more from
Paradise of Bachelors
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.
/
  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    + Deluxe LP edition features 140g virgin vinyl; a gatefold jacket and inner sleeve with restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends; an insert with lyrics and original notes, and a high-res download code.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Bloodlines via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $24 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    + Deluxe CD edition features a trifold jacket and inner sleeve with original notes and restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends; and a six-panel insert with lyrics and alternate art.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Bloodlines via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    + Deluxe LP edition features 140g virgin vinyl; a gatefold jacket and inner sleeve with restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends; an insert with lyrics and original notes, and a high-res download code.

    + Deluxe CD edition features a trifold jacket and inner sleeve with original notes and restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends; and a six-panel insert with lyrics and alternate art.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Bloodlines via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $35 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $9 USD  or more

     

  • Button/Pin/Patch

    Smoke the dummy (that's Bob the Dummy to you) with Terry to commemorate our reissue of his 1980 album. Enhance any lapel with irreverent style and grace. This exquisite artifact measures 1.5" in diameter, with a durable steel pin-back. The text on the rim reads: TERRY ALLEN & THE PANHANDLE MYSTERY BAND / SMOKIN THE DUMMY.

    In a typewritten 1981 letter to his friend and mentor H.C. Westermann (reproduced in the reissue liner notes), Terry writes:

    MY KID BUKKA GOT A CHARLIE MCCARTHY DOLL FOR CHRISTMAS ONE YEAR WHEN HE MADE UP HIS MIND HE WAS GOING TO BE A VENTRILOQUIST. HE IMMEDIATELY PAINTED IT UP TO LOOK LIKE A VAMPIRE ... AND I JUST AS IMMEDIATELY PUT ON A PAIR OF JO HARVEY'S SUNGLASSES AND THE SLEAZIEST JACKET I COULD FIND (western slime) AND SAT FOR FAMILY PHOTOS ... ANYWAY, I BLEW RINGS OF SMOKE ON THE DUMMY AND BUKKA SAID I WAS SMOKIN THE DUMMY.

    I GUESS IT RANG SOME KIND OF DEMENTED BELL …

    The fabulous and brilliant Jo Harvey Allen took the photo, which appears as part of the album cover triptych.

    Perceptive fashionistas will recognize this as the third installment in our grand tradition of apparel featuring hirsute smoking men.

    Western slime!
    ... more
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $3 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 8 Terry Allen releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Cowboy and the Stranger, Gonna California, Bloodlines, Smokin the Dummy, Just Like Moby Dick, Pedal Steal + Four Corners, Lubbock (on everything), and Juarez. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      $57.60 USD or more (20% OFF)

     

  • Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band: Smokin the Dummy Shirt
    T-Shirt/Shirt

    N.B. FOR NOW, THESE SHIRTS ARE AVAILABLE ONLY VIA OUR WEBSITE: paradiseofbachelors.com/shop/pobmerch-004/

    “Pink and Black is comin’ back” … in the glorious form of a SMOKIN-hot Terry Allen shirt, the newest addition to our collection of Terry couture and our fourth smoke-themed apparel design. Light it up!

    Designed by Terry himself with Noel Waggener, the shirts, featuring Bob the Dummy, commemorate our reissue of Smokin the Dummy (PoB-065) as well as the occasion of Panhandle Mystery Band’s annual performance at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on January 28, 2023.

    Available in both breezy short-sleeved and cozy long-sleeved styles, in sizes XS through 2XL, these 100% cotton BELLA+CANVAS shirts are screen-printed by hand by eco-friendly Philadelphia shop Print Natural, in, appropriately, the color Natural, for a subtle but accurate nicotine-stain tint.

    Quantities, as always, are limited, so get your SMOKIN shirt today. Don’t be a dummy.

    Sportin’ these new shirts, as the song goes, “Yeah … we’ll both be cool.”
    ... more

    Sold Out

  • Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band: "There Oughta Be a Law Against Sunny Southern California" Bumper Sticker

    Put some illegal vibrations on that bumper, and show the open road how you truly feel about SoCal. A ferocious full-band reprise of "There Oughta Be a Law Against Sunny Southern California," originally released on Terry Allen's immortal 1975 debut album Juarez, appears on 1983's Bloodlines—you can buy our deluxe reissues of both records here.

    Printed on thick, durable vinyl this 3" x 11.5" bumper sticker is resistant to scratches, sun, and water. (It's probably not resistant to switchblades, however; the fabulous Jo Harvey Allen brought the one pictured back from Tijuana; you can also find it on the back cover of Bloodlines.)

