“A cross between Joni Mitchell and Heart’s Anne Wilson with her stylish blend of power and ease.” Steve Newton | Vancouver Free Press
“The voice is a constantly altering, consistently interesting performance.”
Les Wiseman | Vancouver Magazine
Brad Edwards Photography
Nahanni McKay/Banff Centre
Alison Hogan is a veteran west coast singer/songwriter who started out in Vancouver clubs and coffeehouses in the 1970s. Over the course of her career she has opened for Phil Ochs, Peter Yarrow, Jose Feliciano, and Stephane Grappelli.
As part of the gypsy-jazz quartet The Kitsilano Kat Kickers (aka Mystery Pacific), she played the first years of the Vancouver Folk Festival before going on to record her original material, releasing two indie cassette albums and a synth-pop single in English and Japanese for MCA/Universal. Her songs have charted with covers by indie country artists Lynne Taylor Donovan, Nikki Cousins, Anna Beaumont, and BC bluegrassers Tumbleweed.
Her discography also steps into the smooth jazz realm with a CD of Billie Holiday covers, First Takes, with Hogan Sings Holiday, featuring Tom Keenlyside (sax + clarinet), Miles Black (piano), Brent Gubbels (bass), Ron Thompson (guitar) and Craig Scott (drums). The ensemble celebrated a reunion in 2019 and makes occasional appearances at Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver.
In 2018 Alison released her first full-length album in many years. Songs From the Third Act was recorded with drummer/producer Shawn Soucy (One Horse Blue, Alibi) at Spirit Studio in Surrey, BC, and engineer Brian Campbell (Powder Blues, Ferron) at Wizard Sound Services in Vancouver.
The collection showcases the varied genres of Alison’s writing and features a stellar lineup of Soucy (drums and percussion), Brent Gubbels (bass), Darryl Havers (piano/accordion), Nolan Murray (fiddle + mandolin) and pedal steel master Charlie Hase.
It has been described by one reviewer as “a stunning, sad, funny, sexy and lovely collection of songs” evoking such legendary songwriters as Guy Clark, Garnet Rogers and Townes Van Zandt.
Her live performances showcase her love of classic country, blues and roots music, delivered with a wry sense of humour and some intricate acoustic guitar work. Her influences (John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell) come to light in stories populated by characters wrapped up with hard luck, lost love and missed opportunities.
Alison was invited to attend the International Singer Songwriter residency at the Banff Centre in March of 2019, writing and recording new material under the mentorship of Kevin Welch, Fats Kaplin, Dustin Welch, Kim Richey, David Francey and Tamara Lindeman. The tracks were finished and mixed at Howard Bilerman’s Montreal studio hotel2tango along with the new single Pay Dirt, with Charlie Hase on pedal steel.
Her version of John Prine’s Far From Me is featured on the Ultimate John Prine Covers playlist on Spotify.
Alison plays a vintage Michael Heiden acoustic and a Takamine EF261 Santa Fe.
Brad Edwards Photography
alisonhogan.com 