It's a mighty long time since another side of Bob Dylan had us gaze upon the chimes of freedom flashing. Decades, too, since there was blood on the tracks. The "idiot wind", though, is still blowing like a circle around our skulls.

Allison Crowe is a new truth-seeker. She's a writer of social conscience. One who believes in the power of music.

"To sing is to love and affirm, to fly and soar, to coast into the hearts of the people who listen, to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found," wrote Joan Baez, musician and plenty more, when she was near the same age Allison Crowe is now.

't'is high purpose, evermore today, "as we replace marble with plastic".

The body of work this young Canadian artist is creating is remarkable and varied. Through a repertoire numbering dozens of original songs, she's fulfilling her stated raison d'etre, making music that is "Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real. True."

Lyrics to Disease - in journal form

In a concert review this month, Jan DeGrass of the Coast Reporter notes: "In another piece, Crowe savaged the piano with a fierceness that turned our spines to noodles. The song was dedicated to a woman who gave a classical piano performance seen on YouTube only to find that her web audience offered tasteless and ignorant jokes in return. Don't sugar coat it, Allison."

No Mother Hubbard soft soap here. The song, Disease, is stimulating social commentary. (Serving as inspiration to an online discussion of 'great art' and the nature of its creation.) While unchanged lyrically, the song has grown more steeled musically through its life and release: "Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind."

Captured in its raging glory, serendipitously on International Women's Day, March 8, 2008, also a fun date of Turtle Recording Studios 20th Anniversary Party in White Rock, B.C., Canada - by Engineer and Producer, Turtle's Larry Anschell - and Co-engineered by Brad Graham:

Disease