Vincent Van Gogh “loved life so bad, his paintings had twice the color other paintings had”. So sings Jonathan Richman (on Rockin’ and Romance).

And that tells you something about musician Allison Crowe.

A modern lover of music, blogger Muruch frames it like this: "There's really no way to convey through mere words how much the music... moves me, or how I want other people to listen to and adore it as much as I do. Allison sings with such an intensity of emotion, it's easy to see why she's often quoted as saying 'Why music? Why breathing?'... that kind of artistic passion seems extremely rare these days."

"I love singing for people," says Allison Crowe. "It's a way to connect and share with others. Communication is crucial. Just being able to do what I do, to write and sing and perform, makes me feel not only alive, but incredibly lucky. Knowing at any moment everything could change, I don't take one second for granted."

Born 26 years ago, on an island, in the harbour city of Nanaimo, B.C., today Crowe's reach is global. The audience for her music videos and song downloads numbers in the millions.

"Allison Crowe has a voice to fall in love with," says UK music industry journal Record of the Day. "She is from Vancouver Island in Canada, descended from Scottish, Irish and Manx stock. She's exactly the sort of artist who can make serious headway on her own label and that's just what she's doing."

When this phenomenon 'from the islands' reached the mainland she steered a path clear of what Joni Mitchell knowingly calls the record industry’s “style inventions”. With Ani DiFranco and Loreena McKennitt as models Crowe created her own label. Since 2003, Rubenesque Records Ltd has released five critically and commercially successful albums: Lisa's Song+ 6 Songs; Secrets; Tidings; Live at Wood Hall; and This Little Bird.

"The first thing you notice about Allison Crowe is her voice. Rich and dark, it seems to come from a place most singers can only dream of accessing. Then there are the songs. Filled with raw passion and accompanied by Crowe's eloquent piano playing," writes Clodagh O'Connell (The Courier). Hers is a joyous sound: "Elton John meets Edith Piaf."

A sensation at the UK’s John Lennon Northern Lights Festival, “Canadian angel Alison Crowe gave one of the weekend's most magical moments," says The Scotsman. Festival Director Mike Merritt describes Crowe as "awesome" and "spine-tingling", noting her performance “put hairs on the back of your neck! She brought the house down."

A true grassroots success, Crowe’s praised not only as a singularly talented songwriter - on themes personal as well as worldly - and as a visceral performer, but, also, as a supreme interpreter of song. Her vital takes on such 21st century standards as Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and Joni Mitchell's "River" are applauded as "truly transcendent". Her Tidings CD, a mix of traditional carols plus songs of joy, peace, and redemption from the secular songbook, is an emerging classic: "music for the season and all time".

"Her voice celebrates the music with a bluesy rock-gospel intensity; her controlled vibrato, silken rasp, and powerful projection rivet your attention. This is no casual background music. be prepared to be amazed," says Hamline University Professor Of Law - and CD reviewer - Carol Swanson. "Every song radiates sincerity, creative flair, and emotional intensity."

”It takes a lot of self-confidence to tackle Aretha (Franklin)'s version of 'I Never Loved a Man...' but Allison does and nails it just as good as the Queen of Soul herself. Her piano playing is equally exquisite," says Bob Muller, curator of song covers at JoniMitchell.com in his review of Crowe’s newest album, This Little Bird. He sums up: "Treat yourself to one of the mightiest talents on the singer-songwriter scene today."

David Powell, Welsh-based tech writes: "I'm listening to 'Effortless' on (Allison Crowe's) This Little Bird album with my Pro-Ject headphone amplifier turned up about a quarter more than on most modern records. It sounds fantastic because unlike most modern records it hasn't had the **** compressed out of it to raise the loudness."

Vocalist, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, engineer, producer and arranger, Allison Crowe now lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia and Corner Brook, Newfoundland. From these home-bases, (spanning the full 7000 km breadth of Canada), she tours steadily, earning a reputation for exciting live shows that stir together her original songs with much-loved interpretations in an organic blend of rock, jazz, folk, Broadway, gospel and soul.

"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 the missed opportunity. There's no need to turn back the clock. Check out Allison Crowe," says Robert Reid in The Record.

"Allison has a special gift that is so very rare in musicians today. She is true to her mind, heart and spirit," says Ross Hocker, long-time public broadcaster with NPR affiliate WGTE. Hocker, whose musical taste embraces Thelonious Monk, Bela Bartok and Charles Gounod, calls Allison Crowe's live performance "the most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life."

"In an entertainment world that increasingly genuflects at the altar of instant fame, Crowe seems an anomaly, building her career slowly and carefully," notes Adrian Chamberlain, of Canada's Times Colonist newspaper.

"Soulful. Alive. Joyous. Grievous. Real, true, music is what I want to make," says Allison Crowe.

You can lend an ear...

********!!!SPECIAL ALERT FOR AFFICIENDOS!!!**********
shshsh!!
COMING SOON TO PROJECT OPUS. The loin-lubing cello years.
Recorded at last.

In the early 1990's SELDON nutured his talent on the North lsand with virtuoso cellist CHRISTIE STAUDHAMMER. By the late 1990's they were wowing intimate audiences around the Vancouver scene. Then continents separated them for many years. None of their music had been recorded. It had been played to the winds of the whispering forests and far flung northern beaches. It'd disappeared into the untold layers of Vancouver's buzz. Lost but for the memories of those who'd witnessed it.

