Adrian22's Last.fm Journal

Time After Time: V Day Playlist #2 of 7

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:03:31 +0000

Allison Crowe's interpretations are much-loved, and this is one of those song favourites. Captured live, by Scott Littlejohn of Nanaimo, BC, Canada, here's Allison's take on the Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman-penned "Time After Time":

Northern Lights: Valentine's V Day Playlist #1 of 7

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:54:45 +0000

Valentine's, V, Day nears. Here's the first in a seven-part Allison Crowe playlist - original songs and interpretations to carry us beyond the galaxy of Moon-June-spoon, to land on and explore the real terrain of the heart. Intentionally rustic, "Northern Lights" reflects the raw beauty of nature.

Allison's music is paired with images of the Aurora Borealis captured by Yukon-based photographer David Cartier, Sr. - who's added lots more pics to his awe-inspiring sets @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcartiersr/sets/72157594420812359

Music Everywhere

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:21:50 +0000

Exciting times - even in the rain! We aim to have Allison Crowe's double-A-side single available digitally before the end of this month. More news on this two song recording - "Arthur" / "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)" coming in the next few days. Here's a look at the single cover art - photo by Allison!

Next month, August 23, marks the tenth anniversary of Allison's label, Rubenesque Records Ltd. Along with virtual cake and balloons, we'll make it a special celebration together :)

Allison Crowe’s New Double-A-Side-Single, and Album Plans

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 07:13:20 +0000

Acclaimed musician is ready with new recordings and fresh direction

Musician Allison Crowe, one of the world’s great songwriters and live performers, releases a double-A side digital single this Summer featuring a piano-based original song “Arthur” and an interpretation of Patty Griffin’s “Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)” on guitar.

The bicoastal Canadian artist is in pre-production of her eighth album - advancing a series of critically and commercially successful recordings. Her label, Rubenesque Records Ltd., is celebrating ten years of establishment-free creation.

In a recent interview with Helen Jayne Reid of CornerBrooker.com (@ http://cornerbrooker.com/2011/05/coffee-afternoon-with-allison-crowe ) Crowe reveals some of the creative impetus to her next full-length release. She cites the heavier, industrial, production sound heard in “From the Choirgirl Hotel”-era Tori Amos, and the recordings of Nine Inch Nails. NIN’s Trent Reznor is also exemplary as a creator not bound by the corporate calculation of popular music today.

Recognizing the truth of John Lennon’s lyric, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”, Allison Crowe is giving a window of 12 – 18 months to solve intricate production puzzles with the current album collection of ten songs and a poem, ‘Snow”.

While in pre-production this Summer, Crowe performs a single live show – as part of TNL’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival concert series in Cow Head, near her Atlantic home of Corner Brook, Newfoundland.

Allison Crowe’s double-A-side single, “Arthur” and “Up to the Mountain” is set for release next month (July, 2011 – on iTunes et al).

Allison Crowe’s New Double-A-Side-Single, and Album Plans

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 07:12:47 +0000

Mary 2011

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 06:06:32 +0000

This week, Allison Crowe has recorded three new originals: "Arthur" (not a Kinks kover); "By Any Terms"; and "Chasing the Rain". She's also recorded a cover.

"Cover Me" blog's Vincent Scarpa says: "Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe drops great covers every time we turn around." Scarpa brands this newest interpretation "a lovely acoustic tribute to one of America's most underrated songwriters. Patty Griffin would surely approve of this bare-bones delivery that exposes what are some of Griffin's finest lyrics."

You can hear this song @:
http://www.covermesongs.com/2011/01/allison-crowe-records-patty-griffins-mary.html

And it's on YouTube @

On her most recent Tidings concert tour, Canadian musician Allison Crowe began performing "Mary", a song written by the sublime American singer-songwriter Patty Griffin. (She'd fallen in love with the song when US cable television program "Sons of Anarchy" featured it in its Season two episode "Balm".)

The New Year kicking in, Crowe pulled her piano stool over to the kitchen
table, sat down and recorded this version simple and true.

Enjoy! Happy New Year to all!!