    The song itself recounts a larcenous and murderous episode of Allen's multidisciplinary JUAREZ body of work, starring its antiheros, the Juarez-born pachuco Jabo and the bruja Chic Blundie. Don't get it twisted.

    THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW AGAINST SUNNY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

    chorus: WELL I’M GOIN BACK
    GOIN HOME AGAIN
    YEAH I’M GOIN BACK
    TO MY OWN AGAIN
    YEAH I’M GOIN BACK
    AHHH TO MY HOME TOWN
    THE ONE THAT PUT ME OUT
    THE ONE THAT LAID ME DOWN

    WELL I WIRED UP A CAR IN EAST FONTANA
    I WAS A’HEADED FOR SAN BERDU
    AHHH MY MIDNIGHT OIL
    IT WAS ON THE BOIL
    AN BOY I WAS A’BARREL’N THROUGH
    THEN I TOOK A TURN
    BUT I HIT THE CURB
    AN SPUN OFF THE CENTER LANE
    AN WHEN I HEARD THE CRASH
    WELL I STOMPED THE GAS
    AND I WAS BARREL’N THROUGH AGAIN

    I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD
    BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD
    YEAH
    I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD
    BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD

    AN I REMEMBER THE COP
    WITH HIS SLICKED-BACK HAIR
    WHEN HE TOLD ME
    TO GET OUT A’HERE
    AN I REMEMBER THE JUDGE
    WITH HIS GOLD PLATED MOUTH
    HE SAID “GO LIVE IN THE NORTH
    YOU GOTTA DIE DOWN SOUTH”

    YOU GONNA DIE DOWN SOUTH

    chorus

    I WENT FLYIN THROUGH SOUTH SAN BERDU
    WITH MY MIND ON EAST L.A.
    WHERE MY PACHUCO QUEEN
    SHE’S COOKIN RE-FRIED BEANS
    AN SHE’S WAITIN FOR ME TODAY
    YEAH STOPPED ON OFF AT THE LIQUOR STORE
    MADE EVERY BODY LAY DOWN ON THE FLOOR
    TOOK ALL THEIR WHISKEY
    TOOK ALL THEIR BREAD
    THEN SHOT OUT THEIR LIGHTS
    JUST BEFORE I FLED

    YEAH
    I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD
    BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD
    YEAH
    I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD
    BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD

    AN I REMEMBER THE BITCH
    WHOSE BLACK TONGUE LIED
    WHEN SHE TOLD ME
    SHE’S DIS-SATISFIED
    AN I REMEMBER HER DADDY
    BIG AS A TRUCK
    HE SAID “FUCK WITH ME BOY
    IF YOU WANT TO FUCK”

    YEAH, FUCK WITH ME BOY
    IF YOU WANT TO FUCK

    chorus

    SO THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW
    AGAINST SUNNY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
    YEAH THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW
    AGAINST PUTTIN THE DEVIL
    BEHIND THE WHEEL …
    CAUSE AS LONG AS YOU PEOPLE ARE GONNA SANCTION SUCH AN EVIL
    WELL I’M GONNA TURN YOUR ASPHALT
    BACK INTO BRIMSTONE
    YEAH YOU GOD DAMNED BET
    I WILL
    ... more

    Sold Out

  • Terry Allen T-shirt: "Today's Rainbow is Tomorrow's Tamale."
    T-Shirt/Apparel

    N.B. THESE SHIRTS ARE NOW AVAILABLE ONLY VIA OUR WEBSITE: paradiseofbachelors.com/shop/pobmerch-004/

    We print these shirts in small, limited batches, so reserve yours today.

    Today's rainbow is tomorrow's tamale.

    Is there any more potent and perfect koan? Not for our money here at PoB. In celebration of our deluxe, definitive reissues of Terry Allen's "Juarez" (1975, PoB-26) and "Lubbock (on everything)" (1979, PoB-27), we are proud to present the Terry Allen Tamale T-shirt—as far as we know, the first such item to exist in the wold, and long overdue—featuring the immortal line from Juarez and the cover of that abiding masterpiece of music and visual art on the front, with the PoB logo tastefully deployed on the back.

