Reissue: Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band – Smokin The Dummy

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Can there be a more mysterious and fascinating artist in late twentieth-century Country music than Terry Allen? He is a songwriter with a genuinely western cowboy-like sound who, largely thanks to his esteemed parallel career in visual arts (Allen is a widely exhibited artist and sculptor), has never pandered to anything like a conventional music career plan; he has remained as uncompromising as Neil Young, without the fame and fortune. In fact, Neil is a reasonably good comparison; reviewing this album led me back to an old black and white Shindig clip from 1965 in which Terry Allen appears performing his first-ever composition, ‘Red Bird’. This was a long time before he started recording, and the song itself did not appear on record until the 1980 release of this ‘Smokin The Dummy’ album; but there he was back in sixty-five, rocking back and forth alone at an upright piano like a man hell-bent on not fitting in. Check it out below; it is a must.

It was with Allen’s first brace of albums, 1975’s ‘Juarez’ and especially 1979’s ‘Lubbock (On Everything)’ that his reputation has been built. Both are landmark releases in the alt-country realm, containing concepts and dialect atypical of the western scene. It is certainly arguable that much of the alt-country movement that unfolded in the ensuing decades owes a nod of recognition to the ground Terry Allen broke with those releases. But maybe the key ingredient, rather than his unique artistic perspectives and dust-dry humour, is that he is a decent piano player with a good ear for a tune. He learned his instrument from his professional pianist mother and carried this touch into his own music-making. It is no surprise to note that many artists have covered his songs, including David Byrne, Lucinda Williams, Sturgill Simpson, Ricky Nelson and especially Little Feat, who Allen refers to in the liner notes of this re-issue, recalling how their cover of ‘New Dehli Freight Train’ gave him enough money to buy a four-wheel-drive black dodge truck.

‘Smokin The Dummy’ was the follow-up to ‘Lubbock (On Everything)’, and this timely re-issue returns it to the marketplace after years buried in obscurity. Happily, it is packaged with loving care, affording Terry the kind of detailed presentation his undervalued work deserves. The CD digipak fold-out sleeve (also available on vinyl and digital) has all the artwork reproduced as per the first issue, including inner sleeve photos as well as some in-depth liner notes and lyrics. The dummy concept that features heavily was arrived at after Terry’s son wanted to be a ventriloquist and painted up a Christmas gift dummy like a vampire. Terry immediately put on the sleaziest jacket he could lay his hands on and posed blowing smoke rings on the dummy in pictures seen on the front cover, so his son Bukka observed he was “smokin the dummy.” These details form part of a wonderful element to the extras, a letter that Terry had written in 1981 waxing eloquently about the album to two close artist friends.

It is a fine album, far more potent than you might reasonably expect from a release that has fallen off the radar. The musicianship of the core Panhandle Mystery Band, occasionally embellished by Joe Ely on harmonica and Alan Shinn on wee-roo and black ace pocket comb is a rattling and rolling blend of free-flowing Cajun thrills and gutsy country rock. At the centre of it all is Terry and his pounding keys; it all lends the album an even flow despite the fact that they are mopping up material that dates back through the previous fifteen years. It is all original stuff with the exception of ‘Whatever Happened To Jesus (And Maybelline)?’ which evolves into a straight-up cover of the Chuck Berry classic. That Terry Allen’s cutting edge is never submerged is especially evident on ‘Cocaine Cowboy’ where we can see precisely why he was never destined to be welcomed with open arms into the Country music establishment. Even though Allen refers to cocaine as a “stupid pretentious drug” in these newly published liner notes, the track itself sees him, without inhibition, making loud snorting noises near the start and then whinny horse sounds at the end; Garth Brooks this is not! What is abundantly clear on this re-issue, though, is that Terry Allen wrote some great songs in those first two decades of his recording career; they have languished in the alt-country shadows for far too long.

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