3 posts tagged “liverpool”
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.”
Last night, 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 @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com
Half a million strong: Allison Crowe's music gets back to where we once belonged
success. Three performances = three standing ovations. Highlights, among
many, of the visit include performing songs of John Lennon for members
of John's family, meeting and dining with the Queen's Master of Music,
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and his partner Colin Parkinson, and, simply,
sharing the joy and wonder of music and nature with people from Glasgow
and Edinburgh to the Highlands. (Not to forget the haggis stand outside
the Village Hall in Durness - and Sergeant Pepper's Soup Kitchen.)
With more concerts already booked, from May to September 2008, the
mutual love and respect between friends and fans in this most hospitable
land is fast making Scotland a bonnie "home from home" for Crowe, one of
the world's most exciting, and down-to-earth, musicians. Accepting
invitations to the Orkneys and Liverpool, (named the European Capital of
Culture for '08), is also in score for next year.
Allison Crowe's welcomed back to North America by news that Bob Muller,
curator of song covers at JoniMitchell.com, includes her recording of "A
Case of You" in the latest "Joni Covers" volume - with these words:
"Another fine entry in the Joni Covers pantheon for Allison, who first
wowed us with her electrifying take on River. This time 'round she picks
another Blue selection and imbues it with her sensitive singing and
playing. From her 2006 release 'This Little Bird', all of which is as
tasty as this track."
The world of video, along with audio, is embracing with conviction.
YouTube viewership for Crowe's take on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is
over half-a-million strong (leading still more to her freshly definitive
'Tidings' album version of the song). Promising to become another,
future, reel highlight, makers of what can genuinely be called one of
the most highly anticipated Hollywood movie projects in twenty+ years,
have requested use of two of Allison's recordings for this major motion
picture. (More word on film production to follow, naturally.)
If we got ourselves back to the garden, when rock music was most vital,
Allison Crowe would blow audiences away at the Fillmore, at Monterey, at
Woodstock. Today, she plays for people on the stages of YouTube,
Jamendo, Last.fm (and other online forums where audiences gather to
enjoy her remarkable, and peerless, mix of originals and
interpretations). And, of course, the live experience comes together -
from the just-wrapped John Lennon Northern Lights Festival to her
upcoming Tidings concert series (dates and locations tba) - wherever she
travels.
In a age of commercial trends and calculated retro acts, Allison Crowe
delivers something else entirely as a singer-songwriter - a visceral
expression of freedom. We haven't had that spirit here, well, since
1969.
###
http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1570482007
The Scotsman Tue 2 Oct 2007
LIGHTING UP DURNESS IN LENNON'S MEMORY
THE JOHN LENNON NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL ****
VARIOUS VENUES, DURNESS
SITUATED closer to Oslo than Liverpool, it's easy to see why John Lennon
spent so much of his youth in Durness. With its white, sandy beaches and
picture-perfect mountainous terrain, a story hides behind almost every
rock in this remote village in the north-west highlands. The Northern
Lights - the only thing to get a Scotsman to stand outside without a
coat in late September - made an appearance, but the real magic was
going on under the sky, as people from all around the world gathered to
pay homage to Lennon's spirit.
At the Sango Sands Oasis, Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen, delighted
onlookers with a skiffle set and stories about John while giving people
in the audience a chance to play with them on washboard.
Meanwhile, a mile down the road at Smoo Cave - a spectacular smugglers'
cove believed to be the abode of spirits who guard the entrance to the
netherworld - there was the surreal sight of Mr Boom. An entranced group
of kids sat between the limestone cliffs as the one-man-band entertainer
took them to another planet.
A stone's throw away at the village hall, Canadian angel Allison Crowe
gave one of the weekend's most magical moments, earning one of few
encores for her solo rendition of Lennon's In My Life (a song inspired
by Durness).
Students from the Royal Academy of Music injected new life into the
Beatle's work later on with new, inspired arrangements of Norwegian Wood
and Imagine. Their mentor, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, however - making
his first public appearance in 15 years - played an ingenious number
called Clouds on a badly-tuned piano borrowed from the local bookshop.
He wrote it, Davies said, when he was 11 years old. You could almost
imagine an 11-year-old John Lennon listening to it in wonder too.
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