    Available in White or Slate, sizes XS through XL, these 100% cotton, fine jersey short-sleeved t-shirts (Los Angeles Apparel or BELLA+CANVAS) are screenprinted by hand by the eco-friendly Philadelphia outfit Print Natural, in a limited edition. Perceptive fashionistas will recognize this as the second installment in our grand tradition of apparel featuring hirsute smoking men.

    www.paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen
    terryallen.bandcamp.com
    ... more

    Sold Out

1.
OH MY MOTHER SHE IS A MOUNTAIN AND HER BREAST IT TOUCH THE SKY AND MY FATHER HE IS A RIVER RUNNING THROUGH HER SWEET BYE AND BYE AND MY SISTER SHE IS A SONGBIRD AND SHE’S SINGING IN HER FLIGHT AND MY BROTHER HE IS A MOONBEAM FALLING ON HER IN THE NIGHT THERE IS A RIVER RUN THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS UNDER MOONLIGHT HEAR THE SONG OF THE BLOODLINES GONE LONG BEFORE ME AND EVER AFTER … MOVING ON EVER AFTER … MOVING ON
2.
WELL I WAS ALL CAUGHT UP WITH MYSELF ON THE HIGHWAY AT NIGHT DRIVIN LIKE A BAT OUTTA HELL WHEN I BEHELD AN AMAZING SIGHT IT WAS A LONELY APPARITION BY THE ROADSIDE STANDING THERE WITH HIS THUMB OUT IN THE WILDERNESS AND A HALO IN HIS HAIR chorus: HE SAID “GIMME A RIDE TO HEAVEN BOY I’LL SHOW YOU A PARADISE YEAH GIMME A RIDE TO HEAVEN BOY MY NAME IS JESUS CHRIST” SO I COME SCREECHING TO A HALT I SAID “HOP ON IN” HE SAID “THANKS A LOT FOR THE LIFT I FORGIVE YOU OF YOUR SINS YEAH I JUST COME FROM JERUSALEM WHERE THINGS ARE GOING BAD AHHH GIMME A RIDE TO HEAVEN BOY I NEED TO TALK TO MY DAD” chorus WELL I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO SO I JAMMED HER DOWN IN GEAR KINDA KICKED MY FEET BENEATH THE SEAT I WAS TRYING TO HIDE THE BEER AHHH BUT HE JUST GRINNED AND SAID “MY FRIEND, I KNOW YOU MUST THINK IT’S ODD BUT YOU GOT NOTHIN TO FEAR ABOUT DRINKIN A BEER IF YOU SHARE IT WITH THE SON OF GOD” chorus WELL I SAW GOOD NEWS IN HIS BABY BLUES SO I STOMPED IT ON THE FLOOR I SAID “YOU’LL HAVE TO SHOW ME HOW TO GET THERE I AIN’T BEEN BEFORE” “WELL IT’S A HARD PLACE TO FIND” HE SAID “BUT I’LL GIVE YOU A LITTLE CLUE IT AIN’T SOMEWHERE UP IN THE AIR IT’S SITTIN RIGHT HERE INSIDE WITH YOU” THEN RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THAT PERFECT SMILE FROM HIS ROBES HE PULLED A GUN AN STUCK IT UP BESIDE MY HEAD AND SAID “HOW’S THIS FOR KINGDOM COME?” WELL I PULLED OFF SCARED BUT I HEARD HIM SAY AS HE LEFT ME BENEATH THE STARS “THE LORD MOVES IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS AND TONIGHT, MY SON … HE’S GONNA USE YOUR CAR” chorus repeats
3.
WELL I DROVE DOWN TO EL PASO ON MY BUSINESS YEAH I WAS JUST ANOTHER EXECUTIVE WORKIN FOR THE BANK BUT WHEN I CROSSED THAT BORDER LINE I DROPPED MY BUSINESS AND I WOUND UP FOR THREE DAYS IN THE JUAREZ TANK chorus: CANTINA CARLOTTA, LADY AFTER I MET YOU WELL I KNEW THAT I WAS READY TO START SOMETHING NEW SO I DROPPED MY BROOK BROTHERS SUITS AND ALL MY FANCY PAINTED TIES AHHHH JUST FOR ONE NIGHT WITH CARLOTTA AND HER PAINTED EYEEE … YI … YI’S AND WHEN I GOT OUT OF JAIL I WENT LOOKIN FOR CARLOTTA YEAH I NEEDED SOME MORE OF THAT SWEET AFFECTIONADA BUT AT THE CANTINA THEY TOLD ME SHE’S GONE TO GUADALAJARA AND WHEN I ASKED IF SHE’D BE BACK THEY JUST SAID … D’NADA chorus YEAH ONE NIGHT WITH CARLOTTA AHHH UNO NOCHES CARLOTTA AND HER PAINTED EYEEE … YI … YI’S … EEEEEEEEE yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi yi, etc.
4.
Ourland 05:21
