GARDENS BLOOMS IN SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
"Love is the flower... you gotta let it grow" ~ John Lennon
The most north westerly village in Britain is to celebrate its links with John Lennon again. (
http://www.northhighlandsscotland.com/info/pressallison.asp )
Top Canadian singer Allison Crowe is to headline a concert in Durness, Sutherland, on October 11 - two days after what would have been the ex-Beatle's 68th birthday.
Allison was one of the stars of last year's John Lennon Northern Lights Festival held in Durness - and promoted by Prince Charles' North Highland Tourism - which went on to win the Best New Festival at the UK Festival Awards 2007.
Next month's Northern Lights Benefit Show will be in aid of the John Lennon Memorial Garden in Durness - the only permanent memorial to Lennon in Scotland.
Lennon holidayed every summer between the ages of 9 and 15 in Durness - on his cousins' croft.
He also returned with Yoko Ono - and their respective children Julian and Kyoko - in 1969 before suffering a car accident which hospitalised them at Golspie.
Durness, in particular, played a huge part in young Lennon's life - the song In My Life is said to be partly inspired by the village - and the singer even tried to buy the area's estate shortly before his death in 1980. Earlier this year Yoko Ono also praised villagers for their respect to Lennon's memory. (
http://www.allisoncrowe.com/AllisonCroweTidingsInMyLife.mp3 )
For next month's concert Allison will break off from her European tour and fly from Prague where she will be performing two days earlier.
"John Lennon was an amazing, artistic, peaceful, spirit. He made a huge impact on society. Durness made a huge impact on him and on me too and I am glad to return," said Allison, 26.
"I remember being terrified of the roads, but the beauty of the place managed to take over! The oft summer stomping ground for John Lennon is one of the most gorgeous places I have seen in all my travels.
"The black rocks and the turquoise waters... The wonderful people that live there in the Highlands... And the people I got to meet during the John Lennon Northern Lights fest from all over the world.
"There were performers everywhere and there was such a sense of
community throughout the fest. I thought the entire time this is
definitely a place I could live without much difficulty! The music and the laughter and the amazing new friends. truly, it's an experience that can't be matched. This year I plan on doing my best to create something new while I am in Durness, in homage to the Northern Lights Festival and to carry on in that spirit!!!
"I am honoured to be able to help raise monies to upkeep the John Lennon Memorial Garden. It's an important part of the community, to be kept alive and growing along with the memory of John Lennon and the times he had in Durness. I hope we're able to recreate a bit of that magic."
There are hopes that the Northern Lights Festival will be staged next year.
"I'm excited we're able in a way to carry the torch for the fest that's not happening this year, because it's such an amazing experience that I hope it keeps happening for years to come, really," said Allison.
"I think the fact that people come together to celebrate the life of someone who was so devoted to peace and love, is, in a sense, achieving exactly what John set out to do. Keeping his spirit alive through the garden and through the festival is that sense of his presence and purpose living on in all of us. We all shine on."
Mary Mackay, chair of Durness Community Council, said she was delighted that Lennon's links with Durness are again to be celebrated.
"I could not think of anybody more fitting to celebrate John's links with Durness than Allison. She was a knockout last year and put hairs on the back of everybody that heard her," she said.
"We are hoping it will be a great day - and it keeps John's flame alive in a place that he loved very much."
Allison has recently toured across Canada and in the northeastern United States as headliner. Two one-hour television specials have been broadcast across Canada, and her version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is one of the most popular versions of the classic.
"Whether I'm Wrong", an original song of social conscience penned in early 2003, has been featured by the UNESCO-endorsed New Songs for Peace initiative. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a6hmQbRcIM )
Allison will be supported by fellow Canadian vocalist and classical guitarist Billie Woods. Billie's songs are inspired by life in Canada's Pacific northwestern coastal forest, and infused with the warmth and vitality of the sambas, bossa novas and other cultural rhythms of Brazil. Other events are also in the pipeline including a photographic exhibition of the area by Shona McMillan.
Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for under 16s and are available from Loch Croispol Bookshop 01971511777 (where a small fee for credit card bookings will apply) and Mrs Mary Mackay 01971511255.
http://www.allisoncrowe.com/DurnessNorthernLightsBenefitShowAllisonCroweposter
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May 24
Our world's deepening love affair with Allison Crowe took a Gallic turn as the Canadian singer-songwriter embraced the Fazioli piano and her audience inside Paris' L'Archipel theatre. From 'La Ville-lumière', Crowe tours to Prague, Frankfurt, and Vienna - celebrating the release of her sixth album, "Little Light".
"Quelle voix magnifique,tout l'album est merveilleux, c'est un enchantement," says a reviewer on Jamendo, the pioneering Creative Commons music platform. Adds another, "Quelle douceur une voix venu d'un autre monde..."
"I would chew my arm off to sing like Allison," says West Virginia, Mountain Stage-loving music blogger Muruch. "Though I guess that would make it difficult to shred a piano like she does, which seems to be half the fun" - referencing, respectively, "Hold Back" ~ www.allisoncrowe.com/07HoldBackAllisonCrowe128.mp3 - and "the fervent, mesmeric, piano-hammering extended version of 'Disease' " - www.allisoncrowe.com/03DiseaseAllisonCrowe128.mp3 ~ both songs on Crowe's newest CD.
"She is reminiscent of some of the great women vocalists who shaped rock music in the late '60s and early '70s. Allison's emotional delivery is unique in today's music," is how music industry veteran, and manager to Bif Naked, Peter Karroll's earlier framed it.
A majestic voice and talent such as graced the stages of rock's golden era, with advancing recorded and live performances Allison Crowe's singularity is increasingly manifest. As a singer, songwriter, interpreter and entertainer she combines elements of artistry in ways distinct in generations of popular music.
"Ever wonder what it would have been like to listen to a gifted singer/songwriter from Saskatchewan in a small, intimate hall before she became Joni Mitchell? Don't fret. There's no need to turn back the clock. Check out Allison Crowe," advises The Record's Robert Reid.
"I believe that Allison Crowe is the only living person - with the possible exception of Glen Hansard - that can pour their whole being into any cover and make it sound like an entirely new song," notes Muruch.
Alongside her art, Allison Crowe's direction in dealing with the business of music is to, also, take the path less travelled. She cites Righteous Babe Ani DiFranco and Quinlan Road's Loreena McKennitt as inspirations in the 2003 launch of her own record label, Rubenesque Records Ltd. Considering Crowe's verdant grassroots success, journalist Jennifer Carswell asks in a current Paris Voice feature: "Is she out to change the face of independent contemporary music, infusing it with new meaning...?"
Her mission is purely musical. Still, anything remains possible for a creator recently described by Ross Hocker, longtime public broadcaster with WGTE/NPR, as "not in the least corrupted."
Word on Allison Crowe's upcoming European and North American concert dates is forthcoming.
Here, now, be description of the new album, "Little Light":
Created from Newfoundland to British Columbia, the newest singer-songwriter collection from Allison Crowe opens with a rustically shimmering version of "Northern Lights" - a song Allison performed 'specially for the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival in Durness, Scotland. "Angels" is recorded live by Scott Littlejohn at St. Andrew's United Church, Christmas-time, in Allison's birthplace, Nanaimo, Canada. She's backed here by bassist Dave Baird and percussionist Laurent Boucher. "Disease", a song of social commentary, has, through years of live performance, become epic - channeling Beethoven, grunge and more. Here 't'is captured in its raging glory by Larry Anschell (on International Women's Day 2008, the same night celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Anschell's Turtle Recording Studios. Larry "Turtle" Anschell, Engineer and Producer, with Brad Graham Co-Engineer). Title track "Little Light" is among a set of guitar songs that reveal a different sort of Allison Crowe's writerly reflections in music. "Happy People", like such earlier songs as Crowe's own, "Skeletons and Spirits", seduces with a bright melody coating more acid observations. Strong and gentle poetics of "Hold Back" warm us by a fire kindled in the '70s by Joni Mitchell. "Choose to Be" bridges the piano sound of Allison's "This Little Bird" songs with her new tunes. Bob Dylan's ramblin' shoes lead to a less restless farewell, as the album closes with "Wedding Song" - Crowe's sweetest, rootsiest, love song to date.
