Welcome Spring with Allison & Guests
Arts
Feature, The Islands Marketplace
Friday, February 29 2008
Celebrate Spring's arrival with Allison Crowe and special guests,
Aaron Trory and Rachel Saunders, at ArtSpring on Saturday, March 22
at 8:00 p.m. The acclaimed vocalist/pianist delivers a lively
musical bouquet that stirs together original songs with much-loved
interpretations from the popular songbook in an organic blend of
rock, jazz, folk, Broadway, gospel and soul.
As the Salt Spring BCSPCA gears up for kitten season, this fun
Easter-time event will help raise funds for the island's Animal
Shelter ( http://www.spca.bc.ca/saltspring
) Cats, kittens and bunnies all need good homes. Shelter Manager
Jena Peori along with her team are ready to assist with adoptions,
providing pets and info to caring people.
Cat-lover Allison Crowe cares, too, about building a career with
integrity and looks to Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco as models.
Courted by the record industry as soon as she began performing
beyond her home region of Nanaimo and the Gulf Islands, Crowe has no
interest in becoming what Mitchell sagely calls the "style
inventions" of today's mainstream record labels. Instead, she's
created her own label, and, since 2003, has released five critically
and commercially successful CD albums.
"It takes a lot of self-confidence to tackle Aretha (Franklin)'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. Treat yourself to one of the mightiest
talents on the singer-songwriter scene today," says Bob Muller,
curator of song covers at JoniMitchell.com.
"Allison Crowe has a voice to fall in love with. She is from
Vancouver Island in Canada, descended from Scottish, Irish and Manx
stock. She's exactly the sort of artist who can make serious headway
on her own label and that's just what she's doing," says the
UK's Record of the Day. Hers is a joyous sound that one music critic
describes as 'Elton John meets Edith Piaf'. At the John Lennon
Northern Lights Festival in Scotland, this past Fall, "Canadian
angel Alison Crowe gave one of the weekend's most magical
moments," says The Scotsman. Festival Director Mike Merritt
describes Crowe as "awesome" and
"spine-tingling", noting her
performance "put hairs on the back of your neck! She brought
the house down." Ross Hocker, long-time public broadcaster with
NPR/WGTE, whose musical taste embraces Thelonious Monk, Bela Bartok
and Charles Gonoud, calls Allison Crowe's last American performance
"the most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in
my entire life."
Joining Allison Crowe on the ArtSpring bill is multi-instrumentalist
Aaron Trory, a performer from Salt Spring Island now enriching his
musical base at Nanaimo's Malaspina College. Although he has
experience playing in hard rock acts, (including local legends,
Steel Bananas), Trory is currently focused on writing and performing
songs in acoustic arrangements, often unaccompanied. A wide range of
unconventional influences, informed by a growing jazz education,
make for a distinctive live show. Teaming up with the artistic
sensibilities and creative flair of his younger sister Rachel
Saunders, they're a diverse musical duo with a special wit and
spontaneity.
Tony DePasquale, creator of Bloom Breads and Bakery, maker of the of
island's popular "au levain" style organic breads and
breadsticks, will bake a batch of special Easter dolce (sweets) -
including biscotti and hot-cross buns for the theatre's concession.
Also fun, for the child in all of us, there'll be an "Easter CD
hunt" - with Allison Crowe albums hidden under the
"shells" at ArtSpring.