Allison Crowe among "best of decade" - and beyond

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:52:18 +0000

Entertainment website Muruch announces its top 25 albums of the decade – on
a list that ranges from The Dresden Dolls to Muse, the eclectic blog places Allison Crowe’s “Live at Wood Hall” in the number 8 position, commenting:

“Oh that voice! Still gives me chills. I’ve posted about Allison Crowe so many times over the years that I consider her Muruch’s musical mascot. As I said in my 2007 review“there’s really no way to convey through mere words how much the music on Allison Crowe’s Live At Wood Hall moves me”. Forget Susan Boyle, Allison sang the definitive cover of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’.” (
http://www.muruch.com/2009/12/muruchs-best-of-the-decade-albums.html )

It’s been a year in which Crowe elevated her artistry beyond levels consistently seen in rock music for decades. A decade of international touring and online presence combined with inventive and inspired writing and recording and peerless live shows has translated into making the bi-coastal canadian one of the world’s most popular, successful, and truly, independent musicians.

Crowe’s achievement could only be reached free of the status quo, side-stepping the mainstreaming rackets of, both, corporate record labels and institutionalized funding agencies. It’s a revolution, not just in her home country, but, on a global scale.

A review from the latest concert on her “Tidings” tour, which wraps this weekend in corner brook, newfoundland, exemplifies peoples’ response to Allison Crowe’s singular nature as one of the most moving singer-songwriters and interpreters of any generation.

Eric McLean, band leader of the Nanaimo Blues All Stars, (and President of the Old City Quarter Association), wrote of Crowe’s December ’09 concert in
that city: “I have seen and met, hordes of great performers over the years,
from Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, Sara, Little Feat, to Stephane Grappelli, Oscar Peterson, Joe Pass, etc, etc, etc, and I honestly believe that (Allison Crowe is) in the same league.” McLean sums up the feeling of many, saying: “I really felt that I was in the presence of something great.”

Allison Crowe’s seventh cd, “Spiral”, is due to be released in early 2010.

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* NB A friend in Scotland, where folks, naturally, take great pride in Susan Boyle, wrote to express concern that it's "an unnecessary swipe being taken at a Scottish personality" by the music blog. I am certain, and have confirmed directly, the writer means no harm to Susan Boyle or Scotland!

In the context of knowing the reviewer is an huge fan of "Les Mis", they're not saying to forget Susan in entirety. Their simple, and passionate, view is that with respect to the song "I Dreamed a Dream", Allison best captures its mood. Their turn of phrase is not meant to extend beyond that artistic point.

From here, at least, it seems media marketing maven Simon Cowell et al have been rather callous in their exploitation of Susan Boyle, and there's been disregard for her health and well-being.

That's a separate issue, I know. Still, if you care for artists as people, health matters more than the fame or money. It's not evident how much an operator like Mr. Cowell cares about the human toll.

Knowing the business side of the record industry, one can only hope that the singer from West Lothian comes through it all better than many who are fodder for the machine.

"Gorgeous" music: Allison Crowe & Co. "Spiral"

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:50:54 +0000

“Her voice will just send shivers down your spine, and just rip your soul out, and make you happy to be alive. The new track from Allison Crowe, Going Home Tonight…” And so boston-based media maven C.C. Chapman introduces his podcast audience to this new creation:

http://www.allisoncrowe.com/GoingHomeTonightAllisonCroweprealbumversion.mp3 (pre-album version)

Allison Crowe, known for her singularly amazing, often live, performances and her free, independent, spirit, is currently wrapping up the recording of twelve songs to be released as “Spiral”, her seventh CD/album in seven years.

Until now, Crowe’s much-loved recordings have been, essentially, solo affairs – her own voice, piano, and guitar accompanied by rare touches of bass and percussion (and, once, on her secretsalbum, accordion, and uillean pipes).

With songs in her repertoire calling for a broader palette, on “Spiral”, the bicoastal canadian musician comes together, from newfoundland to british columbia, with her touring band: Billie Woods, guitar and bgs (backing vocals); Dave Baird, bass and bgs; and laurent boucher on percussion. turtle recording studio’s main man, larry anschell, engineers the white rock, B.C. studio sessions, and joins in on electric guitar.

