Monday, March 10 ~ Best times for "most Canadian Canadian"
For a musician with talent and integrity these are the best of times.
Barriers between artist and audience that have existed for decades are
now crumbled like the Berlin Wall. Allison Crowe is making the most of
new freedoms. The much-loved singer-songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist is reaching millions globally via the internet as
well as live touring.
At home in Nanaimo, British Columbia and Corner Brook, Newfoundland,
(spanning the breadth of Canada - from Atlantic to Pacific shores), Indiecan
Radio host Joe Chisholm comments that Allison Crowe is the
"most Canadian Canadian I've ever met."
Tonight, Canuck bard Leonard Cohen is inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. A legendary poet, writer, songwriter, and
musician, Cohen is enjoying ever-broader public appreciation - his
music reaching a mainstream audience last week on American Idol (when
a contestant, Jason Castro, performed a shortened rendition of
"Hallelujah".)
At the same time, Allison Crowe's most popular performance of Cohen's
glorious modern standard, "Hallelujah", has an audience of
over one million on YouTube - placing her version of the song in
the top handful, and, as one of the most 'favorited' videos of all time
in Canada - in the company of Aretha Franklin's "I Say a Little
Prayer", Janis Joplin's "Try" (live at Woodstock),
Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way", Led Zeppelin's "Over
the Hills and Far Away", and, among today's acts, Michael Buble's
'official' version of "Home".
Known for singular interpretations of Cohen, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles
and others, thanks also to cultural and techonological revolutions,
Allison Crowe's original songs, as well as finding their massive
audience, are, themselves, being covered. A distinctive and vital songwriter, Crowe's unique songbook finds her anthemic meditation on
peace and war, "Whether I'm Wrong", and her spiky kiss-off
"Skeletons and Spirits", being interpreted by such diverse
performers as up-and-coming singer-songwriters in the Netherlands to a
community choir in Valencia, California. "Disease", a song of
social commentary, is being contributed, in all its raging glory, to
the cause of "Music Inspires Health", an Atlanta,
Georgia-based initiative that's enlisted Crowe, alongside Dave Brubeck,
Ari Hest and others, to address a range of health issues in a musical
context.
During 2008, exciting live, Allison Crowe is slated to travel over
90,000 kilometres for concerts in her home-towns of Nanaimo and Corner
Brook, as well as shows in New York City, Boston/Cambridge, Ottawa,
Toronto, Vancouver, Paris, Liverpool, Vienna, Prague, and multiple
dates in Scotland, Germany, Scandinavia and other locations.
This past weekend, Crowe joined a cavalcade of talent in White Rock,
B.C. for a rocking celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Larry
Anschell's Turtle Recording Studios - an SPCA-fundraiser. Upcoming
concert dates this month include: March 15 at the Heritage Playhouse in
Gibsons, B.C. - with special guest Skye Wallace; and, March 22 at
ArtSpring Theatre, Salt Spring Island, B.C. - with musical guests Aaron
Trory and Rachel Saunders (also in aid of the local SPCA). Details of
these and all concerts and other Allison Crowe music news can be found
throughout this website.