Every concert tells a story: Allison Crowe’s reason to believe

Two of the planet’s most distinctive singing voices will be heard in the Garden City this Spring Break/Easter weekend.

Before London-born Rod the Mod opens his American songbook at the new arena on Saturday, Nanaimo’s Allison Crowe will share her multi-hued repertoire of original tunes and interpretations in a pair of concerts at the Victoria Conservatory of Music’s Wood Hall to benefit GAP ~ an educational and life skills option for Victoria-area girls.

More than two dozen different songs will be performed by Crowe over the nights of Thursday, March 24 and Friday, March 25. Blending together her own expression of folk, rock, gospel, blues, jazz and pop, the vocalist/pianist will also cover material from such diverse tunesmiths as Leonard Cohen, Jerome Kern, Tori Amos, Lennon & McCartney, Ani DiFranco and Adam Duritz (Counting Crows).

These intimate concerts are to help raise funds and awareness for Victoria’s Girls’ Alternative Program (GAP). Carlye Burton, a Gapper” is now spreading the word about its needs for survival, will perform an opening song each night, and will tell her story of how GAP and its sister program, Options, help young women.

Tickets: $15 Advance / $20 at door

Available: at Ivy’s Book Shop (598-2713), Munro’s Books (382-2464), Lyle’s Place (382-8422), The Patch (384-7070) and Tanner’s Books (656-2345).

Venue: Robin and Winifred Wood Recital Hall, VCM, 907 Pandora (enter via Johnson)

Doors: 7:30 p.m.  Music 8:00 p.m.

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Concerts for GAP: Allison Crowe @ Wood Hall ~ March 24/25

A group that has served Victoria effectively and quietly for decades,
now needs to be heard by the community in order to survive. For
thirty-two years, the Girls' Alternative Program (GAP) has provided a
safe, stable and productive learning environment for teenaged girls who
suffer from poverty, drug dependency, sexual exploitation and mental
illness. GAP has been twinned for 20 years with Options for
Pregnant/Parenting Teens and 15 years with Options Daycare ~ all under
the umbrella of the non-profit, Victoria Society for Educational
Alternatives (VSEA) in partnership with School District 61.

Funding cutbacks over the past three years make it impossible for
GAP/Options to provide needed levels of support. To guarantee stability
for its girls' programs, VSEA recently committed itself to
re-establishing GAP/Options, independent of the school district,
supported by Ministry for Children and Family Development and community
donations.

Sounding a clarion call is 23-year-old Carlye Burton. Carlye was aided
by GAP in her teens and is a walking demonstration of what it can do.
She's had her letter to the editor of the Times Colonist published by
the newspaper. And Carlye's impassioned plea has made it online to the
New VI's Speaker's Corner: "My message is this: I was going NOWHERE and
fast. The teachers at the Girls Alternative Program made life make more
sense and made it appealing to get out of bed. I went to Reynolds for 2
yrs and wanted to kill myself. They kicked me out and I was, by
recommendation sent to G.A.P. These women gave me reason to live. And it
was that simple. I wanted to get out of bed, I had somewhere to go where
I felt welcome and wanted. This School is on the verge of being closed,
and I would like for anyone, who can help in anyway please contact me..."

Allison Crowe, the same age as Carlye, is responding with two special
performance in Victoria later this month to help raise funds and
awareness for the GAP/Options cause. The intimate, and wonderful
acoustic, setting of Wood Hall, (in Victoria's Conservatory of Music),
is the venue for these concerts on Thursday, March 24 and Friday, March
25.

Building on the momentum of 2004, which featured the release of two CDs,
Secrets and Tidings, which proved to be popular and critical successes,
Allison has a busy year ahead. Over the course of 2005, she plans to
release a pair of full-length albums, a DVD and tour Canada and Europe.
She'll perform an uniquely wide repertoire of originals and covers (from
the Beatles to Broadway) in her upcoming concerts for GAP.

See more concert details below.

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Rubenesque Records Presents:

Allison Crowe
Thursday, March 24 and Friday, March 25, 8 pm
Allison Crowe, acclaimed singer-songwriter, performs in concert for GAP.

Allison Crowe returns to the Victoria Conservatory of Music for a pair
of intimate concerts to help raise funds and awareness for Victoria's
Girls' Alternative Program (GAP). Combining classical virtuosity with
the improvisational qualities of jazz and the gale strength of gospel
and rock at its most visceral, the vocalist/pianist has been called "a
force of nature" and "fearless" by critics who've found her impossible
to pigeonhole. She's been compared to artists as diverse as Edith Piaf,
Elton John, Nina Simone, Tori Amos and Janis Joplin. As one journalist
said of Allison's original sound: "Make your own comparisons, then
forget them."

            "Allison Crowe has a voice to fall in love with." ~ Record of the Day (UK)


Information: 250-537-1286 or http://www.allisoncrowe.com  A portion of
each ticket sold will go to GAP, an educational and life skills option
for Victoria-area girls.