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...

Biography
From Grandpa I got my storytelling. His visits were rare, as he and grandma lived in St. Catherines Ontario, and we lived just outside Calgary, Alberta. They spoiled all 8 of us children (according to my dad) but the biggest gift Grandpa always gave us was to tell us bedtime stories of the “olden days”.

Grandpa’s stories usually involved exciting stuff like runaway teams of horses, shooting at wolves, or somebody getting body parts torn off. His tales were filled with gestures and sound effects. He really had a way of bringing them to life. And he listened when a kid told him a story. He made you feel your stories were important.

From Mom and Dad I got music. My Dad and my other Grandpa were both musicians. Grandpa Hubele (of whom I knew very little) was a very good organ player. My dad played fiddle in his early years, touring around southern Alberta with a country dance band. He and Mom would, very occasionally, play duets on fiddle and piano when we were little kids.

I can remember waiting til my parents went out. Since I was the oldest, I often babysat my brothers and sisters. I would sneak into Dad’s fiddle case to take out the fiddle and play it. Except I was always trying to make it sound like a guitar, and I played it like one.

We moved back and forth across the country, from Ontario to Alberta and back many times as I grew up. Dad kept trading up for jobs, and I was in a new school almost every year. I became a loner and a rebel. I turned to humor to make up for my small size. I’d find the biggest kid in class, figure out how to make him laugh, and I didn’t have to worry about the rest of the bullies. It pays to have friends in high places.

I believe I had an undiagnosed hearing problem caused by a trauma (now confirmed as a severe hearing loss). I never could quite understand the lyrics on the radio which was always on in our house, so I made up my own.

My earliest memories were of crossing the big empty fields which made up the neighborhoods of my youth, singing at the top of my lungs and making up words as I went along. My mom says she could pick me out of the flocks of kids coming home from school. I’d be waving my arms and singing to myself as I walked across the prairie.

I started writing songs in a serious way when I was 21 years old. A friend, who had been showing me how to play guitar, and I went out to live on the beach on Vancouver Island at Pacific Rim Park. I was picking away when a simple line kept repeating itself in my head. I wrote it down, and in ten minutes I had a song. It seemed to open flood gates, and for the next 2 or 3 years I wrote a song or two a week. I average about a song a month now. But, they are better songs.

(over)

Biography, page 2

To write successfully, I usually have to be alone, have all my chores done and time on my hands. Words and melody most often develop at the same time. It takes from 10 minutes to 1 hour to write a song. It takes me two weeks to learn it. I like to wrap a song around a good story line. They always come from my own experiences.

I was fascinated with the blues from the get-go. I came in through the back door. J.J. Cale, then Hot Tuna. Then B.B. King, Freddy King, and Muddy Waters.

When I heard Bonnie Raitt play slide guitar, I was gone. I had to learn how to do that. I followed her trail back to Mississippi Fred McDowell. “You want rock, you gonna have to put me in a rockin’ chair. I plays the straight and natural blues.”

I also paid attention to the songwriters, my favorites being Paul Simon, Harry Nillson, Willie Dixon, and Tom Waits.

My interest in jazz developed through my association with other musicians like Calgary’s late Chuck Tracy, a gruff, funny, kind of crazy lounge musician. He introduced me to Tom Waits, Mose Allison, and Fats Waller amongst others.

As well, it became a habit to listen to the great Alberta radio station CKUA on Saturdays. Bill Coull’s Jazz Show was a fifteen year course in ‘Everything You Should Know About Jazz’.

I also have a life-long addiction to comedy movies and comic books. One of my Dad’s jobs was as a projectionist in a small town. Once a week on Saturday night the local community hall was turned into a theatre. I was very young (3 years til 7 years old) but those old black and white 16mm movies of the Marx Bros, Chaplin, and W.C. Fields remain deep in my psyche.

I think this was a great influence on my writing. Most of my songs have a little humor and a strange twist to them.

I have worked as a laborer and heavy equipment operator and truck driver since leaving the University of Calgary after 4 years of unrelated courses and wandering interests. Previous to that, I had worked at the CPR as a ticket clerk. I began working at age 14 at the steel mill where my father worked. I did not graduate from high school.

I have written songs for 32 years. Recording began for me in 1978 with the Acme Sausage Company with Holger Petersen broadcast on CKUA. Since then, I have been on countless radio and tv programs. I have recorded 6 albums of original material, and I just finished recording my demo for the 7th, and most exciting, CD - ‘Down In Davis Bay’.

•  Somewhere down the midnight cafe

Rio Bent is carving a new niche in the genre of punk rock. With powerful female vocals, intense guitars and explosive percussion Rio Bent is kicking out elegant raunch for the ages.

