Pipitone was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2017. Pipitone's professional career began in
Los Angeles in the late 1980s, playing rhythm guitar in the band The Monas with her sister Natalie Howes on vocals and keys; brother Damon, on drums and sister Gabrielle Hangen on bass. Gabrielle left the band a short time later and Aaron Britt took over as the bass player. When the
grunge movement took hold in the early 1990s, Pipitone returned to Western New York and launched a career as a solo artist. In 1995, she released her debut recording,
Life in the First Person. In reviewing the album for the
North County Times, writer
Jim Trageser noted "Pipitone's music is what gives her lyrics their power. Hard-edged and contemporary, her music is along the lines of
Sheryl Crow or
Joan Osborne. Like Crow, Pipitone's rough, nasal vocals are half-sung, half-spoken. And she also plays some mean guitar." Pipitone continued to hone her craft over the next decade with five more solo albums. In 1997, Pipitone wrote and performed the song
Dynamite for the soundtrack to the motion picture
All Over Me. In 2006, The Alison Pipitone Band made its debut with the album
Tiger Babies. The band followed up with 2009's "Me and Miss Grimes" and 2013's "Big Wide World." In reviewing
Big Wide World, Art Voice critic
Geoff Kelly said the album shows that Pipitone "knows how to write a hook like nobody's business." A fixture on the Buffalo music scene for nearly two decades, Pipitone has earned the
Buffalo Music Award for Top Original Female Vocalist nine times and The Alison Pipitone Band earned the
Top Original Rock Band Award in 2005 and 2009. In addition to touring the United States, Pipitone has appeared on the bill of various music festivals, including
North by Northeast in Toronto, the Crossroads Music Conference in Cleveland and
The Great Blue Heron Music Festival in
Sherman, New York She has served as a support act for performers including
Barenaked Ladies,
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and
Lilith Fair. == Discography ==