Orchestrating, arranging, and producing the album is los angeles-based film composer, kayla schmah, an artist who’s followed her own path for a decade, and today works in hollywood with emmy-award winning composer Edward Shearmur while independently orchestrating and composing on various projects.

alan pedder, Editor/Publisher of uk magazine, wears the trousers, notes: “The culmination of a decade-long friendship, Schmah is bringing to the album the lush orchestration that Crowe has been seeking since penning some of these songs during a 2007-08 creative spurt that saw her develop two albums’ worth of material. Some of those songs ended up on 2008’s Little Light, without orchestration, and some will make it onto Spiral alongside newer songs and, as is always the case with Allison, a selection of covers. This unfinished version of ‘Going Home Tonight’, a Crowe original, is a swelling, emotional ballad cloaked in strings that are rich enough to carry and accentuate the voice.”

The strings, celeste, tympani and more on this pre-album version debuted on the eclectic us arts and entertainment blog, muruch, which has adopted Crowe as musical mascot, commenting: “Allison’s voice and piano playing are as beautiful as ever.” allan showalter, host and curator of 1 heck of a guy, the web’s snappiest Leonard Cohen related blog, calls Going Home Tonight “gorgeous”. That’s qualified by fellow american, multi-blogger and video game programmer, jeff taylor, who labels it: “Absolutely gorgeous”. jessica kuijer of France’s ctn music, says: “I LOVE THIS new song!!!”. Canadian merch monkey, reena kudhail, exclaims: “That's a bloody fantastic song.”

A direct video for “Going Home Tonight”, filmed on salt spring island, B.C., (where Allison Crowe and Kayla Schmah first met, at the turn of the century), is on youtube:

C.C. Chapman winds up his Accident Hash intro: “If you ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER, get a chance to see her live, please do. Her CDs do not do this woman justice. Her performance, her voice, her everything…

Before the excitement of “Spiral” is released, Allison Crowe performs live – presenting her Tidings concert series from the pacific to the atlantic.

For music, tour dates and more info, please visit: http://www.allisoncrowe.com

Summer side of life - new album hatching

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:04:40 +0000

For those of us living in the northern hemisphere, summer is nearing its end - and autumn/fall starts to reveal itself.

For me, it's a season of musical revelation.

Allison Crowe has started to create her next album. She travels from Canada's atlantic coast to the pacific in about two weeks' time to record her fellow musicians - billie woods, on acoustic guitar; dave baird on electric and acoustic bass; and laurent boucher on percussion.

These are the band-members who've toured with Allison in 2009.

There'll be an electric guitarist, joining the group on about three songs. Right now Alley is working with a brilliant, and incredibly sympathetic, orchestrator. One of the big questions at the beginning of this process was - how would the strings and orchestral elements Allison was hearing on several songs be realized?

We've learned over the years, that it's like alchemy, the joining of art and science (in the form of technical engineering/production). It's a magic that calls for invention, serendipity, inspiration.

It's early on, two songs in to what promises to be a 12 song collection - but, I'm hearing it.

My Dad made buttons for my brothers, sister and myself that said "I am a beatle" and I was happily wearing that more than forty years ago, before I'd learned to ride a bicycle.

At this moment, I feel the same excitement that stirred when george martin (now Sir) got together with those four lads from liverpool.

Much more to come ( :

Allison Crowe's Road Less-Travelled: Timeless Music on Tour

Mon, 11 May 2009 06:44:01 +0000

It's been a few years since nick hornby, in a New York Times op-ed piece, "Rock of Ages", spoke of "that high-low fork in the road" asking: "Who has the nerve to pick up where Dickens or John Ford left off? ...who wants to make art that is committed and authentic and intelligent, but that sets out to include, rather than exclude?"

An answer is Allison Crowe, creator of such recordings as "Disease", "Skeletons And Spirits" and "Wedding Song" and interpretations of popular music from Leonard Cohen to Pearl Jam andl The Loving Spoonful.

This week the Chicago Tribune newspaper named the "5 best versions of Cohen's 'Hallelujah' " and counter-culture blog MIX listed the top "non-shills" in the music business. Allison Crowe is the only artist on both lists. Being ranked alongside Leonard Cohen, John Cale, Jeff Buckley and KD Lang for her transcendent, single/first-take, recording of "Hallelujah", and lining up with Ani Difranco, Janis Ian, Trent Reznor, Radiohead and others for her integrity, is emblematic of Crowe's singular success.

She launched her own record label, Rubenesque Records Ltd., in 2003 and approaches music very differently to the industry standard of recent decades. The wholly independent vocalist and multi-instrumentalist shows you don't need to "play the game". You simply need to make great music. And you need to mean it.

