On the road to creating a new album, musician/singer-songwriter Allison Crowe teams up with a longtime friend in orchestrator, arranger and producer Kayla Schmah. Crowe, at home in, both, Nanaimo, British Columbia and Corner Brook, Newfoundland, (on Canada's Pacific and Atlantic coasts), and L.A.-based film composer Schmah first met, a decade ago, on Salt Spring Island, BC (where, it happens, this video was shot). The pair are making art together today. "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." Here be a pre-album version of "Going Home Tonight", a song on Crowe's upcoming CD, "Spiral". Fab arts and entertainment blog Muruch kindly debuts the mp3/audio @ http://www.muruch.com http://www.allisoncrowe.com

A song in the key of Hallowe'en, a favourite holiday for musician Allison Crowe. Playing piano since age five and singing, almost as long, Crowe, inspired by Ani DiFranco and Loreena McKennitt, materialized her own record label in 2003. She's now brewing her seventh album/CD, "Spiral". You could say Crowe is very ghoul-oriented. "Allison Chains" (voice, piano) is linked to this track for eternity, with Dave "The Damned" Baird (bass), and Laurent "The Butcher" Boucher (percussion). This version is heard on "This Little Bird", a CD for which Billie "The Wicca" Woods shot the cover. (Woods' many portraits are fit to be hung in gallowries worldwide.) Keeping an eye on all things newt, let us toast those musicians from the Netherlands to America, 'cross Canada, en France and beyond - who've covered this song, including: Dhenzy, Victoria Venom, Lucresa, the friend of "dudelookslikealady2", Natouchka38, Briauna Marijuana, and Eilish (estarhart). From the brain of Logan Anschell comes just the right interjection - for those about to enjoy this musical treat. It's the same thing, he whispers, a skeleton says to a vampire at dinner time: "Bone appétit!" May this raise your spirits ( :

Lennon's Dream of Peace Still Alive 40 Years Later Allison Crowe Imagines With Gerry Deiter Photos From 1969 Forty years ago, John Lennon and Yoko Ono received international attention for their Bed In for Peace at Montreals now-famous Queen Elizabeth Hotel. The iconic couple staged the eight-day event - from May 25 to June 1, 1969 - to protest civil unrest and the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. A new book of rarely-seen images has been published by John Wiley and Sons. "We're going to sell peace the way other people sell soap", Lennon told a young photo-journalist Gerry Deiter. He was assigned by Life Magazine to document the happening in the hotel suite, and was the only photographer there the entire 8 days. Deiter captured hundreds of images of the couple singing, composing, visiting with friends and talking to the media. Lennon and Ono spoke to some 150 journalists during the press conferences they held daily from their bed. June 1 was the culmination - the recording of Give Peace A Chance. Now... these images come together in the book "Give Peace a Chance: John & Yoko's Bed-In for Peace". Photography by Gerry Deiter. Compiled by Joan Athey. Edited by Paul McGrath. This video displays some of those images, set to a live performance of "Imagine" by internationally-acclaimed Canadian musician Allison Crowe. Book events are scheduled for May 12, Gershwin Hotel at 8 pm New York City generously sponsored by the Gershwin. May 26 Toronto at the Stephen Bulger Gallery. Exhibitions open May 26 in Liverpool at the Beatles Story and June 12 at the Bethel Woods Arts Centre, (Woodstock Festival) New York. http://www.peaceworksnow.com Give Peace A Chance War is over if you want it Imagine peace

Allison Crowe performs "When I'm Gone", penned by the late, great, singer-songwriter and activist Phil Ochs. Ani DiFranco recorded this song for the soundtrack of "Steal This Movie" - a film based on the life and adventures of a '60s radical, Yippie Abbie Hoffman. Crowe, inspired by DiFranco, has recorded "When I'm Gone" for her newest album/CD "Little Light". The images of Allison Crowe on-stage are captured by photographer Billie Woods, (herself also a musician), in concert at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds, Washington, USA - January 31, 2009.

In this tribute to a favourite musical theatre production, Les Miserables, independent Canadian artist Allison Crowe performs Fantine's "I Dreamed a Dream" (words and music by Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schönberg). Crowe's live recording of this song is on her double-album (two-CD) set "Live at Wood Hall". US music blog Muruch says: "Here Allison Crowe once again proves that there is no song too great for her powerful voice to conquer. Her vocals on 'I Dreamed A Dream' are especially potent and moving. As with her cover of 'Hallelujah', she seems to put every fiber of her being into the song and it's an awe inspiring thing to hear." Photos of Allison Crowe live on stage are by Billie Woods - captured in performance on January 31, 2009 at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, Edmonds, Washington, USA.

