Vancouver Island local Allison Crowe (born on November 16, 1981) began honing her singing skills at coffee shops and in the drinking dens of the British Columbia coastal idyll aged 15. Capturing the spirit of moody, late 1990s female-led alt-rock and the chamber pop of Tori Amos, her debut EP, the elegiac Lisa's Song + Six Songs, arrived in 2001. The EP's title track was a poignant tribute to Crowe's high school friend Lisa Marie Young, who disappeared one night and is still missing from her hometown of Nanaimo in British Columbia. Taking inspiration from folk, jazz, grunge and pop as well as the aforementioned rock sound that was characteristic of the era, Crowe's follow-up releases Tidings and Secrets, landed in 2003 and 2004. Her third, snow-topped release, Tidings (2004) – an expanded version of the previous year's EP – featured cover versions of songs including the Beatles – while during the next decade she would release a steady stream of music inspired by her home country. A move to Corner Brook in Newfoundland prompted the release of 2006 album This Little Bird, with Newfoundland Vinyl, a collection of songs from, or having found fame in, Newfoundland and Labrador (and performed, engineered, and produced by Crowe) arriving in 2013. In 2020, her Celtic music-inspired album, Pillars, landed and the following year, Hollywood film director (and friend of Crowe), Zack Snyder, gave her 2003 version of "Hallelujah" a new lease of life when it was featured in the end credits of his movie Justice League, as an elegy to his late daughter Autumn Snyder.
