Tidings, Allison Crowe’s universal celebration of music for the season & all-time, began in 2002. It grew out of an one-hour nationally-televised concert special featuring Allison and her band, “Tidings: Inside Pandora’s Box” – “Pandora’s Box” being the name given to the building in Victoria, BC that’s home to The New VI tv studio (now CTV Vancouver Island’s base).
This weekend’s Tidings shows, wrapping with cheer on Sunday, December 20, a second concert night at the lovely Rotary Arts Centre in beautiful downtown Corner Brook, NL mark its 19th anniversary: https://www.facebook.com/events/442564563808322 Bandmates Sarah Melanie White (guitar, bouzouki & vox+) and Keelan Purchase (accordion, guitar & vox+) – surprise guests joining Allison on-stage last night, are excitedly anticipated as special guests Sunday evening.
Allison Crowe, Nanaimo, BC-hatched, Corner Brook-nested, is a singular song-bird/smith. Allison’s “Tidings” repertoire embraces the secular and sacred: tunes of popular music icons – such Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Beatles and the Stones – alongside traditional carols rooted in days of yore. Original songs mix and mingle with parlour songs plus gems from such east coast treasures as Ron Hynes and Ryan’s Fancy.
Allison’s album “Tidings”, a modern classic, can be enjoyed online @ https://allisoncrowe.bandcamp.com/album/tidings
The many colours of this universe, naturally, can’t be distilled into a single song – so, here, simply, is a favourite Christmas carol that Allison’s been singing and playing for as long as she can remember, “O Holy Night”.
This performance, live before a tv studio audience, and broadcast coast-to-coast during the holiday season for years by the CHUM media network, features Allison on vocals + piano, Dave Baird on bass & Kevin Clevette on drums.
A couple of decades back – a video file of 10MB in size seemed pretty big to upload on dial-up. The file/resolution of this recording from that first Tidings special is small by today’s standards. The music and spirit, though, remains joyfully, characteristically, giant.
Merry Christmas! Happy holidays, wishing peace, to one and all! Tidings 🎄