The double A-side single, Arthur / Up to the Mountain (MLK Song), is now available to buy on Bandcamp in FLAC, MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis and ALAC formats. It is also available as a free MP3 download for a short time (until 10th August) on Muruch: http://www.muruch.com/2011/07/allison-crowe-exclusive-2-new-mp3s.html. Without further ado, here are the videos:

(Tip: select 480p+ on YouTube videos to get higher audio quality)

Arthur:

Up to the Mountain (MLK Song):

The double A-side single features a new original song by Ally, "Arthur", and an interpretation of Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain (MLK Song)".

Patty Griffin's Up to the Mountain (MLK Song), from 2007's Children Running Through is piano-based contemporary folk/gospel song which draws influence from Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. Ally's interpretation of Patty's song is played on guitar.

(Links are to Spotify, which is currently available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, the US, France, Spain and the Netherlands only - Sorry!)

'Spiral', Ally's new album, is out now both in digial form and physical CD release. I've only just got my copy, so I've not had a chance to write a review yet, but you can read a review by Muruch here in the mean time (Greenwich Mean Time).

'Spiral' Ally's new album, will be available to buy from St. Patricks Day (17^th March), so be sure to pick up a copy. I'm sure Ally will understand if you buy it after you have recovered from St. Patricks Day, if you are as prone (as I am) to imbibing Guinness at your local drinking emporium!

Ally's new album 'Spiral' is in the final production stages, so there's not long to wait now!

Here's a pre-album version of 'Going Home Tonight' to wet your appetite. Download the MP3 here.

...and there's even video version too, you lucky, lucky people:

Good news everybody! If you are lucky enough to live in one of the European countries where Spotify is available (currently Sweden, Norway, Finland, UK, France and Spain) you can listen to Ally's albums 'Secrets' and 'Little Light', in whole and for free! Spotify's music is streamed in Ogg Vorbis at 160 kbps (320 kbps for premium) so it sounds much closer to a CD than you've ever heard before on the Internet.

Unfortunately, Spotify is temporarily only accepting new free customers by invite. You can still sign up as a premium customer for £9.99 then switch to a free account after a month. Trust me it'll be the best ten pounds you ever spend! If you do sign up for a premium account then you'll also get invites which you can send to your friends so that they can sign up for free and listen to it too!

If you're already on Spotify and you like Ally's music then why not send a link to Ally's albums to all your friends and help us spread the word! Power to the people!

Ally's Spotify page: http://open.spotify.com/artist/6hG64BPoiQOzP30N6KU8Ue

'Spiral' is the title of Ally's new album, the first album recorded with her touring band: Billie Woods, guitar and backing vocals, Dave Baird, bass and backing vocals and Laurent Boucher on percussion. Larry Anschell (Turtle Recording Studios) adds his electric guitar playing skills into the mix too.

Spiral is in the final stages of production now and will be released soon, but first Ally is off on tour with her ever popular 'Tidings' tour. The Christmas decorations are up in the shops now so you can start spinning your Tidings CD for the world to hear without you considered being a weirdo!

This Little Bird - UK 2006 Tour

October 20 - London, Lauderdale House
October 21 - London, Halo
October 26 - Glasgow, Ramshorn Theatre
October 29 - Liverpool, Heart and Soul
November 1 - Dublin, Bewley's Cafe Theatre
November 3 - Aberdeen, Cowdray Hall
November 4 - Dundee, Chaplaincy Centre

Live at Wood Hall is a 2 CD recording covering some old favorites from "6 Songs" and "Secrets", a few that were on the Live @ Lucky bootleg and some new previously unreleased songs and covers. In all there are 23 songs, of which 15 are not on Ally's previous studio releases. The track listing is as follows:

Adrian has told men that the UK touring dates are likly to mid-November. A likly venue has been found for the London gig at the Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Road.

Adrian is also looking for other venues and would be glad to hear of any in your area of the UK. The venue should have a grand piano and of a relatively small size.

Adrian mentioned in a newsgroup post to me the Allison is planning to tour in UK and Europe. Here is a snippet from Adrian's post:

The extended version of tidings has been released. A full review and streaming audio tracks are available in the music section.

Here is the official track listing of the new Tidings album as given to me by Adrian Allison's manager. He also indicated that the new Tidings will probably be released in November.

In the tradition of Allison's albums Tidings it to get a re-release. However unlike 6 Songs various flavours it is going to be upgraded to a full length release. Allison will be returning to the studio that she recorded the last version to ensure the same ambience. The only details about tracks so far is that it will include all the songs from last time around and a cover of Joni Mitchell's River.

Further to the excellent song "Unstable" which will be appearing on the album (a live version is in the live @ lucky section on the music page), many of the following tracks are expected to also be appearing:

This was the track listing album as conceived at the start of this year. However since then Allison has been rather prolific meaning that there are now enough songs to fill three albums! This has Ally thinking about what to do about! It is possible that a 2CD album may be released or just a re-pick of tracks. I'll let you know when I know!