Allison Crowe, auteure-compositrice-interprète native du Canada

A song in the key of Hallowe'en, a favourite holiday for musician Allison Crowe. Playing piano since age five and singing, almost as long, Crowe, inspired by Ani DiFranco and Loreena McKennitt, materialized her own record label in 2003. She's now brewing her seventh album/CD, "Spiral".

You could say Crowe is very ghoul-oriented.

"Allison Chains" (voice, piano) is linked to this track for eternity, with Dave "The Damned" Baird (bass), and Laurent "The Butcher" Boucher (percussion). This version is heard on "This Little Bird", a CD for which Billie "The Wicca" Woods shot the cover. (Woods' many portraits are fit to be hung in gallowries worldwide.)

Keeping an eye on all things newt, let us toast those musicians from the Netherlands to America, 'cross Canada, en France and beyond - who've covered this song, including: Dhenzy, Victoria Venom, Lucresa, the friend of "dudelookslikealady2", Natouchka38, Briauna Marijuana, Fait Dormi, and Eilish (estarhart).

From the brain of Logan Anschell comes just the right interjection - for those about to enjoy this musical treat. It's the same thing, he whispers, a skeleton says to a vampire at dinner time:

"Bone appétit!"

May this raise your spirits ( :

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 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.

Sir George Martin talks about The Beatles' recording art - listen here

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 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”.