In 2020, Terry Allen released Just Like Moby Dick, backed by his Panhandle Mystery Band featuring his son Bukka Allen, Charlie Sexton, Lloyd Maines, Richard Bowden, Davis McLarty alongside Glenn Fukunaga and Brian Standefer. Mike Davies reviewed the album for Folk Radio here and described it as a witty, insightful and musically infectious album with songs that more than stand in comparison with his early greats, at 76 Allen proves you’re never too old to lead from the front.
For those that haven’t dug into Allen’s back catalogue, then now’s your chance as Paradise of Bachelors have announced two deluxe reissues: Smokin the Dummy (1980) and Bloodlines (1983) to be released in time for Terry’s 79th birthday.
Remastered from the original master tapes, the expanded editions of these two beloved records represent the first-ever reissues on vinyl (unlike previous editions, the Smokin the Dummy CD also restores the original, unabridged tracklist, with “Cocaine Cowboy”).
Both vinyl and CD editions—gatefold and trifold, respectively—feature inserts with lyrics, new notes, and other texts (including a 1981 letter from Allen to his friend and mentor, the artist H.C. Westermann), as well as restored, new, and alternate artwork and photographs by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends (now including more switchblades and skulls).
Smokin the Dummy is described as less conceptually focused but more sonically and stylistically unified than its predecessor Lubbock (On Everything), which PoB reissued in 2016. It’s also rougher and rowdier, wilder and more wired, and altogether more menacingly rock and roll. While Bloodlines “compiles thematically related but disparate recordings from miscellaneous sources both theatrical and historical: two songs written for plays; two full-band reprises of selections from Juarez; the irreverent hellfire-hitchhiker-on-highway ballad “Gimme a Ride to Heaven Boy” (featuring Joe Ely); and the poignant eponymous ode to the arteries of ancestry and landscape (the debut recording of eight-year-old Natalie Maines, later covered by Lucinda Williams).”
Both albums are scheduled for worldwide release on 6th May, the day before Allen’s 79th birthday.
Listen to “The Heart of California (for Lowell George)” and “Gimme a Ride to Heaven Boy”:
Pre-Order: Smokin the Dummy | Bloodlines