Mike Allison
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Mike Allison

Band Pop Acoustic

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Worth The Walking. Tsunami Relief Concert at George's Raises over $300.00"

...I was a bit late arriving and unfortunately missed ... most of Mike Allison's [performance]. However, I was able to catch his cover of Prince's "Purple Rain." I had never head the song performed in the acoustic coffeehouse style and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. His performance was very laid back and yet still professional. His interactions with the audience were friendly and his effortlessly awesome performance set a very cozy atmosphere for the spacious Roadhouse...

-Jodie Barnaby
- The Argosy, Sackville N.B.


"Mike Allison Launches Album - CD release party and performance"

By Jodie Barnaby
Entertainment Editor

Mike Allison launched his first full-length studio album, ...things that move us, Friday evening at the campus Pub. Although another Stereophonic show was hammering away only a few doors down at George's Roadhouse, the crowd that was present was huge! With a mixture of his friends, family and general fans, the show had a very intimate vibe to it that perfectly captured the emotion behind the album.

Allison took the stage along with accompanying friends Jeff McCullum on drums and Hauke Hempel on piano, and immediately captivated the audience who grew silent with the first strum of his guitar. Delivering each song like a pro, Allison stopped only to explain what the album meant to him, and to tease his mother.

Allison played songs from ...things that move us, as well as a few other audience favorites that were well received throughout the crowd, generating a few small sing-a-longs. The Pub served as a perfect venue for the release of ...things that move us; with family and old friends standing behind him, Allison has released a genuinely beautiful album.


- The Argosy - Sackville, NB


"Mike Allison: An Outstanding Vocal Talent Comes to UTSC"

Mike Allison. Now, if you don't know his name at UTSC, you have been living under a sadly non-entertaining rock the past year and a half. He's performed at events such as: UTSC Summerfest 2005, various UTSC events, a benefit concert for Shinerama at Purdy's Pub and headlined two of Conduct Becoming's "Concert on the Lake".

Most recently in a jam-packed Residence Centre along with UTSC's own Sheralyn Tan and Canadian Comedian Geoff Hendry, he's played for us many times, and UTSC loves him (and Drew Dudley of Student Affairs, who does the booking!) for it.

His outstanding vocal talent makes him great to hear, but with the added bonuses of his humorous stage presence, charming boy-next-door looks and humble personality, seeing him live was truly an orgasmic audio-visual experience.

Those who saw him in the past giggle over classics like "11 Months Ago" telling of relationship breakup aftermath and the solution being to go out to the bar, "stylin ' and solo, with a big sign on your forehead saying: 'I ain't going home alone!'"

But this year students were treated to songs from his new CD, ...things that move us, an easy listening CD with lytrics that draw you into Mike's stories, told in song.

Often featured by several Fusion Radio DJs, such as those on "What sound does a Giraffe make?" and soon to be featured on the upcoming CBC Series, "Make Some Noise", Mike Allison is a rising star that UTSC has been lucky to hear many times over the past few years.


-Deirdre Chong
- The Scarborough Frequency


"Florenceville Artist Mike Allison Offers Solid Folky Pop Album"

Eric Lewis rates his music reviews on a scale of one to five, with (*) equivalent to a poor rating, (**) fair, (***) good, (****) very good and (*****) excellent.

Mike Allison

... Things That Move Us

Independent

(***)

This is an interesting folky pop album from Mike Allison, who you might recognize as the director for McSweeney's Dinner Theatre in Moncton. From folky numbers like "Charlottetown" to poppy numbers like "Holly Would" and "At Least One Song" to the simple piano-driven "Florida Keys," the Florenceville, N.B., native manages to cover a few styles with ease. His confident, smooth voice and storytelling songs are the common thread throughout.

Mike's lyrics are thoughtful, hopeful and at times amusing. This acoustic guitar- and piano-driven album shows his range as a songwriter and musician. The production is by no means a big budget affair, but it is pretty solid nonetheless.

The bottom line is, this is an enjoyable pop album with great tunes like "At Least One Song" or "Take A Solo" that could easily be placed alongside material by bands like Train and David Usher.
- Moncton Times and Transcript


Discography

Union_44 - 1999
Preshow - 2005
...things that move us - 2006

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Mike's first performance of note was when he sang the Irish Rovers' "Wasn't That a Party" for the United Church minister in his hometown of Florenceville, New Brunswick. The concept of reading the crowd was apparently lost on the three-year-old Mike.

Twenty-odd years later, Mike still has a strong connection with the back roads of Carleton County, New Brunswick. His early influences (Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, John Denver and Blue Rodeo) have combined with his later musical encounters (Jazzberry Ram, Sting, Stevie Wonder and Colin Hay) to create his own blend of pop, folk and funk which is educated but never pretentious, and introspective but never self indulgent. Mike's lyrics often draw inspiration from the literary giants he has studied all his life, but they just as often spring from personal experiences of friendship, love, and loss.

Mike arrived in Sackville, New Brunswick in 1996 and quickly established himself as an integral part of the music scene at Mount Allison University. He became a favorite at campus coffee houses and late-night residence sing-alongs, and was soon asked to host the town's weekly open mic' night at a local pub.

After earning the chance to represent Mount Allison at the Atlantic Universities' "Campus Sound Explosion" (a competition won the following year by an early incantation of The Trews), Mike teamed up with accomplished Halifax artist/producer Jon Epworth (of The Dean Malenkos) to cut his first CD in the spring of 1999. Entitled "Union_44" (after the house it was recorded in), its 10 tracks were recorded in a single evening on an analog 8-track recorder. This debut album went on to sell several hundred copies on the Mount Allison campus, and many tracks from that CD continue to make appearances in Mike's live shows and on campus radio programming across Canada.

Mike left Mount Allison in May of 2000 and moved to Acadia University, where he completed a Masters Degree in English. While writing and performing at Acadia, Mike was afforded the opportunity to work with producer/deejay Robb Lepper (Greg Muttart: Live at Jacks) and musician/engineer extraorinaire Jude Pelley (Exit 13). He also appeared on the university's "Constellation" compilation, and recorded a track for the first-ever "Conduct Becoming: Voices Against Cancer" CD, a project that in many ways was created as a result of Mike's music. Conduct Becoming has gone on to release five successful albums, the latest of which was produced by Mike himself.

Mike has been a professional entertainer for the past six years. He has written award-winning plays, appeared as a finalist on Canadian Idol, and shared the stage with such artists as Matt Andersen, J.F. Coley, Isaac, Blewett and Cooper, Kalen Porter, Ashley MacIsaac, and The Rheostatics. Most of his on-stage work has been been with the various dinner theatre companies across the Maritimes, where he has been a writer and director and also a performer, appearing in thirteen shows and over five hundred performances. His career in dinner theatre has allowed him to work closely with actor/musician M.J. Ross (The Jive Kings, Mike Ross: The Dennis Lee Project) who he credits as a great influence and teacher.

Now having retired as a dinner theatre performer, Mike has returned his focus to his own music. Recently Mike has been traveling more extensively to spread his music. In July of 2004, he headlined the first-ever "Concert on the Lake" at the Ontario Regional Shinerama Conference, and two weeks later he stole the show at the University of Toronto's "Summerfest' event. In March of 2005, Mike returned to Toronto for the first shows of what would become an immensely successful five-province tour for the Shinerama cause (Canada's largest student fundraiser), supporting the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

His latest album, ...things that move us was released in January of 2006.