May 7
Today is the birthday of Terry Allen. He is 83 today.
Terry Allen was born in Wichita Falls, Texas on May 7, 1943. The Panhandle edge and the oil field country made an impression that never washed off. Allen grew up to become one of the most genuinely original artists Texas has produced — songwriter, visual artist, playwright, and performance artist simultaneously. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, but his imagination never left the red-dirt towns of West Texas.
The Lubbock Suite That Explained Everything
His 1979 album Lubbock (on everything) is a masterpiece — a song cycle about Lubbock, Texas, that is also a song cycle about America, desire, violence, and memory. David Byrne of Talking Heads called it one of his favorite records. Guy Clark, Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore all consider Allen a peer. He has exhibited visual art at the Museum of Modern Art. He has written plays for major theaters. He has never stopped making all of it simultaneously, and none of it sounds like anything else. Find his place items on Texas Music Map.