Crowe switches coasts
Alexandria Stuart, The Daily News (Canada)
Friday, March 31, 2006
Nanaimo singer now lives in Newfoundland
Nanaimo’s sweetheart Allison Crowe is off on a
new adventure as she kicks off recording a new album This Little
Bird and kicks up her heels on the other side of the country in
Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
Hardly a throbbing metropolis for the Canadian
music scene, there is one thing in Corner Brook that isn’t anywhere
else: a new love interest. Sparked during a tour stop last fall and
nurtured via e-mail on the road, the pair managed to spend some time
together and found the small hadn’t come off the rose, so Crowe
looked at recording in Newfoundland.
“Alley has never been happier - in all the time
I’ve known her - and it’s heard in the music,” says long time
manager Adrian du Plessis.
As a working musician, “home” is technically
any place you’ve done laundry more than two weeks in a row; with
frequent tour dates in Europe, bi-coastal bases actually make a lot of
sense for Crowe.
With du Plessis remaining here, the arrangement
isn’t without its logistical challenges.: “Things are certainly
not getting stale,” he says.
Digital technology and the internet make it
possible to record on one coast while your manager is on another,
reviewing tracks online while exchanging feedback via instant
messenger.
Crowe has embraced the internet and digital music
swapping as friend, not foe. Offering a selection of tracks to
download for free at www.allisoncrowe.com
It’s a try-before-tour-buy model that’ difficult to adopt if
you’re beholden to a record label bu can yield a devoted fan base
for the indie artist. Blogging and podcasts can also strengthen that
bond regardless of where an artist lives.
“As for home being where the heart is…
Nanaimo will always be Alley’s first home, “ du Plessis says.
The balance of the recording is planned back here
on the West Coast, And once her new found love gets a load of our
special brand of beauty, we may have Crowe back here to stay.
Watch the website for news on the record and tour
plans for 2006.
Nanaimo’s Allison Crowe has made
the move to the East Coast and is working on a new album.
Photo: Ben Strothmann
With over a decade in the trenches of the music industry, we’re
reasonably sure Alexandria knows what she’s talking about: akstuart@shaw.ca