BUT WAIT!!

On December 16th 2004 , the day before STAUDHAMMER moved forever to a place SELDON would never live, she was enticed into a secret venue in Vancouver and cello tracks to 4 of their classic songs were laid.
The mini-album "CumQuot", featuring Christie Staudhammer on cello, is now complete and is imminently available for digital-downloading.
-----------------------------------------------------------*
ANGELICA GOES TO #1!!!
In May 2005 the unlikely hit song Angelica , Track 9 of "THE BEAST WITHIN" , reached #1 on a top ten recommended list on podcast THE NEXT BIG THING.
Besides numerous webstations , the songs SAME GAME , CLEO , BURDSONG and ANGELICA are being played on co-op station Village 900 in Victoria B.C. , college radio stations including Kamloops , B.C. and C.B.C. Radio Canada.
____________________________________________________

ROGER SELDON
(Songwriter)

Born and raised in South Africa and travelling the globe now for over 15 years, SELDON finally managed to stop in one place long enough to record his 1st album "THE BEAST WITHIN" in Fishhoek , Cape Town late 2003. Mastered and manufactured in Vancouver , Canada , the album was officially and globally released September 2004.
With over 20 years of songwriting this tip of the iceberg truely represents the 1st unleashing of SELDON's beast within. This album is made up of an eclectic mix of songstyles with some of the earliest tunes mixed up with the new.

SELDON on songwriting :
...actually, I prefer to call it song-discovery. In the process of messing about with sound, melodies , riffs and soundscapes (pieces of songs) are revealed and the sensitive ear need just trace the song backwards and forwards to it's natural beginning and end. Often some arrangement is then required. Sometimes words accompany the song pieces and an entire perfect song is written in 5 minutes (eg BURDSONG). More often with me the song remains unarranged and wordless , sometimes for years (eg, DREAMCHAIN, music 1989 and words 2000) until time and self-discipline synergize. Luckily , in recent years I have been blessed with the friendship of some wonderful and serious poets who have allowed me the honour of using their words (eg GLIMPSE , ANGELICA).
Most of the songs can be played in a number of different styles. On this album they are mostly played in the style in which they were originally written. Criticisms of the album (which can be more revealing and paradoxically complimentary than laudations) include stylistic digression and lyrical obscurity. But then these ARE poems , and to ponder or not? that is the question.

Being a gypsy for a lot of years many of SELDON's songs have become popular at his regular low key appearances around the world. The Hibiscus Coast (see www.southernexplorer.co.za) , Plett , Cape Town; all in South Africa; and Vancouver , Nelson , Northern Vancouver Island and Kitimat in the Wild Northwest of British Columbia have been his regular stomping grounds. A few of his songs (HEAVY RAIN , DREAMCHAIN , BURDSONG , SAME GAME) have been covered by artists in some of these places (Larva Rocks , now known as DreamChain - Johannesburg , Sean Germond - Cape Town , Barbie Meyer - Margate).
He enjoyed a long and fruitful development period through the 90's playing as a duo with accomplished cellist Christie Staudhammer initially touring beaches , forests , houses & lakes about Northern Vancouver Island and later the coffeehouses of Vancouver City. They also played around Plettenberg Bay South Africa towards the end of the last Millenium. Sadly , no formal recordings of those years exist , BUT ; in December 2004 , the day before Staudhammer moved permanently to Florida , U.S.A. , SELDON managed to get her into a studio in Vancouver to lay some cello tracks for a future album. This is expected in 2006.

In late 1996/7 he joined bandmembers Liz Adams , Scott Blackley (Muzzy Pep, The Great Dividing Range) and Patrick Singh in the Whitehorse-based Yukon altpoprock band "HOOP" as bassist for their tour of the East Coast of Australia in early 1997.
2004 saw SELDON colaborating with songwriter/slide guitarist Malachi Greenidge in the duo Holy Joe & The sKeptiK. (Look out for Malachi on MySpace.com).
Mostly SELDON has been writing and jamming with any inspiring talent he intercepts in his wanderings to the abovementioned locales.

The last 10 years have seen SELDON splitting his time between the southern tip of Africa (music & surfing) and the Canadian West Coast (music , snowboarding and , most unfortunately , work).

His sold-out and packed-out gigs at the Sundance Javabar in Campbell River and The Common Bistro on Denman Street in Vancouver , as well as a genre-defining 6 week run of shows at Rocky Ridge on The Hibiscus Coast , South Africa, in July/August/September 2005 lead to a more formalised and intense gigging/touring schedule in 2006. January 2006 saw him playing The Duncan Garage Showroom in Duncan , The Spiral Cafe in Victoria and The Common Bistro in Vancouver. A repeat tour of the southern Zululand coast with 11 sequential Friday night shows at Rocky Ridge developing into a weekly festival of Original Music with SELDON hosting many untapped and rockin' locals.

Comments & questions , both musical and personal , can be sent to

"THE BEAST WITHIN" by ROGER SELDON includes liner notes and lyrics. It also includes BURDSONG ("the lovesong of the decade" as judged by lovers around the world). SELDON prefers that "THE BEAST WITHIN" be played LOUD.
IT MUST BE PLAYED ON DECENT STEREO EQUIPMENT.

•  I'll listen over and over.