Terry Allen (artist)

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For other similarly named individuals, see Terry Allen.
Terry Allen
Terry Allen at the 2010 Texas Book Festival
Background information
Born (1943-05-07) May 7, 1943 (age 80)
Wichita, Kansas
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer-songwriter
  • painter
  • sculptor
  • conceptual artist
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • piano
  • guitar
Years active1965–present
Terry Allen in Dallas, 2018

Terry Allen (born May 7, 1943)[1] is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist from Lubbock, Texas. Allen's musical career spans several albums in the Texas country and outlaw country genres, and his visual art includes painting, conceptual art, performance, and sculpture, with a number of notable bronze sculptures installed publicly in various cities throughout the United States. He currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Allen has recorded twelve albums of original songs, including the landmark releases Juarez (1975) and Lubbock (On Everything) (1979). His song "Amarillo Highway" has been covered by Bobby Bare, Sturgill Simpson and Robert Earl Keen. Other artists who have recorded Allen's songs include Guy Clark, Little Feat, David Byrne, Doug Sahm, Ricky Nelson, and Lucinda Williams.[2] Rolling Stone magazine describes his catalog, reaching back to Juarez as "..uniformly eccentric and uncompromising, savage and beautiful, literate and guttural."[3]

Allen also works with a wide variety of media including musical and theatrical performances, sculpture, painting, drawing and video, and installations which incorporate any and all of these media. His work has been shown throughout the United States and internationally.[4]

Early life

He was born in Wichita, Kansas, United States.[1] Allen's father was Fletcher ("Sled") Allen (August 23, 1886 in West Plains, Missouri – October 16, 1959 in Lubbock, Texas) a catcher in 1910 for the St. Louis Browns, who continued his career as a player-manager in the Texas League.[5]

Allen attended

Venice, California
.

Visual artist

His works are represented in the collections of many international museums including the

Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
.

Kansas City, Missouri is home to both his controversial public sculpture "Modern Communication"[9] as well as The Belger Collection[10][11] which features Terry Allen as one of their seven "core artists".

Music

Allen first learned to play piano from his mother, Pauline Pierce Allen, a professional musician.[12] In 1962, while in high school, he wrote his first song, "Red Bird",[13] which he would go on to perform live on Shindig! in 1965,[14] and record for his 1980 album Smokin' the Dummy.

In 1975, Allen released his debut art-country album, Juarez, which is considered "one of the greatest concept albums of all time" according to PopMatters.[15] Rolling Stone later called it an "outlaw classic".[16]

Allen's 1979 follow up was the groundbreaking

alt-country movement.[17] One of the songs, "New Delhi Freight Train", was first recorded by Little Feat and appears on their 1977 album Time Loves a Hero.[18] Guy Clark said of the song, "It's such an interesting piece of work. It’s really fun to play. The music, it’s really nice. But it's the juxtaposition of the song."[19]

In 1980, Allen released Smokin' the Dummy, recorded with the Panhandle Mystery Band.[1]

His 1983 album

Jesus Christ.[20]

In 1986, Allen collaborated with director David Byrne on the soundtrack for the film True Stories.

Over the following decade (1985-1995), Allen released a series of albums with avant-garde elements, as companions to visual art, theatrical and musical projects – Pedal Steal, Amerasia and Chippy (the latter also the soundtrack of a stage play in collaboration with Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Robert Earl Keen and Wayne Hancock).

In 1996, he released the country album

David Byrne, Joe Ely, Charlie and Will Sexton and Lucinda Williams.[21]

In 2007, Allen appeared on the track "Ghost of Travelin' Jones" on Ryan Bingham's album Mescalito.

Allen's 2013 album Bottom of the World features "Queenie's Song", inspired by the death of his dog and co-written with Guy Clark.

Discography

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-85112-726-6
    .
  2. ^ "Biography of Terry Allen / Artist / Songwriter". Terryallenartmusic.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  3. ^ "TERRY ALLEN". Paradise of Bachelors. 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  4. ^ "Terry Allen / Artist / Songwriter". Terryallenartmusic.com. Retrieved 2018-05-26.
  5. ^ "Sled Allen Stats". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2009-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ a b "Terry Allen Biography" (PDF). LA Louver. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
  8. ^ "The Stuart Collection". Stuartcollection.ucsd.edu. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  9. ^ "Controversial statue finds new home near police headquarters | the Kansas City Star the Kansas City Star". www.kansascity.com. Archived from the original on 22 January 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Belger Arts - KC,MO". Belgearts.org. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  11. ^ "Modern Day Renaissance Man Terry Allen's "Tables and Angels" at the Belger". Kcur.org. 7 July 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  12. ^ "Tale of a Tale Spinner". Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  13. ^ "Terry Allen: Crossing The Horizon". TJ Music Magazine. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  14. ^ "Terry Allen (from LoneStarMusic Magazine, Jan/Feb 2013)". SkanseLand: The Richard Skanse Archives. 2014-02-17. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  15. ^ "Terry Allen: Juarez". PopMatters. 2004-04-20. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  16. ^ "Terry Allen Resurrects Iconic Concept Album 'Juarez'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  17. ^ "Lubbock (On Everything) - Terry Allen | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  18. ^ "New Delhi Freight Train - Little Feat | Song Info | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  19. ^ "Terry Allen: Crossing The Horizon". TJ Music Magazine. Retrieved 2018-05-27.
  20. ^ "Terry Allen inhabits his art". statesman. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  21. ^ "Sugar Hill Records - The Best in Roots Music". 2007-05-26. Archived from the original on 2007-05-26. Retrieved 2018-05-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

Further reading

External links

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