adrian22, posts by tag: noel - LiveJournal

“Christmas in the Harbour”, looking out Allison Crowe’s window – and music as immediate as the falling snow. This carol from songwriter Gary O’Driscoll’s first heard some 35 years ago – in an holiday special of “Up at Ours”, the NL television comedy-drama series created by actor, playwright+ Gordon Pinsent. It’s now a perennial favourite:



Each day through Christmas celebrate a new song on Allison’s Musical Advent Calendar @ http://allisoncrowe.com/MusicalAdventCalendar2016.html

Foto by Allison Crowe

practicing in the Bleak Midwinter (with a fitting view!) for tomorrow morning at CBC for #CBCfeedNLday in Corner Brook :) @cbcnl #cbc

A video posted by Allison Crowe (@allison_crowe) on

Dec 8, 2016 at 10:23am PST

Day 10 on the Musical Advent Calendar opens a portal to one of the finest songwriters across the land and seas, Canada’s Gary O’Driscoll. Born in Bay Bulls on Newfoundland’s southern shore, O’Driscoll’s great compositions include “Men Who Die for a Living”, “Cliffs of La Scie”, “Out from St. Leonard’s” and “Christmas in the Harbour”.

Allison Crowe loves to perform and share the O’Driscoll canon – in her own concerts and recordings and through curating “Newfoundland Vinyl”, a perennial favourite show at Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival.

We’re all invited aboard Gary O’Driscoll’s tunes – hear Allison and band welcome us to those “Foggy Shores of Home”:



Each day through Christmas a new song to celebrate this season will open on Allison’s Musical Advent Calendar @ http://allisoncrowe.com/MusicalAdventCalendar2016.html

Allison Crowe and special guests bring "Tidings" to the ACC Corner Brook in Concert - Saturday, December 10 at 8pm: https://www.facebook.com/events/578139959061288

Day 5 of our Musical Advent Calendar opens with “Blue Christmas” – from Allison Crowe’s remarkable all a cappella collection, “Souling” (2015). Composed by Jay W. Johnson & Billy Hayes, the song’s first recorded in 1948 by Texan Doye O’Dell - “All America’s Cowboy”. Several popular renditions followed – and, in 1957, another singer/actor, this time from Tupelo, Mississippi, stamped it indelibly as an holiday classic.


Blue Christmas from Allison Crowe on Vimeo.

Allison Crowe’s fresh arrangement and performance of an Elvis Presley signature tune launches December’s 25 song videos - blending her own originals alongside music from The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Gary O’Driscoll, Aretha Franklin, Eartha Kitt, Stevie Wonder, Patty Griffin, Phil Ochs and Nat King Cole. (November’s calendar revealed Crowe’s takes on gems heard decades earlier by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell, Ryan’s Fancy, Harry Hibbs, Bell Island’s Ray Mclean +.)

Allison Crowe’s repertoire, including her classic “Tidings” and a cappella “Souling”, unites traditional tunes, carols and hymns, with sounds of rock, jazz, folk, Celtic and soul to celebrate “music for the season and all time”. "You really have to see Allison Crowe live. The way she splits those notes, it's like light through a prism - all the colours of a song," reflects longtime radio/tv host Rick Dennis. From a vantage point atop a snow-peaked mountain in Canada, print journalist Stephen Smysnuik observes: "Crowe's voice (is) as much a manifestation of Christmas spirit today as Bing Crosby's was in 1942. It's as warm as an open fire; as gorgeous as snow-frosted evergreens; as tender as that hug you give your mother on Christmas day."

Each day through Christmas a new music video link will open @ http://allisoncrowe.com/MusicalAdventCalendar2016.html (plus @ the original location http://allisoncrowe.com/news.html).

Introducing a Musical Advent Calendar @ http://allisoncrowe.com/news.html

Each day through Christmas another music video link will open - click on each image to enjoy the music there revealed and shared.

"Best of this season and of all the seasons to everyone near and far... may the New Year and those years to come bring you joy, contentment, the best of what you want, and the clarity of who you are..." ~ Allison

~ Peace on earth, goodwill toward all ~

Images courtesy: The Graphics Fairy + band fotos by Billie Woods & Stephen Drover+

The "Wexford Carol", a traditional Irish Christmas carol dating to the 12th century, is the fifth song heard on Allison Crowe's new album "Souling": The carol originates from Enniscorthy in County Wexford.



http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/souling

Silhouette.animation by the amazing Lotte Reiniger, (whose 1926 creation of "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" is the first animated feature film), is seen here in an excerpt from "The Star of Bethlehem" (1956).

Allison Crowe’s gorgeous voice brings tidings of comfort and joy with “Souling” – her 11th full album release.

The artist, one of our greatest living musicians, singer-songwriters and performers, has always created authentic music.

With this newest song set her voice is heard wholly a cappella.

The songs themselves have a purity of expression – a 21st century take on music of faith and spirit – sounds and themes aired by carollers and soulers of old.

The genesis of “Souling” is found in the bond Allison Crowe’s formed with the creative family at Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador. Founded in 1979, this professional theatre company presents a dynamic and diverse repertoire of plays and maintains, as well, a strong commitment to youth theatre in the Atlantic Canada community.

For these past three Summers TNL’s engaged Crowe as Musical Director of “Newfoundland Vinyl” - a perennial favourite at the annual Gros Morne Theatre Festival. Following another hit season at GMTF, in late August of this year TNL Artistic Associate SaraH McDonald invited the Corner Brook, NL-based musician to serve the same role with a vibrant production of “A Christmas Carol”.

