Biography
ALLISON DOWNEY & JOHN AUSTIN (Little Ditty Records) www.allisondowney.com
"Allison Downey is a true poet whose lyrics stand on their own as art. Add to that her polished performance skills and crystal clear vocals and you have one of the best singer-songwriters out there today." - Al Kniola, Host, The Back Porch, 88.1 WVPE Public Radio
“Allison and John are the complete package…skilled musicians, engaging storytellers, and songs ranging from thoughtful to flat out hilarious…our audience loved them.”
-Andy Baker, Northwind House Concerts
“Across the Sea should be required listening for anyone who thinks they know music. I love it!...among the best I’ve heard this year.
-Tom Saunders, A3Radio.com
AWARDS
• 2008 The Great Lakes Songwriting Contest, 2nd Place
o “All that Matters” & “Almost” – Across the Sea
• 2008 Music to Life Contest, Semi-Finalist, aired on XM Satellite Radio's Top 40 songs for social justice
o “Please Help!” – Across the Sea
• 2007 Wildflower! Arts Music Festival Performing Songwriter Contest – People's Choice Winner!
o “All that Matters” & “Almost” – Across the Sea
• 2005 International Songwriting Competition - Quarter Finalist
o “Wind at Your Back” – Wind at Your Back
• 2004 Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival Singer-Songwriter Contest Finalist - ** “Wind at Your Back” & “Cate’s Cradle” – Wind at Your Back
• 2004 South Florida Festival Performing Songwriter Competition Finalist
o “Wind at Your Back” & “Cate’s Cradle” – Wind at Your Back
• 2003 Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival Performing Songwriter Contest - Semi-finalist –
o “Wind at Your Back” & “Fallen Angel” – Wind at Your Back
Allison has been described as a “masterful performer with a commanding, yet genuine and open, stage presence”. Her face literally lights up as she sings with a voice reminiscent of the stylistic range and quality of Natalie Merchant. With an MFA in Theatre, Allison is a natural storyteller who creates scenes on stage. This native Washingtonian (DC) honed her craft in Austin, TX before bringing her style of music to her current home of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since 2004, Allison has been performing with her partner in music and life, John Austin. Allison’s “Midwestern Urban Folk” originals are complimented by the dynamic grooves of John’s six-string bass. Songs from Allison’s newest recording, Across the Sea (2008), produced by Michael Crittenden of Mackinaw Harvest Records, have already garnered accolades for Allison, including the People’s Choice Award for Texas’ 2007 Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival Performing Songwriter Contest. The album has been played on 55 radio stations across the US, and five other countries. “Please Help” was aired on XM Radio’s “2008 Music to Life Top 40,” a contest honoring songs for social justice and presented by Christine Lavin. Allison's debut CD, Wind at Your Back (Little Ditty Records, 2002), produced by veteran performers Christine Albert & Chris Gage, has been heard on radio stations around the country. Both CD’s are available at a variety of stores, on itunes, CDBaby.com and on her website: www.allisondowney.com
"Real and earnest songwriting with a sense of humor about itself.”
— Ryan Cunningham, Recoil Magazine
Allison’s Extended Bio:
A natural on stage, Award-winning Singer-Songwriter, Allison Downey can make an audience in a 500-seat theatre feel like they’re in her living room. Her face literally lights up as she sings with a voice reminiscent of the stylistic range and quality of Natalie Merchant. “Dynamic, energetic, intimate, masterful, genuine, honest, humorous, hilarious, charismatic” – just a few of the descriptors chosen by critics and audiences to describe Allison’s performances. She takes her audiences on a journey that spans the gamut of human emotions, guiding them through the nuances of connections, and missed connections, across the character of landscapes and seascapes, to the bawdiness of an American in Paris, or a Spaniard in America. In song and performance Allison creates multi-dimensional characters in settings so rich with imagery that they reveal her training (MFA, Theatre) and experience as a theatre artist. Christian Czerwinski of the Lansing NOISE explains “Allison Downey, … the singer with a honey-coated voice is also a playwright and writes songs that appeal to all of the senses. It’s as if she’s creating a scene on stage…”
Born in Berlin, Germany, raised in Washington, DC, Allison is a world traveler, well, 5 continents that is, living for extended periods in Spain, France, Brazil, Senegal, Africa; Tortola, British Virgin Islands; as well as Maine, New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, Washington, and Michigan. She spent much of the past 20 years traipsing across all 50 United States, Canada, England, Mexico, Western Europe, Australia & New Zealand (w/17 twelve year olds), and Eastern Europe before the crumbling of the iron curtain. She’s climbed the Grand Teton, the tallest mountain in Wyoming, lived in a tent near the Yukon on a glacier lake, lived in an New Mexican adobe house heated only by the firewood she chopped, snorkled the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, herded sheep and cattle & picked potatoes while living above the pigs in an 1100 year old stone house in Galicia province, Spain.
