Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

Experience the warm cheer of the season when "Tidings" returns to Fairfield United Church - featuring the voices and music of troubador Allison Crowe and special guests Hayley Walker and Billie Woods. The concert, a fun and spirited holiday tradition in Victoria, happens ...Saturday, December 17. (Music - 8 pm + Doors 7 pm)

Along with sharing musical tidings of comfort and joy, the event's mission is to raise some awareness and funds for a pair of dedicated Victoria non-profits - Artemis Place and HepCBC.

Artemis, for decades, has delivered an integrated counseling and educational program - a meaningful alternative to traditional school. Artemis Place is a sanctuary where girls are able to complete high school while learning critical life skills in conflict resolution, and in building self-esteem and successful relationships. Lisa Ellis, Executive Director, herself a graduate of the program, and the Artemis team are committed to tapping the potential of the most at-risk girls in our community and helping them to transform their lives. Artemis is a Tidings partner since the first concert Allison presented in the city.

HepCBC, a more recent Tidings' partner, strives to support those who are directly and indirectly affected by Hepatitis C. This systemic disorder primarily targets the liver, but can also trigger a host of of autoimmune disorders and various other diseases. Dedicated to Hep C education and prevention for more than a decade, HepCBC, a non-profit society, does all it can to ensure that the public is aware of the existence and transmission methods of Hepatitis C and people know how and where to get tested.

The Tidings concert program brings together a trio of distinct island voices:

Haley Walker is an Artemis Student and an aspiring jazz and blues singer. With a strong and soulful voice, she draws her inspiration from the vocal styles of Etta James, Nina Simone, and Peggy Lee.

Billie Woods, globe-trotting Salt Spring Island musician and photographer, presents songs that echo with the natural tones of our coastal forest and seas, infused with the warmth and vitality of Brazil's sambas and bossa novas. Among her musical loves, she counts Jose Gonzales, Sigur Ros, Arcade Fire, and Harry Manx

Allison Crowe, internationally-heralded, born on Vancouver Island, stirs together traditional Christmas carols and holiday favourites in an organic blend of rock, jazz, folk, and more. "Be prepared to be amazed," chimes ChristmasReviews.com Longtime NPR broadcaster Ross Hocker calls Allison Crowe's performance, "The most honest, heartfelt, and directly intimate concert in my entire life."

Italian radio calls Allison Crowe: "Una voce incredibile per una forza della natura."

As a performing artist, Crowe is akin, in ways, to the late, great, Swedish power-house soprano, Birgit Nilsson, about whom it's said "No record or CD could quite prepare a listener for the real thing, live in the opera house".

Tidings is Allison Crowe's melding of the sacred and secular in "songs of the season" and spirit. Some of the music is familiar repertoire, delivered in singular style. Some is not like anything customarily heard in a holiday-time concert.

Tidings viscerally surveys a musical terrain of carols - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, In the Bleak Midwinter, What Child Is This, First Noel, Silent Night, O Holy Night - performed with rare artistry and passion, and emotive arrangements, alongside the modern canon of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Lennon/McCartney+, and Allison Crowe's original songs, (including
the just-composed "Arthur", and the epic "Disease"), that draw on themes of faith, hope, sorrow, joy, redemption, transcendence and more from life's well.

Tidings is an exciting experience shared by music-lovers around the world. This holiday season Allison Crowe w. Haley Walker & Billie Woods bring Tidings to:

Fairfield United Church, 1303 Fairfield Road, Victoria, BC, V8S 1E3

Music: 8:00 pm Doors: 7:00 pm

Tickets @: Lyle’s Place (770 Yates); Larsen Music (1833 Cook Street); Ivy’s Bookshop (2188 Oak Bay Ave.); & in Allison's online Box Office @ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/shoptickets.html

Advance Tickets: $20 General / $15 Students & Seniors + any service charges (Door: $22 / $17)

More info @: http://www.allisoncrowe.com/ + http://www.myspace.com/billiewoods + http://www.artemisplace.org/ + http://www.hepcbc.ca/