The Adaptation of this classic Charles Dickens story by playwright Jeff Pitcher, TNL’s Artistic Director, excited Crowe’s musical imagination – as did the desire of McDonald, the play’s Director, to incorporate songs in the style of Victorian Era carollers.

So inspired, Allison Crowe immersed herself in curating the music for the abundantly-talented, multi-aged, choir of singers who performed in “A Christmas Carol” at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre from November 27th – 30th, 2014.

This artistic process of selection and arrangement led to her recording solo versions of those songs that will receive another distinct breath of life from the TNL vocal ensemble.

(In parallel fashion, the first season’s run of “Newfoundland Vinyl” brought forth Allison Crowe’s album of the same name – one of 2013’s top recordings. Culture blog Muruch praised it as a “lovely, vintage collection of traditional Irish and Canadian folk ballads, lively sea chanteys and drinking songs, parlour songs and country tunes” possessing “unique charm” and “the timeless beauty of a classic folk album”.)

In 2003, (and expanded in 2004), Allison Crowe released Tidings – an album of singular interpretations - “River” (Joni Mitchell), “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen), “In My Life” (The Beatles) and more from the secular canon – alongside such favourite traditional carols as “Silent Night”, “The First Noel”, and “O Holy Night”. Tidings has proven to be a modern classic – “music for the season and all time”.

This time out, as befits TNL’s telling of “A Christmas Carol”, Allison Crowe gives pure voice to the sacred songbook. “Souling” is:

Soul Cake
I Saw Three Ships
That Night in Bethlehem (Don Oíche úd i mBeithil)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Wexford Carol
The Holly and the Ivy
In the Bleak Midwinter (Cranham)
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Once in  Royal David’s City
Wassail Song

“Souling” is available now via Allison Crowe’s own website @ http://music.allisoncrowe.com/album/souling as well as on iTunes @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/souling/id933188580 plus CD Baby @ http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/allisoncrowe10 and all major digital music outlets worldwide.

As with following William Blake's roadmap to eternity's sunrise, fans of musician Allison Crowe know to kiss "the joy as it flies."

Right now, Crowe is soaring - from Canada's Pacific coast to its Atlantic shores, bringing her Tidings tour to Corner Brook, Newfoundland - for a concert in the city's Arts and Culture Centre. And she's on the wing with two new albums: 'Souling", an a breath-taking cappella collection of traditional Christmas carols, and "Newfoundland Vinyl II", a many-splendoured music mix - songs of, and from, her island home.

A talent strong and free, like Edith Piaf, John Lennon, Luke Kelly, and other such vital, visceral, artists and entertainers, Allison Crowe's voice rings true on:

Souling

Soul Cake
I Saw Three Ships
That Night in Bethlehem (Don Oíche úd i mBeithil)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
The Wexford Carol
The Holly and the Ivy
In the Bleak Midwinter (Cranham)
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Once in Royal David's City
Wassail Song

and on:

Newfoundland Vinyl II

(Area Code) 709
Woman of Labrador
Tarry Trousers
The Water Witch
Out from St. Leonard's
Paddy McGinty's Goat
Northern Lights of Labrador
The Wild Rover
30 for 60
Saltwater Joys

On the first album, her voice is heard wholly a cappella giving familiar songs an uniquely timeless purity of expression. On her second album out this month -Allison Crowe's voice, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, tin-whistle, percussion, arrangements, engineering, production and photography come together - with guest backing vocals by NL actor/teacher Adam Brake (on "Out from St. Leonard's").

Amazing talent in service of songs roves o'er centuries-old carols to a modern canon of such stellar writers as Gary O'Driscoll, Ron Hynes, Al Pittman and Andy Vine - and tunes originally performed by such popular acts as Corey & Trina, Figgy Duff, & Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers.

Both albums celebrate a creative bond between Crowe, the internationally-loved touring and recording artist, and Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, the professional theatre company founded on the west coast in 1979.

For these past three Summers TNL's engaged Crowe as Musical Director of "Newfoundland Vinyl" - a perennial favourite at the annual Gros Morne Theatre Festival. Following another hit season at GMTF, in late August of this year TNL Artistic Associate SaraH McDonald invited the Corner Brook musician to serve the same role with a vibrant production of "A Christmas Carol". Readying a choir for this adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic by TNL's Artistic Director Jeff Pitcher inspired Crowe's "Souling" set.

AD Pitcher's conception of a revival of vinyl era, and more, songs of Newfoundland and Labrador put wind in the sails of Allison Crowe's curatorial mission. "It's here!" says pioneering music blog Muruch, "Allison Crowe just released Newfoundland Vinyl II and it's the perfect follow-up to her traditional folk masterpiece, Newfoundland Vinyl".

Of her immersions as Musical Director with TNL, and the melodic bounty that's landed, Allison Crowe notes: "There is so much wonderful music - you could piece together multiple anthologies and still only scratch the surface of such an extensive and rich collection. Each of these songs is its own story, of land and sea, of people, and each story in-and-of-itself could be an entire show. I'm truly grateful that you are here to hear the story these songs have to offer." She gives special thanks to "the incredibly talented and versatile" casts and crews of TNL's productions for their inspiration.

"Souling" and "Newfoundland Vinyl II" are available via http://music.allisoncrowe.com, iTunes, Amazon and all of today's fine digital music outlets.

Allison Crowe’s gorgeous voice brings tidings of comfort and joy with “Souling” – her 11th full album release.

The artist, one of our greatest living musicians, singer-songwriters and performers, has always created authentic music.