This guitar-song closes Allison Crowe's 2008 album/CD, "Little Light". Images married to the music are all by the great young Canadian photographer (and musician) Billie Woods ( http://www.billiewoods.com ) who took the shots as she toured across Europe with Allison Crowe in '08. Wedding Song ~ Words & Music by Allison Crowe At the turning of another moon comes time to end this day and only so many have to pass as I am gone away So I sing you now this lullaby though it is bittersweet for we have to part when we close our eyes but every morning meet These words fall down upon this page I never do get to sleep but to be so far away from you I lay my head and weep I know this night will be over soon there's another day in sight though darkness falls on empty sheets only you bring in the light I will never be the perfect wife I don't even know what that is but I will be here and he'll always know that my heart is his So count down the days and draw the curtains back pour the wine and say that we'll love as much as we both can do until our dying day http://www.allisoncrowe.com

Canadian musician Allison Crowe performs live in concert "Me and Bobby McGee";, the Fred Foster, Kris Kristofferson song recorded famously by Janis Joplin. Images are from Billie Woods, ( http://www.billiewoods.com ), the terrifically talented photographer who regularly tours Europe with Crowe. These pics are from such locations as Frankfurt and Siegen, Germany and Durness, Scotland where Allison Crowe headlined the 'Northern Lights Festival', a benefit for the John Lennon Memorial Garden. As with her other interpretations, Allison Crowe doesn't mimic the sound or style of another artist. Instead, she covers songs in her own voice. "Allison Crowe is the best thing to happen to 'Me And Bobby McGee' since Janis Joplin changed Kristofferson's lyrics" says Allan Showalter. Showalter's entertainingly erudite "pastiche of a blog" (http://1heckofaguy.com ) 1 Heck of a Guy notes: "Of course, the credentials that matter most are her performances. If you haven't heard her powerful yet not strident version of 'Hallelujah'... I urge you to do so now. Then, for something completely different, listen to her take on Ronnie Shannon's 'I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)', which is (forgive me, Aretha) the best I've heard. ' 'Me and Bobby McGee', the song authored by Kris Kristofferson and popularized by Janis Joplin (although Roger Miller's version was the first to rank as a hit), is not one of my favorites, but it is useful as an example of Allison Crowe's skills, in part because most readers of this blog have, I suspect, heard it sung by at least a couple of performers. "Also noteworthy, however, is the choice of this song itself. If Allison had asked me to select 100 possible covers for her to play in a concert, a real concert with a fancy piano set in the converted church chapel of the Conservatory of Music in Victoria, British Columbia, a concert that would become the album, Allison Crowe Live At Wood Hall (with album art... radiating dangerous levels of wholesomeness), 'Me and Bobby McGee' would not have been on my list. Nor would it have been on my Possible Allison Crowe Covers 101-200 list, nor the 201 to 300 list. Me and Bobby McGee is a Kristofferson-Joplin-Miller kind of song. Kenny Rogers... sang it, as did Gordon Lightfoot, Bill Haley & His Comets, Sam The Sham, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash. Waylon sang it. So did The Grateful Dead and Dolly Parton. It is definitely not an Allison Crowe kind of song. "Until she sings it. "Although Allison introduces over a dozen significant adaptations to 'Me and Bobby McGee'; I'll point out only one nuance. Listen to her inflected pronunciation of "Baton Rouge" in the first line, "Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train". It makes this version of the song her own from that point, giving the song a richer, more complex flavor than those rendered in flat Midwestern intonations. Yet, performed the same way by almost anyone else, the same tactic would come off as too precious by half."

From Allison Crowe's newest album, "Little Light", comes this song - "Hold Back". "I would chew my arm off to sing like Allison," says West Virginia, Mountain Stage-loving music blogger Muruch. "Though I guess that would make it difficult to shred a piano like she does, which seems to be half the fun" - referencing, respectively, "Hold Back" ~ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/07HoldBackAllisonCrowe128.mp3 and "the fervent, mesmeric, piano-hammering extended version of 'Disease' " ~ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/03DiseaseAllisonCrowe128.mp3 both songs on Crowe's newest CD. "She is reminiscent of some of the great women vocalists who shaped rock music in the late '60s and early '70s. Allison's emotional delivery is unique in today's music," is how music industry veteran, and manager to Bif Naked, Peter Karroll's earlier framed it. Images accompanying this vid are almost all shot by Canadian photographer and musician Billie Woods. The image of Allison onstage in New York City (at the piano on darkened stage) is by Ben Strothmann. Pics of Allison as a child are courtesy the Crowe family photo album. "Ever wonder what it would have been like to listen to a gifted singer/songwriter from Saskatchewan in a small, intimate hall before she became Joni Mitchell? Don't fret. There's no need to turn back the clock. Check out Allison Crowe." ~ Robert Reid, The Record (Canada)

