Allison Crowe, auteure-compositrice-interprète native du Canada

Allison Crowe and her traveling band – Billie Woods (guitar), Dave Baird (bass) and Laurent Boucher (percussion) – are back in Canada following a triumphant tour of continental Europe.

Playing to full-houses and multiple encores in Aachen, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Prague and Vienna was especially gratifying for the troupe – after a start in the UK that could have derailed less able and determined musicians.

Instead, an encounter with new anti-terrorist/illegal immigration rules has helped fuel the vibrant reform movement in the UK. With public and media support from stern to bow on the island of Great Britain, the news was featured by BBC Radio, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian/Observer, The Scotsman, The Northern Times, The Press & Journal, and many more outlets. The Times of London warned: “Immigration rules threaten to destroy Britain's arts reputation”.

Cultural events described as canceled or in jeopardy as a result of the new laws include: concerts by supreme Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov; African jazz band Les Amazones de Guinée; the English National Opera's production of Così Fan Tutte to be directed by Abbas Kiarostami, the great Iranian film-maker; and events involving a range of participants from Argentinian tango-dancers, to neuroscientists, university lecturers, Chinese artists and touring church choirs.

On June 3, the UK civil liberties group, Manifesto Club, hosted the first “Cabaret Without Borders” in London, England. Allison Crowe spoke to attendees of this packed event via telephone hook-up, minutes before her band's performance in Frankfurt. The Visiting Artists and Academics Petition was launched earlier this year by the Manifesto Club with the endorsement of dozens of the UK's most prominent artists and educators, including: sculptor Antony Gormley; director of the National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne; and the artistic director of the Royal National Theatre, Nicholas Hytner.

Home in Canada, the bicoastal musician and her transnational band, next devote the Summer to writing, playing and recording before Fall '09 Canadian tour dates, Winter 2009 “Tidings” concerts, and, a return to Europe in Spring 2010.

Crowe's success has been built quite differently to a pattern followed for decades by Canadian rock musicians. Rather than rely on grants or corporate support, (or multinational record labels that may themselves receive grants/subsidies), the exciting singer-songwriter who lives on, both, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, has connected directly with her audience, building a passionate international fan base for her music via internet videos and songs and peerless live performances.

Allison's Crowe's next CD/album will be her seventh release since the 2003 launch of her label, Rubenesque Records Ltd. It will be the first to showcase her quartet.

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 and 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

“Once upon a time, there were two balloons called Jock and Yono,” begins John Lennon's 'airy tale on The Beatles' 1968 Christmas record.

It was a time when the actions of popular musicians and artists could be aimed to make us think - not just buy.

"We're going to sell peace the way other people sell soap", Lennon told a young photo-journalist Gerry Deiter. In the Spring of 1969, Deiter was assigned by LIFE Magazine to document the “Bed-In for Peace” staged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel. As performance art it spanned eight days a week - from May 25 to June 1 '69 - and was designed to bring attention to social issues of the day and, particularly, the US war in Vietnam.

Born in 1934 in Brooklyn, New York, Dieter emigrated to Canada during the war in Vietnam. He was the only photographer present for the entire 8 days of the Montreal “Bed-In for Peace”. There he captured hundreds of images of John and Yoko singing, composing, visiting with friends and talking to the media. Lennon and Ono spoke to some 150 journalists during the press conferences they held daily from their bed. June 1, 1969 was the culmination - the recording of “Give Peace A Chance”, now an international peace anthem.

With war fever again poisoning mainstream culture, a few years ago Gerry Deiter retrieved his archival photos. Partnered with Joan Athey, a long-time CBC publicist, and based out of Victoria, Canada, their team mounted exhibitions to renew the message of peace and understanding.

On December 10, 2005, just days after launching an exhibition at the Royal British Columbia Museum, and marking the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination, photographer, newsman, and life-long activist Gerry Dieter passed away following an heart attack.

Dieter's son Nathaniel inherited the iconic prints, and, keeping her promise to spread the word, Joan Athey acquired a collection of these rarely-seen images.

Now... these images come together in the book "Give Peace a Chance: John & Yoko's Bed-In for Peace". Photography by Gerry Deiter. Compiled by Joan Athey. Edited by Paul McGrath. Published by John Wiley and Sons.

