Tidings

Tidings is the third studio album by Allison Crowe, released in 2003 (see 2003 in music) in EP form and expanded to full album length in 2004 (see 2004 in music). Recorded live-off-the-floor, it is primarily an album of traditional songs of the season and Christmas carols alongside cover versions of some of Crowe's favourite songs of spirituality and redemption.

This collection includes several songs by fellow Canadian songwriters, along with international writers. Among these is a single/first take recording of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah that is the best known of the artist's numerous acclaimed song interpretations. It has been commented upon extensively in print and broadcast media, including a November 2008 BBC radio documentary, "The Fourth, The Fifth, The Minor Fall".

Crowe's recording of Hallelujah was selected as the soundtrack accompaniment to a love scene in The Watchmen, before being replaced by Cohen's own live version. "I originally had a different version of 'Hallelujah' on that scene (involving characters Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II) - it was the version by Allison Crowe, and it was really beautiful. Too beautiful, as it turned out..." says the movie's Director Zack Snyder. In another interview, Snyder explained that Crowe's recording is "too romantic" and "too sexy" for the scene which is meant to come across as ironic and "ridiculous".

Van Morrison

Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison, OBE (born 31 August 1945) is a British singer, songwriter and musician. He has received six Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016 he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland.

Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison started his professional career when, as a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for various Irish showbands covering the popular hits of the day. He rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B band Them, with whom he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks (1968). Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially a poor seller; Moondance (1970), however, established Morrison as a major artist, and he built on his reputation throughout the 1970s with a series of acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell well and are generally warmly received, sometimes collaborating with other artists, such as Georgie Fame and the Chieftains. In 2008 he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.