Exploring the wide range of works created by Texas legend Terry Allen, it would be easy to imagine the 81- year-old spending his life haunted by all of the intricate and mysterious tales that were waiting to get out. The artist has spent the majority of his life starting out in Lubbock actively finding a multitude of ways to tell stories be it through songs, visual art or theater, all the avenues of expression he experiences as one.
“I think haunted is a pretty good word,” agrees Allen from his home in Santa Fe. “Especially when you live a long time you’ve got a lot of lives that have haunted you and you’ve lived a lot of lives so I think all of that becomes very fertile to think about and work with and just deal with, whatever kind of art you’re making.”
Allen will perform along with his wife of 62 years, collaborator and fellow Lubbock native Jo Harvey Allen along with their family filled Panhandle Mystery Band for a very special evening at The Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston on Friday, January 10.
The event was organized by the historic Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe in Galveston, a legendary listening room originally located in downtown Houston until it relocated to the Island in 1996.
“We’ve been doing this piece called MemWars which is Jo Harvey and I kind of tell these stories to each other and then it’s followed by a song so the stories kind of lead into a song, maybe where the song came from, but I don’t know if you ever know where a song really came from,” says Allen.
Allen describes their plan for the Galveston show to feature these stories and songs along with a collection of “The greatest missed hits,” he laughs.
Throughout Allen’s career his work always focuses on telling meaty stories that pull the listener in like water down a drain, always blurring the line between truth and fiction. “They’re stories that I wrote. They’re my stories and they’re mostly autobiographical but you know, autobiographical with a big emphasis on bullshit,” he says, drawing out the vowel sound in “bull” with his warm, deep Texas accent.
“I think fiction gets at the truth a lot of times more than just trying to tell the truth,” says Allen, describing the inherent plurality to the concept of truth depending on the vantage point of the speaker.
“It depends on where you’re standing then you move around on the other side and it’s a whole nother truth you know. I think it’s flexible in that way as long as it’s fiction but it’s not lies as long as it’s not about lying.”
The truth is, Allen has always used his creativity to tell parts of his story in a way unlike any other artist. His first two albums, widely considered some of the best albums ever, Juarez and Lubbock (on everything) pull from his early life in the small Texas town that he couldn’t wait to get away from as a youngster.
“I pretty much used everything that I felt was going haywire in my life as a device to propel myself out of there,” something he sees as a common mindset most curious kids will have the urge to do in small towns all over the world.
“For years I cussed Texas. I cussed Lubbock,” says Allen describing visits back home from California to see Jo Harvey’s parents with their children Bukka and Bale where he would circle round and round the loop of the city trying to figure out a reason to exit or the possibility of staying on it forever.
“But when I recorded Lubbock (on everything) that all changed because I met all these great musicians that I hadn’t known before and all these people from Lubbock. Writing these songs that out of one side of my mouth I was cussing the place but I was singing and thinking about it obviously with great affection and I didn’t really realize that till I sat down and listened to that record,” says Allen.
“I realized how much affection I did have for that place and how important it was to pretty much every aspect of my life as far as a jumping off place just that geography and that culture that I came from.”
Last year longtime friend and owner of Allen’s current label home Paradise Of Bachelor’s Brendan Greaves released a thorough and complete history of Allen’s life and art with his authorized biography Truckload Of Art.
“I totally trusted Brendan and I think he was incredibly responsible. He found out things about my family that I had no idea about because he really researched things and went into genealogy and ancestry and all of that,” says Allen describing how Greaves talked to pretty much anyone Allen knows for details.
“I’m pretty knocked out by his diligence and the grace in which he presented all of that stuff,” says Allen firmly. Allen and Greaves got acquainted in 1994 when Allen would call the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia in regards to his exhibited work there.
Greaves would often answer the phone and a friendship blossomed. When Greaves started his label he approached Allen year after year about re-issuing his groundbreaking early albums and once their licenses ran out, Allen took him up on the offer.
The results have been beautifully re-issued versions of Allen’s albums complete with liner notes and essays written by Greaves, something Allen views as the precursor to Truckload Of Art.
“He didn’t make a distinction between the visual art and the music and that’s always been something that’s been a pain in the ass for me that people do, they always separate it. I never separate it because the two things have informed each other so much that they’re the same thing to me. When it came up for somebody to do a biography there were several people that started to ask me to do something like that and I couldn’t think of anybody that would be better to do something like that or that I trusted more,” he says of Greaves.
Greaves manages to comb out with a fine tooth all of the details that have made Allen who he is and seems to have been since birth, a fiercely independent and unclassifiable force of creative nature.
Something very distinct about Allen is his sense of self and disinterest in ever doing what is expected artistically. Unlike most artists, he has not existed or created in the confines of a touring schedule or steady album releases.
“I’ve had people say, ‘Why don’t you do another record like Lubbock (on everything) or Juarez?’ and I say because I can’t,” says Allen.
Allen describes how those essential albums were made at a point in time of his life and history that cannot be repeated or replicated. “You can’t repeat that,” he says. “You can try and maybe make just an abomination out of it I think but I’ve never been interested in trying to repeat myself in that way.”
With his 2020 album Just Like Moby Dick, Allen again showed listeners how he can re-invent himself and present his unmistakable, steady like a rolling train piano playing style, no doubt the influence of his mother’s barrelhouse playing and his own exposure to early blues and rock and roll, that perfectly complements his endless well of stories and essence of movement.
“It was different and I was really glad it was different,” laughs Allen. “It was the first time I had worked with Charlie Sexton and I’d always wanted to and also first time I really collaboratively wrote songs with people.”
Allen describes the creatively ideal situation where he and his band, including his son Bukka, vocalist Shannon McNally and longtime friends and players like drummer Davis McLarty and slide guitarist Lloyd Maines all were able to set up shop in the idyllic town of Marfa, Texas.
“We got a hotel room and a theater to work in and we just wrote songs and a lot of those songs came from those sessions and we’ve got a lot more songs in the can that we’ve been talking about maybe recording live there,” says Allen.
Allen and his band of family and friends share not only genetics but also a combined collective experience and inherited musical influences. “Blood Sucking Maniacs, that’s our family band,” says Allen with a chuckle saying they hope to release their project next year.
Through his work and incorporation of his wife, sons and sometimes grandsons in his performances, Allen is assuring the perpetuation of not only his bloodline but also his creations and stories.
“It’s pretty amazing to be able to just be with a bunch of people that you care about and make music and do things you care about. It’s really kind of extraordinarily lucky,” he says noting that it can always change on a dime.
“I’m just fortunate to still be working and still care about what I do. I just do what I’ve always done and sometimes I think I take it for granted but when I really look around and think about about my age and how long I’ve been doing things, you just feel blessed.”
It’s hard to imagine someone so alive and free taking anything for granted but Allen argues with a laugh, “You take it for granted that you’re not dead.”
Terry Allen will perform with Jo Harvey Allen and The Panhandle Mystery Band on Friday, January 10 at The Grand 1894 Opera House, 2020 Postoffice, 8 p.m, $35-65.
