Nanaimo singer releases seventh recording

The Daily News    April 8, 2010

Former Nanaimo singer Allison Crowe's newest album, Spiral gets physical this month with its CD release on April 17 after being released digitally on March 17.

There was an abundance of gold, silver and bronze in February, when Canada hosted the Olympics and since then, printers have been sourcing a supply of the special metallic dyes needed for the album cover art of Spiral.

This process happily enables Crowe's newest CD release to coincide with international Record Store Day.

Spiral is now available at Fascinating Rhythm in Nanaimo -- one of the five favourite record stores across Canada for Stuart McLean, raconteur extraordinaire, host of CBC Radio's The Vinyl Cafe. It will also soon be in Lobelia's Lair in Nanaimo

"I was certain at the outset of this that the next album had to be different -- I just wasn't sure how," says Crowe.

"I wanted big production sound but as always have a wee production budget (meaning everything ends up being mostly homemade -- current technology lends itself to this beautifully).

"Spiral is a true work of art," writes Jeff Taylor, video-game programmer and multi-blogger from Canada.

"The album is amazing, and will certainly be a top contender for album of the year."

Spiral is the seventh album/CD release from Crowe.

"This is an astonishingly gifted artist working in a class by herself," says Tom Mureika, writer for All Music Guide and other North American-based culture sites.

ParisVoice, an English language journal for folks who call home the city of Piaf and Charles Aznavour, says: "expressing emotion is where Allison Crowe excels. Whether covering other artists. . . or performing her own songs . . . each track becomes alive and palpable."

April 17 is also the same day Crowe flies to Europe to launch a series of concerts in Aachen, Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin.

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