Winning over audiences wherever they play with a riveting ‘can’t take your eyes off them’ stage show.

They’ve appeared nation-wide on Much Music, toured from Vancouver to Montreal and shared the stage with such indie-punk greats as the Mad Caddies and the Black Halos.

Rio Bent is on the brink of releasing their debut full length CD, produced, recorded and mixed by Paul Forgues (Slayer, Hatebreed), Blair Calibaba (NoMeansNo, Propaghandhi) and Dave Rave Ogilvie (Nine Inch Nails, 54-40).

Graceful, tasteful and highly attractive,
Rio Bent is the grit and glory you’ve been waiting for.

•  the kids are alright
•  Pure Punk

Vocal/Guitar - Ricky Yee

....yeah that's it

Bella are a trio whose music gets you all tangled up in a West coast indie pop synth dream, replete with soaring guitars and unique vocals. Bella are known for their energetic and unpredictable live shows that feature multiple instrument swaps and hip-shaking dance moves to entice the audience. They have been critically acclaimed by local music magazines across the country, and Britain's NME called their song "Didn't Mean to Break Our Love" a "standout tune"... Currently working on their second full-length album, Bella are sure to deliver another pop gem for the kids to dance to! -Exclaim!

Bella has performed with bands such as Pretty Girls Make Graves, The New Pornographers, Imperial Teen, and Phoenix. Please visit the official bella site or myspace for more info www.bellamusic.org

•  Fun song

•  Post Punk Fun
•  Fun 100!

Gabriel lives in Vancouver and records music independently in his Gastown apartment/studio: Studio In the Trees. He has been playing music for a large portion of his life (privately and in a few bands) but only recently has been starting to capture the type of sound he has been striving for. This is mostly due to fact that he now has the ability to record each of the instruments himself, and create the kind of indie/melodic/pianolike/alternative music that has been swimming in his head for years. This allows for an entirely personal message. You might like it.

If you have been waiting for a sound that is innovative and eclectic (it’s soulful… it's jazzy...it's bluesy...it’s funky…), yet savvy enough to ride the waves of popular radio, look no further. This is a dynamic artist in touch with modern culture and carrying a message that is impacting those who encounter it.

The soulful sound of singer/songwriter/musician Greg Sczebel (“suh-bell”) is steadily capturing the attention of a wide range of music enthusiasts. From the moment you first hear the rhythms of his piano you will be intrigued. His talent is obvious...but then the vocals glide onto the scene and you see that there is more to this artist than just a good beat. His lyrics are intelligent, showing a mature depth, and he doesn’t sacrifice the musicality for catchy hooks. Greg is passionately committed to making good music.

And it's obvious others are catching on. He has been recognized for his outstanding talent as an artist, having been honored with many remarkable opportunities and awards. He has shared the stage with a variety of the entertainment industries’ top performers, including Grammy Award-Winning Producer, David Foster, jazz crooner, Michael Bublé, 6–time Juno Award Winner, Colin James - as well as Casting Crowns, Jars of Clay, Leigh Nash (of Sixpence None the Richer), Bebo Norman, Carolyn Arends, Out of Eden, Shawn McDonald and more.

The end of 2004 brought Sczebel a Canadian Urban Music Award nomination, four CGMA (Covenant Award) nominations, and ultimately two CGMA awards (‘Male Vocalist of the Year’ and ‘Rap/Hip-Hop/Dance Song of the Year’), as well as an Okanagan Musician Award for ‘Gospel Artist of the Year’ for the second year in a row.

In 2005 Sczebel continued to gain momentum by picking up a JUNO AWARD (Canada’s Grammy©) for his debut album “Here to Stay” in the category of ‘Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year.’ Shortly after, Sczebel was nominated for a grand total of five Shai (“shay”) Awards (Canada’s Gospel Music People’s Choice Awards) – ultimately taking home 3 of these - ‘Pop/Contemporary Album,’ ‘Urban/Soul Album’ and ‘Song of the Year’ for his single “In the Pocket”. In addition, Sczebel was a grand prize–winner in the international 2004 John Lennon Songwriting Competition, for his title track, “Here to Stay” and more recently was a finalist in the R & B category for the 2005 John Lennon Songwriting Competition for his song “You’ve Got It”.

At the close of 2005 Greg was also privileged to sign exclusive endorsement deals with both Audix Microphones and Yamaha USA Pianos & Keyboards.

And this is just the beginning of what is quickly becoming a well-established music career. But in spite of the acclaim, Sczebel still finds the most value in the personal connection between music fans and his songs. "To be validated by the awards and opportunities is always encouraging. The most exciting thing though, is hearing that my music is connecting with people. If I can continue creating music that impacts those who listen to it, I'd love to still be doing this 40 years from now." If the present is any indication to the future, Greg Sczebel is well on his way to reaching his goal.