The book launch happens this Sunday, April 19, at 2 p.m. in the Collard Room, Swans Pub, 506 Pandora Ave., Victoria, BC, Canada. International book events are scheduled for: May 12, Gershwin Hotel at 8 pm time in New York City (generously sponsored by the Gershwin); and May 26, at Toronto's Stephen Bulger Gallery. Photo exhibitions open May 26 in Liverpool, England at “The Beatles Story” and June 12 at the Bethel Woods Arts Centre, (Woodstock Festival) in New York. http://www.peaceworksnow.com

Canadian musician Allison Crowe, one of her generation's most independent and acclaimed singer-songwriters, is honoured to do her part in celebrating the book and the 40th anniversary of the Bed-In. In 2007, Crowe proved a sensation at the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival - named the UK's best new music festival. In 2008 she headlined a concert for the John Lennon Memorial Garden in Durness, Scotland. This week, she's created a new video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlB-NfVuaCA - uniting dozens of Gerry Deiter's images of the 1969 Bed-In with a recording of “Imagine” - captured “Live at Wood Hall”, in concert in 2005 at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.

Allison Crowe's videos have been enjoyed by over five million people globally. Her audience online grows by over 200,000 people each month. The bicoastal singer-songwriter, (whose home territory covers Nanaimo, BC to Corner Brook, NL), has just completed a concert tour of coastal BC with her new band. The quartet next perform dates in Newfoundland before an European tour that takes them to Edinburgh, London, Aachen, Frankfurt, Berlin, Prague, Vienna and more cities. Details tba.

Imagine peace. May we all live “hopefully ever after”.

"Superman or Green Lantern ain't got a-nothin' on" singer-songwriter Allison Crowe.

The Canadian musician has transformed into a much-acclaimed and loved international presence in music - all without the sort of corporate-backing, grant-funding, and ad-shilling elements that can be like kryptonite to an artist of talent and integrity.

Crowe's latest props come from Hollywood director Zack Snyder whose movie version of The Watchmen has just been released in theatres worldwide. The creative team behind The Watchmen blockbuster already list Allison Crowe alongside Jimi Hendrix in their fave pop culture music listening right now (on their Cruel and Unusual Films site).

What can now be revealed is that, for the past year+, two of Allison Crowe's recordings of iconic songs have been part of The Watchmen film's creation.

Crowe, one of the most original and exciting songwriters and performers to emerge since rock's golden age, is also world-renowned for the beauty and emotional power of her song interpretations.

"Allison Crowe is the best thing to happen to 'Me And Bobby McGee' since Janis Joplin changed Kristofferson's lyrics", says American culture blogger Allan Showalter (in his 1 Heck of a Guy blog).

Her recording of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", a song with devotees for each of its plenitude of renditions, has found a cherished place with global audiences. "Crowe's version is a living thing, a meditation and a celebration and a benediction," says one reviewer. Another calls her Tidings album, single/first take, version of Hallelujah, simply, "one of the most amazing things ever recorded onto magnetic tape".

The Watchmen movie, a faithful adaptation of the seminal graphic novel created by writer Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents an alternate reality set in a 1985 when Richard Nixon is still US President, and costumed heroes are outlawed as vigilantes. Characters inhabiting this twilight world, writes Slant mag, are "all psychological misfits, their perversions and sadism warped reflections of superhero virtues, and Snyder pulls few punches in his depiction of them, from the Comedian gunning down a pregnant woman in cold blood... to the sexually messed-up Nite Owl and Laurie (Silk Spectre II) sc***ing".

Discussing this latter scene, in which leather/latex fetishism of costumed crime-fighting serves to conquer male impotence, Zack Snyder provides insight into the wedding of music to imagery and action. "I originally had a different version of 'Hallelujah' on that scene - it was the version by Allison Crowe, and it was really beautiful," he explains to the Boston Phoenix. "Too beautiful, as it turned out, because when I showed it to my buddies, they were like, 'Wow, you really mean this, this love scene.' So I was like, okay, that didn't work."

The Director gives fuller explanation to Crave Online - which asks the Hollywood auteur: "What about the Leonard Cohen song?"