Allison Crowe's song, "Disease", is stimulating social commentary. (Serving to inspire an online discussion of 'great art' and the nature of its creation - http://www.fuckdecaf.org/2004/11/great-art.html#comments ) While unchanged lyrically, the song has grown more steeled musically through its life and release. It is now sounding distinct from the version heard on "Live at Wood Hall". "To sing is to love and affirm, to fly and soar, to coast into the hearts of the people who listen, to tell them that life is to live, that love is there, that nothing is a promise, but that beauty exists, and must be hunted for and found," wrote Joan Baez, musician and plenty more, when she was near the same age Allison Crowe is now. 't'is high purpose, evermore today, "as we replace marble with plastic". Here is the song, captured in its raging glory, serendipitously on International Women's Day, March 8, 2008, also a fun date of Turtle Recording Studios 20th Anniversary Party in White Rock, B.C., Canada - by Engineer and Producer, Turtle's Larry Anschell (Pearl Jam, Sarah McLachlan, Bif Naked+). Play it loud! You can even hear Allison stomping her feet on this recording. Enjoy ( : NB there is no video footage of this performance - the still photo is of song lyrics for Disease in Allison's handwritten journal form.

In January 2004, in concert, Allison led the assembled musicians in a group-closer ~ John Lennon's "Imagine". In April 2004, she headined a concert to cap Earth Week activities in Victoria, the capital city of her birth-province of British Columbia, Canada. The "Goolden Gala" (in a gorgeous, old, converted 800-seat church) was to "Celebrate Peace, Earth and Justice". Also to that end, Allison made this recording. Peace signs are from TopPun.com - the groovy site of Dan Ruff. In September 2007, Allison Crowe will join musicians, poets, painters, dramatists and all who come together to celebrate the "John Lennon Northern Lights Festival" in Durness, Scotland. Freda people now!

Canadian indie singer-songwriter Allison Crowe will bring this new song with her to the 'John Lennon Northern Lights Festival' in Durness, Scotland (September 28 - 30, 2007). Yukon-based David Cartier, Sr. shares his beautiful images of the Aurora Borealis on flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcartiersr/sets/72157594420812359 Here's what David says about this source of inspiration: " When Men lack a sense of awe, There will be disaster " - - - - Lao Tzu --- The Tao Teh Ching Awe is what THIS is all about!! The Aurora is an experience of breathtaking beauty... the viewing makes you feel like you are connected integrally with an amazing cosmic force ..... Aurora watching is as addictive as any drug and a whole lot more satisfying. Once you become addicted, you stay out all night, lose sleep, forget about social commitments, nearly get wind burned and frostbit and it's all, deeply, worth it !! Every human being who can manage it should make a pilgrimage to the subarctic auroral zone in order to see and feel this at least once in their life. Many of these were taken with an amazing old Russian Kiev-19 35mm SLR. This camera , which I still use for night sky photos, NEVER freezes up or has any shutter problems in the cold, even at minus 60!! The more expensive Japanese and German cameras which I own always, or at least often, stop functioning in the deep cold.

Each year, across Canada, CHUM television stations broadcast an one hour special featuring Allison Crowe performing traditional Christmas carols, and not-so-traditional songs of joy, peace, redemption and passion. Here's the intro to the program.

From her Tidings television special, Canada's Allison Crowe performs the traditional carol, Silent Night. "I have a new favourite version of Silent Night." ~ John Kimantas, Nanaimo News Bulletin (Canada)

From the Worldwide Jammer Convergence in Seattle, USA, Allison Crowe and her trio perform Pearl Jam's "Indifference" in this lo-fi vid of the event. Greatly inspired by Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, Crowe was delighted to be part of the WWJC in 2001.

Allison Crowe performs, live-in-the-studio, a favourite song by Sarah McLachlan, also a Canuck - and an early inspiration to the singer-songwriter from Canada's most western shores. From the one-hour tv special, Tidings, produced Inside Pandora's Box

Canadian musician Allison Crowe performs live-in-the-studio, Let It Be. The Beatles songbook is rich for interpreters and this gospel-inflected tune by Lennon and McCartney is one which Crowe loves to perform and be joined by audiences singing along.

Indie Canuck musician Allison Crowe made her national television debut on the Vicki Gabereau show in early 2002. This live performance introduced a country to the singer-songwriter from Nanaimo, B.C. via her song "Crayon and Ink". That's Dave Baird on bass, and Kevin Clevette on drums.

A word-of-mouth sensation in western Canada since her teens, Allison Crowe made her national television debut on the Vicki Gabereau show in January, 2002. (TV talk-show host Gabereau was dubbed "The Queen of Chat".) Intro to "Crayon and Ink" live...

"Scared" was recorded live-off-the-floor in 2001 by Allison Crowe (w. bassist Dave Baird, drummer Kevin Clevette) for Crowe's debut disc, "6 Songs". This video was filmed in downtown Nanaimo, British Columbia by Angela Kendall and Brian Dutkewich.

From "This Little Bird", Allison Crowe's next album, comes this jaunty take on relationships ( : Recorded live in Newfoundland for über-popular Out of the Fog. Hosts Krysta Rudofsky and Paddy Daly alongside Producer Mike Fisher and his team are ace!