Allison absorbs the sounds, scents, textures, landscapes, and seascapes of the places she visits. These experiences seep into the songs she writes as portraits, snapshots or vignettes as if she’s creating a scene on stage. She is able to traverse landscapes of loss, discover humor in the mundane, find poignancy in simple exchanges, and reveal the universality of human nature within the disparities of life. Across the Sea, her latest recording, takes the listener to the streets of a homeless person, a middle school dance, fantasies of Ireland, the dusty earth of Texas, the landscape of a lost lover, an English pub at last call, the backyard filled with the critters, and through the gamut of life’s emotions. The songs embody an organic and folksy sound while borrowing from Folk-pop to Texas twang, Bluegrass to sultry Jazz, and from folk guitar ballads to ethereal, contemporary piano duets. The themes of distance and longing for love out of reach thread through most of the songs without taking on a melancholy tone, due in large part to the lightness and humor of Allison’s stories and performances. Allison artfully brings the characters in the stories to life. She even transforms into her alter-egos when audience favorites “Carmen” or “Melba” take the stage to offer their version of a song, a harkening to her advanced training in theatre.
Allison honed her craft in Austin, TX before bringing her style of music to her current home of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since 2004, Allison has been performing with her partner in music and life, John Austin. Allison’s “Midwestern Urban Folk” originals are complimented by the dynamic grooves of John’s six-string bass. Allison’s newest recording, Across the Sea (2008), produced by Michael Crittenden of Mackinaw Harvest Records features her husband, John, Annie & Rod Capps, and Michael Crittenden & Brian Morrill of “Troll for Trout.”
Two of the songs, “Almost” and “All That Matters,” won Allison the 2007 People’s Choice Award for the Wildflower! Festival Performing Songwriting Competition (TX). The album has been played in over 55 radio stations across the US (23 states), and five other countries. “Please Help” was aired on XM Radio’s “2008 Music to Life Top 40,” a contest honoring songs for social justice and presented by Christine Lavin. Allison's debut CD, Wind at Your Back (Little Ditty Records, 2002), produced by veteran performers Christine Albert & Chris Gage, also won her awards and has been heard on radio stations around the country.
MORE QUOTES
“Downey has a sweet, clear voice and writes melodic, character-driven songs that, on Downey's CD, 'Wind at Your Back,' recall Natalie Merchant's solo records."
-Andrew S. Hughes, South Bend Tribune
“Allison Downey, … the singer with a honey-coated voice is also a playwright and writes songs that appeal to all of the senses. It’s as if she’s creating a scene on stage…”
– Christian Czerwinski, Lansing NOISE
“Allison can really smoke! Take me back to the late 60's on Highway 61”
- Eddie Stout, Malaco Records
“Downey's smooth, lyrical, soaring voice is a splendid instrument.”
- Mark Bretz, KDHX radio, St. Louis
“Allison Downey is one soulful bitch!”
- Miss Lavelle White, Antone's Records Recording Artist
SELECTED VENUES PLAYED
The Ark (Ann Arbor, MI)
Miller Auditorium (Kalamazoo, MI)
The Living Room (NYC, NY)
The Livery (Benton Harbor, MI)
The Continental Club (Austin, TX)
Vic's Music Corner / Focus Concerts (Rockville, MD)
Barker Concert Series (Austin, TX)
Moore House Music (Rockville, MD)
International Folk Cultural Center Concerts (San Antonio, TX)
TELEVISION
Channel 3 News - Grand Rapids, MI
Channel 41 News - Kalamazoo, MI
Fox 7 News - Austin, TX
Austin Music Network – live shows "Breakin' In" & "What's the Cover"
SELECTED RADIO PLAY: 55 stations, 25 states, 6 countries, including:
• KGNU - Boulder, CO
• KOPN - Columbia, MO
• KRLC - Salt Lake City, UT
• KUT - Austin, TX
• KZMU - Moab, UT
• WDCB - Glen Ellyn, IL
• WDET - Detroit, MI
• WEBR - Fairfax, VA
• WETA - Washington, DC
• WFMT, WDCB - Chicago, IL
• WDET – Detroit, MI
• WIUJ - St. Thomas, VI
• WMNF - Tampa, FL
• WMUK - Kalamazoo, MI
• WMPN – Amazon Radio! – Montauk, NY
• WUWG - Carollton, GA
• Belgium, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Ireland
Instrumentation
Allison Downey - vocals, acoustic guitar
John Austin - electric bass
Discography
Wind at Your Back - CD 2002 (Little Ditty Records)
Across the Sea - CD 2008 (Mackinaw Harvest Records)
Links
| http://www.allisondowney.com |