Career Highlights:
-2006 International Songwriting Competition Finalist for the song, “In the Pocket”
-2006 Multiple performances at the 2006 Winter NAMM Show - Anaheim, CA
-2005 Signs exclusive endorsement deal with Yamaha USA Pianos & Keyboards
-2005 Signs exclusive endorsement deal with AUDIX USA Microphones
-2005 Guest performer on CMT Canada’s “Paul Brandt & Friends: A Rocky Mountain Christmas in Banff” TV Special
-2005 Extensive touring throughout Canada; 6-week cross-country tour in April/May
-2005 John Lennon International Songwriting Contest Finalist for the song, "You’ve Got It"; R & B Category
-2005 Western Canadian Music Award – “Outstanding Christian Recording”
-2005 Covenant Award – “Urban Song of the Year” for the song, “Everybody”
-2005 4 CGMA (Covenant Award) Nominations, including “Male Vocalist of the Year” and “Producer of the Year’
-2005 Juno Award - “Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year”
-2005 3 Shai Awards – “Song of the Year” for the song “In the Pocket”, “Pop/Contemporary Album”, “Urban/Soul Album”
-2005 Okanagan Musician Award – “Gospel Artist of the Year”
-2005 5 time SHAI Award Nominee, including “Artist of the Year”, “Song of the Year” and “Male Soloist of the Year”
-2004 John Lennon International Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Winner for the song, “Here to Stay”;
Gospel/Inspirational Category
-2004 “Here to Stay” charts as the #1 selling release by an independent artist to Canadian Christian retailers in 2004.
-2004 Title track, "Here to Stay" featured on episode of UPN's hit TV series "Kevin Hill", starring Taye Diggs
-2004 Reunites with Producer, David Foster to perform at Foster Foundation charity event
-2004 Canadian Urban Music Award Nominee - "Gospel Recording of the Year"
-2004 2 CGMA (Covenant) Awards - “Male Vocalist of the Year” and “Rap/Hip-Hop/Dance” ("Lights Are Comin' On")
-2004 4 CGMA (Covenant Award) Nominations
-2004 Re-records Bee Gees' hit, "Lonely Days" for major ad campaign by Lifetime Television, New York, NY
-2004 Winner, Okanagan Musician Award – “Gospel Artist of the Year”
-2004 Featured on Sonicbids compilation CD – Chosen out of 20,000 entries
-2003 Named “Best Emerging Artist” by VIBE Gospel Music
-2003 Gospel Music Association (GMA) Song Competition Regional Winner (for the song "Perhaps")
-2002 Performs with Grammy Award-winning producer David Foster as a winner in Foster’s BC -wide talent search

QUOTES:

PAUL BRANDT, AWARD WINNING COUNTRY RECORDING ARTIST
"Greg Sczebel is just one of those artists with "It". He's got that X-factor, that undefinable thing that you need to be a successful in this business. It's undeniable that God has gifted him with an incredible talent to communicate to people's hearts and minds through music. I'm glad I got to know him before the rest of the world discovers him, because someday I'll be able to brag about how I knew him before he became a superstar."

KEVIN EDELMAN, MUSIC SUPERVISOR - METALMAN MEDIA INC.
"Greg is an incredible talent. One of the best young artists I’ve heard. His style and voice are unique and inspiring."

CAROLYN ARENDS, DOVE AND SHAI AWARD WINNING SINGER/SONGWRITER
"Greg Sczebel floors me. He sings with "soul" in every sense of the word. He writes insanely hooky, deeply moving songs about important things. It’s tempting to use phrases like "Next Big Thing", but Greg Sczebel isn’t the next anything. He’s now, and his music is truly great."

DIONNE SMITH, PRESIDENT, VIBE GOSPEL MUSIC
"I do not hesitate in the least to suggest that Greg Sczebel, will not only be one of Canada’s future leading gospel artists, but that his impact will go far beyond our borders."

HEATHER CLARK, HEATHERCLARKBAND
"Greg is an extremely gifted vocalist with a great ability to write and arrange music. His devotion to his gift is strong and undivided. His musicality along with his ability to reach an audience makes him a pleasure to both listen to and experience."

JAYLENE JOHNSON, SINGER / SONGWRITER
"When Greg Sczebel plays, joy electric runs through the crowd. Here is someone who not only inspires with a fresh lyrical approach in his songwriting, but who can also deliver the goods vocally and instrumentally. Most engaging, however, is his unassuming and humble posture...here is one to watch and watch closely, because he is going to fly..."

•  Sing It Stevie Wonder!