"In a world of copycats and wannabes in the singer-songwriter field, Crowe is a true original and is playing in a league of her own", writes Tom Mureika. In this latest concert review penned for Westcoaster.ca, Mureika, a writer for AllMusicGuide, describes Crowe as an "astonishingly gifted artist" with "a dynamic stage presence - she is at once commanding and enrapturing." Saying: "Crowe is easily the most talented singer-songwriter to burst on the scene in quite some time... There were even times when her compositions came across like a modern day Carole King." Mureika concludes: "Her unique stylings, incredible range of delivery, songwriting chops and knack for interpreting cover tunes sets her apart from her peers".

AMG/Westcoaster.ca's Mureika is reporting on a sound heard coast-to-coast in canada, where Crowe resides on, both, Atlantic and pacific shores, and 'round the world live, on the internet and mp3 players everywhere, on Rogers, ATV, and CHUM television, the BBC, CBC radio and more.

From Canadian college radio station CFBX, where Crowe's newest of six CDs/albums, "Little Light" was top of general and specialty charts for weeks running this Spring, (since replaced on the roots chart by the latest from Neko Case, 'Middle Cyclone'), to audiences numbering in the millions worldwide for her videos on YouTube, and song tracks on such social networking platforms as Jamendo and Last.fm to mainstream outlets iTunes and Amazon, Crowe's appeal bridges the iconoclastic and the populist.

UK audiences heard from Allison Crowe when she was a sensation at the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival in Durness, Scotland (crowned the "UK's Best New Festival' in early 2008). Crowe's performance in the Scottish Highlands, on-stage between Carol Ann Duffy, appointed Britain's Poet Laureate just this month, and Master of The Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, is the stuff of legend.

Recently, two prominent tributes to Leonard Cohen have featured her song contributions. During a triumphal Beatles Week 2008 concert series, BBC Radio 2 interviewed and recorded Allison Crowe in liverpool performing "Hallelujah" for its documentary, "The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall", that explores the many facets of this Leonard Cohen creation. Hosted by Guy Garvey of Elbow, other participants include musicians Imogen Heap and Kathryn Williams alongside producers John Lissauer and Andy Wallace.

MOJO magazine's December '08 issue paid tribute to Cohen with a celebration of his "deep and moving music". Of Allison Crowe's contribution of "Joan of Arc" to its 'All Star Tribute", (featuring Judy Collins, Nick Cave, Martha Wainwright and others), a cover-mount CD titled "Cohen Covered", MOJO says: "Once famously described by the Vancouver Courier as possessing a style akin to 'Elton John meets Edith Piaf', the Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe is renowned for her ability to blend control and melodrama. Certainly she does so on this spirited cover of Cohen's Songs Of Love And Hate classic, a track which also powerfully showcases her considerable talent as a fine interpreter of song."

Jeffrey Pitcher, Artistic Director of Theatre Newfoundland Labrador has worked with Crowe on TNL's "Sexy and Dangerous" production in Corner Brook for two years. He says: "No matter where she is in this world, that voice, that conviction, it crosses all borders. She's one of those rare artists that fits into any culture, any community because she is who she is – an incredible talent."

"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 (Canada). Longtime WGTE/NPR (USA) host Ross Hocker calls a performance by Crowe "the most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life".

Allison Crowe (voice/piano/guitar) and her band-mates, Billie Woods (guitar), Dave Baird (bass) and Laurent Boucher (percussion), embark now on tour - a string of dates that launch in her atlantic home, newfoundland this Saturday, May 9, at Bianca's, in st. john's, NL and Wednesday, May 13 at the arts and culture Centre, corner brook, NL - and take the quartet to a range of european cultural capitals:

23.05.09 - the lot, edinburgh, scotland
25.05.09 - the halo, london, england
28.05.09 - aula carolina, aachen, Germany
29.05.09 - jazzbar vogler, munich, Germany
03.06.09 - jazzlokal mampf, frankfurt, Germany
06.06.09 - venue/city tba
09.06.09 - osterkirche, berlin, germany
11.06.09 - divadlo dobeska, prague, czech republic
13.06.09 - tunnel-vienna-live, wien, austria

For music and more info visit: www.allisoncrowe.com