2006: December ~ Music for the Season and All Time
One of our truest musical talents
and most exciting live performers, Allison Crowe, continues touring
this month - delivering songs from her all-season 'holiday' album, Tidings,
alongside the sounds of a newly-released collection, This Little
Bird.
"A pleasing blend of jazz, soul and blues, This Little Bird
personifies what real Canadian music is about," says Kailee Jordan
in YouThink magazine. "You can actually feel the passion
fueling Crowe's emotional, poetic lyrics." South of the border,
blogger Muruch chimes in: "I can honestly and without hesitation
say that This Little Bird is my favourite album of 2006. I haven't wanted to immerse myself in an album
so intensely since I first heard Antony & The Johnsons. if the
music blogiverse has any taste at all, Allison Crowe will be the new
artist to be pimped out everywhere."
"Treat yourself to one of the mightiest talents on the
singer-songwriter scene today," says Bob Muller, veteran
administrator of cover songs on the Joni Mitchell Discussion List.
Allison Crowe's just-hatched album, This Little Bird, contains
her take on Joni's "A Case of You". (About which, Sweden's
Anna Maria Stjärnell writes: "Crowe gets to the heart of the
mystical, intoxicating song. 'You're In My Blood Like Holy Wine' has
rarely been a line better delivered.")
Muller, in reviewing the new album, says: "Allison really comes
into her own on this CD - her wonderful songs, supported by her emotive
vocals, strong and confident, navigates them with feeling and strength.
I mean, it takes a lot of self-confidence to tackle Aretha'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."
Back north in Canada the dean of Vancouver music writers, Tom Harrison,
says: "(Allison Crowe) shows an eclecticism that also reinforces
her own songs. The best moments have atmosphere and her moodiness is
truly affecting." Across the Atlantic, Luna Kafé writer
Stjärnell sums up: "Crowe's focused and her art's never been
better. This little bird is airborne."
Allison Crowe is flying high, as well, with her "Tidings"
benefit concerts - lending a hand to community groups, and, onstage,
bringing together traditional carols such as "In the Bleak
Midwinter", "What Child Is This", and "Silent
Night", with songs of joy, peace, and redemption from the modern
songbook. Crowe's well-loved and lauded versions of songs by The
Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Sarah McLachlan join covers of Joni
Mitchell's "River" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"
labeled "truly transcendent".
In 2003, "Tidings" was created as an one-hour television
special ~ and this production still airs each December across Canada on
CHUM's A-Channel network and affiliates. In its holiday CD round-up, in
2004, The Toronto Sun gave four stars to only two releases - The
Christmas Collection from Frank Sinatra and Tidings from
Allison Crowe. In a 2005 poll, BBC Radio listeners placed Tidings among
the greatest cover albums of all time.
Upon its original, full-length, release, Joseph Blake of The Times
Colonist newspaper declared: "This high concept seasonal
sampler is a triumph." Completing a circle of inspiration, this
year has seen the concept mainstreamed by Nettwerk Records of
Vancouver, B.C. with the release of Sarah McLachlan's 'Wintersong"
CD.
Tidings is a celebration in song manifest through Allison Crowe's voice
and hands. Hers is a passionate and joyous sound described by one print
journalist as "Elton John meets Edith Piaf". Crowe's band on
the Tidings bill features a pair of top-flight rhythm-makers
also heard on This Little Bird: Dave Baird on acoustic and
electric bass, and Laurent Boucher on percussion. B.C. appearances and
concert dates are listed below.
Peace on earth, goodwill toward all. Joy to the world ( :
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Allison Crowe's 2006 Tidings performances:
01/12/06 - ArtSpring Theatre, Salt Spring Island ~ w. special
guest
Billie Woods to benefit the Salt Spring SPCA
02/12/06 - United Church, Campbell River ~ w. special guest
Billie Woods
to benefit the Campbell River Food Bank
06/12/06 - CFUN 1410 AM Studio, Vancouver ~ on-air with popular
radio
show hosts Jenn Thomson and Joe Leary - promoting the Hope Fertility
Fund (a partner project of the UBC Centre for Reproductive Health and
VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation)
08/12/06 - CBC Radio One, Hudson's Bay Centre, Victoria ~
Canada's
national public broadcaster presents its 20th Anniversary Food Bank Day
Fundraiser & Broadcast "In the Midst of Plenty"
08/12/06 - Metro Studio Theatre, Victoria ~ w. special guest
Lena
Birtwistle to aid Artemis Place (an alternative schooling program for
girls)
09/12/06 - Norman Rothstein Theatre, Vancouver ~ w. special
guest Lena
Birtwistle to benefit the Hope Fertility Fund
15/12/06 - St. Andrew's United Church, Nanaimo ~ w. musical
guests:
Deanna Pulak, Laura Ashley Brunet, Brynn Newman, Briana Vojnovich,
Christie Ross, Lauren Bissonnette, Chelsea Peckett, Matt Meredith, Adam
Cormier, Sarah Parenteau, & Marty Hilchey in support of The Mind's
Eye (NYSA youth newspaper), Woodlands SS Band and Basketball programs,
Project Warmth & the Nanaimo Women's Centre
16/12/06 - St. Andrew's United Church, Nanaimo ~ w. special
guests:
Samantha Cashmore, Jennifer Moffett, Sara Anderson, Crystal Cashmore,
Chelsea Peckett, Matt Meredith, Adam Cormier, Sarah Parenteau, &
Marty
Hilchey in support of The Mind's Eye (NYSA youth newspaper), Woodlands
SS Band and Basketball programs, Project Warmth & the Nanaimo
Women's
Centre