The interpretations on this collection are: "Time After Time" - originally a hit for that most unusual girl, Cyndi Lauper - Allison, a child of the '80s gives her impassioned take, live (Bastion City Mobile's Scott LittleJohn recording this, the same night as "Angels"); "Running for Home", is a cover of the Matthew Good Band, and one of the songs Allison has performed since her teens; and, by way of the Righteous Babe, Ani DiFranco, comes Allison's vocal-guitar nod to the great peace-loving bard, Phil Ochs - "When I'm Gone". "Can't be singing louder than the guns when I'm gone, so I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here."
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January 20
"In a nation that prides itself on hockey to the point of obsession, there is something else in which we can take justifiable national pride, our young, female singer-songwriters. And for my money Allison Crowe is the best of the bunch, certainly the most versatile," says veteran Canadian journalist Bruce Mason.
Witnessing these past three weeks of Tidings concerts, originals and covers, of rock, folk, jazz, pop, gospel, and blues, settles the score - without need for overtime or shootout.
Many top talents have laced up their skates over the years. Supremely rare, though, is Wayne Gretzky. Bobby Orr. And, so it is with music.
Allison Crowe is emerging as one of the true greats in her arena. From hometown glory to international audiences.
Not since a post-Schmorgs-pre-Poisoned Art Bergmann commanded the stage of Vancouvers Commodore Ballroom has a young Canadian so purely manifest the exuberant spirit of rock and roll. Like Bruce Springsteen in his 1970s prime, Crowe delivers rock music as a religious experience. Her talent is transcendent.
And the testifying grows with each performance and recording.
Ted and Jerry Gibson, fans who traveled 650 miles, from Boise, Idaho to Victoria, B.C., for a December 8 concert were moved especially by an epic rendition of Allison Crowes song Disease - noting: We loved it, were amazed by it, were consumed by it. Writing in the current issue of Boulevard magazine, reviewer Robert Moyes says Crowes live take on I Never Loved a Man, (from her album This Little Bird), "would give Aretha Franklin goose-bumps."
Visceral North American reactions mirror those across the pond, where Allison Crowe was most recently a sensation at the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival in Durness, Scotland. Festival Director Mike Merritt describes Crowe's performance as "awesome" and "spine-tingling", adding: "Allison has put Canada well and truly on the map here!"
In a BBC documentary about the event, crowned the UKs Best New Festival, Merritt recounts bringing Allison Crowe together with Carol Ann Duffy, the UKs most popular living poet, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Queens Master of Music, on the Lennon fests classical music night:
I had a nightmare, I tell you, that day. I had a string quartet coming. And, unfortunately, literally as they checked in, the cellist was taken ill. As most people know you cant replace a cellist, especially in Durness, at the last minute.
And, so, I was left with a dilemma - what do I do? And as I mentioned earlier, everything that happened I thought went wrong, happened for a reason to be better. And I brought in Allison Crowe.
Merritt wondered how itd work - a 26-year-old musician from Canada bridging performances by Carol Ann Duffy, arguably the worlds greatest poet, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, one of the worlds greatest-ever composers. The gamble paid off magnificently. My word, did that put hairs on the back of your neck! (Crowes performance) brought the house down.
Hear John Lennon Festival Director Mike Merritt chatting with BBC Radio Scotlands Iain Anderson @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/BBCRadioScotland211107mp3MikeMerrittAllisonCrowe.mp3 and more of the BBC documentary @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/BBCRadioScotland211107mp3MikeMerritt.mp3
And hear Allison Crowe's song, Alive and Breathing": http://www.allisoncrowe.com/04BLTAliveandBreathing.mp3
European and North American tour dates are in planning for 2008.
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rach78
I heard your stuff awhile back on another site. Always
looking to hear new and interesting good quality vocals
that don\'t hide behind the instruments. I like your
stuff! Its raw, passionate and \"real\".
posted Feb 24