Zack Snyder: "There are two Leonard Cohen's because there is a Leonard Cohen on the end
titles as well. Hallelujah, that love scene, I originally had the Allison Crowe version of that song, a version I've always loved, but in the end was just too romantic. Everybody thought that I meant it. They thought the love scene was serious, not that it isn't serious but her version was too sexy. So I was like yeah, I've got to go back to the Leonard Cohen. For me it is incredibly ironic, even with that version of the song it is incredibly ironic. I don't care what version of Hallelujah is on, that love scene it is ridiculous, but in a great way. With Leonard Cohen it is like you can't miss it now, can you? I'm sure some people will but that is fine."

To fit this particular dystopian vision, Allison Crowe's singular, modern, covers have made way for the film's use of the original song recordings. The famous Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen tracks are paired, instead, subversively.

It's tremendously exciting for Crowe to be part of The Watchmen movie process and, "mind-blowing", as she describes it, to receive such respect and appreciation. Looking to the independent Ani DiFranco as a model, she says it's an honour, and, "stirs a certain somewhat buried hope that things can still be done the way I believe they can... and that there are still people who love music for music's sake".

Allison Crowe is readying now for performances in Western and Atlantic Canada, and her return to Scotland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and more concert locations this Spring.

"All things pass away... love and music last forever" ~ Gaelic saying.

Allison Crowe's raw concert video of "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You") recently passed Oscar and Grammy-winner Jennifer Hudson's version in views on YouTube. "Sexpert" Susie Bright, pioneering feminist writer, teacher, activist, (co-founder of "On Our Backs" and familiar even from playing herself in an episode of HBO's "Six Feet Under"), places the song, the break-through hit for Aretha Franklin, at the top of the list of "straight" love songs that have crossed over into also being an unforgettable lesbian love song. And, blogs Bright: "I just had another little gasp listening to Allison Crowe's cover of the same."

Entertainment Weekly has an item on of Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, and Wesley Coller - the director/producer team behind upcoming Hollywood blockbuster 'The Watchmen' - launching a website for their own Hollywood production company.

In the Lounge of 'Cruel and Unusual Films', the creative trio list their pop culture delights - movies, books and music. Sound-wise, they're digging the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along the Watchtower" and Allison Crowe's "Hallelujah" cover.

Allan Showalter, one of the web's most erudite and entertaining culture bloggers, says of another classic interpretation: "Allison Crowe is the best thing to happen to 'Me And Bobby McGee ' since Janis Joplin changed Kristofferson's lyrics."

Still, it's the focus of his "pastiche of a blog", 1 Heck of a Guy, on an original Allison Crowe song that most fits this weekend. Of this "small masterwork" Showalter writes:

"How To Create An Impressive Music Video

1. Start with the carpe diem based proposal in the final couplet of Andrew Marvell's not-quite-ruined-by-anthologization 'To His Coy Mistress:'

Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

2. Hire Joni Mitchell to translate that sentiment into lyrics and music. Insist that Janis Joplin act as consultant to prevent Joni from over-intellectualizing the premise into oblivion.

3. Convince Lucinda Williams to sing it.

4. Add photos of someone who looks both interesting and sexy, maybe Alicia Keys, taken from a pictorial perspective that evokes American Beauty.

Then, you've got yourself a dandy music video.

Alternatively, you could click on the start button of this video of Allison Crowe singing 'Wedding Song,' with words and music by Allison Crowe, featuring photos of Allison Crowe.

Comparing Allison's version of 'Bobby McGee', recently posted here at Allison Crowe And Bobby McGee , and 'Wedding Song' leads to an unavoidable conclusion:

Once you've heard one Allison Crowe song,
You've heard one Allison Crowe song.

Turns out all the hype about about Allison's vast tonal, thematic, and emotional range is true.

It is difficult to find better words on which to end than the last verse of 'Wedding Song:'

So count down the days
and draw the curtains back
pour the wine and say
that we'll love as much as we both can do
until our dying day"


http://Wedding Song - Allison Crowe's Small Masterwork

Happy V-Day, St. Valentine's... whatever love and music moves you.

Allison Crowe Spring tour dates coming soon.