Allison Crowe is a singer whom I first stumbled across around late 2004, early 2005. It was a time when I was falling in love more and more with Keane and Coldplay, and other piano-based indie. Allison was, and remains, a perfect accent to their music - bold, piano-based music supported by a frankly beautiful voice. Over the past three years she's proven herself again and again, and fantastically offers a huge amount of free downloads from her website. What's more, Allison would probably fall into that category of artists who have changed the way I think about music. Billy Joel started my love for music, Stereophonics turned it to the modern day, and are responsible for most of the bands I listen to today, and Allison Crowe developed my love for the female voice. Look down the previous posts here and you'll see just how much I write about female singers who have fantastic voices - Natasha Bedingfield, Emmy the Great, Goldfrapp, Joanna Newsom, Mandy Moore, St. Vincent and Sia of Zero 7. More recently I've written about Adele, who is essentially a weaker Allison Crowe with stronger record company execs behind her.
And this is what is fantastic about Allison Crowe. She isn't in the music for the money, she's in it for the music. Her website quotes her at the top of each page with 'Why music? Why breathing?' This here is a woman on a mission. With that in mind, listen to her version of 'O Holy Night' from Christmas album 'Tidings'. It isn't her best track by far (try her definitive version of Cohen's 'Hallelujah'), but still remains stunning vocally.
mp3: 'O Holy Night' by Allison Crowe