chorus: OURLAND IS MY LAND AND HER HISTORY IS CALLING ME FROM THE SHORES OF ANOTHER LAND TO OURLAND ACROSS THE SEA WELL I FANCY A BOMB INSIDE MY HEAD TICKING FOR THE MEN AND I’LL PUT IT IN A LITTLE CAFE AND BLOW ’EM TO HELL AGAIN AN I FANCY A PISTOL IN MY COAT LOADED FOR THE KILL AND WE’LL GUN THE ONES WHO RUN OUTSIDE I SWEAR BY GOD WE WILL chorus AN I FANCY A KNIFE INSIDE MY PANTS BONE HANDLED RAZOR SHARP AN WE’LL RUN THE ONES WHO SURVIVE THE BLAST AND CUT THEM IN THE DARK AND I FANCY MY HANDS BEHIN THE WHEEL AN THEIR WOUNDED A’LAYING DOWN AND WE’LL PUNCH THE GAS AND RUN IT FAST AND GRIND THEM IN THE GROUND chorus AN I FANCY THEIR WIDOWS UNDER ME SQUEALIN WITH DELIGHT SO WE’LL HAVE OUR FUN THEN WHEN WE’RE DONE WE’LL GARROTE THEM IN THE NIGHT AN WE FANCY THEIR CHILDREN A’CRYING THEN BUT WE WILL PAT THEIR HEADS AND SING THEM TO SLEEP WITH A FIREMAN’S SONG THEN BURN THEM IN THEIR BEDS chorus repeats
5.
Oh Hally Lou 02:01
WASHED IN THE BLOOD WASHED IN THE BLOOD WASHED IN THE BLOOD BLOOD OF THE LAMB DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? OH HALLY LOU OH HALLY LOU OH HALLY LOU OH HALLY LOU DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? WASHED IN THE BLOOD WASHED IN THE BLOOD WASHED IN THE BLOOD DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? OH HALLY LOU OH HALLY LOU OH HALLY LOU OH HALLY LOU DOES JESUS LOVE YOU? repeat
6.
WELL THEY SIT OUT BY THE HOT TUBS OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE AND THEY TALK ABOUT HOW THEY GOT THEIR STUFF OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE THEY DRINK ZOMBIES ON THE SUNNYSIDE WITH LOTION SQUIRTS … AND MOANS THEIR PRECIOUS BODIES BY THE POOLSIDES REMODELED LIKE THEIR HOMES … ON SILICONE SUCCESSFULNESS IT’S THE NEW AMERICAN-NESS YEAH YOU BETTER INVEST IN THIS OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE chorus: AND BISSIE’S IN HER BATHTUB CLEANSING HERSELF FROM THE WRATH OF SOME PERSONAL … PASADENA BUT SCRUBBING ON HER WHITE SKIN RUBBING ALL THEM OILS IN WILL IT MAKE HER FEEL … ANY CLEANER IN PASADENA PASADENA OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE YEAH THEY SMOKE A LITTLE MARIJUANA-HA OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE THEN THEY FLOAT ON INTO THE SAUNA-HA OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE JACUZZIS OOZING ON DISPLAY AND CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING GROANS SAY I’M OKAY YOU’RE OKAY AS LONG AS WE STAY STONED … AND CLONED ON SILICONE SUCCESSFULNESS IT’S THE NEW RESTLESS-NESS BETTER GET UNDRESSED FOR THIS OH WHAT A DANGEROUS LIFE chorus SILICONE SUCCESSFULNESS IT’S THE NEW RESTLESS-NESS BETTER GET UNDRESSED FOR THIS SILICONE SUCCESSFULNESS IT’S THE NEW SEXLESS-NESS WON’T BE DEPRESSED WITH THIS DANGEROUS tweet
7.
WELL IF YOU NEVER LET THEM TIGHT PANTS HAVE A CHANCE TO HUG YOUR HIPS MANHATTAN BLUEBIRD GIRL … YOU NEVER FLOWN AND IF YOU NEVER READ YOUR NAME CARVED IN LEATHER WITH YOUR FINGERTIPS MANHATTAN BLUEBIRD GIRL … YOU DONE YOURSELF WRONG AND IF YOU NEVER LET THAT HONKY TONK JUKE BOX SING FOR YOU MANHATTAN BLUEBIRD GIRL … YOU MISSED YOUR SONG repeat
8.
chorus: WELL I’M GOIN BACK GOIN HOME AGAIN YEAH I’M GOIN BACK TO MY OWN AGAIN YEAH I’M GOIN BACK AHHH TO MY HOME TOWN THE ONE THAT PUT ME OUT THE ONE THAT LAID ME DOWN WELL I WIRED UP A CAR IN EAST FONTANA I WAS A’HEADED FOR SAN BERDU AHHH MY MIDNIGHT OIL IT WAS ON THE BOIL AN BOY I WAS A’BARREL’N THROUGH THEN I TOOK A TURN BUT I HIT THE CURB AN SPUN OFF THE CENTER LANE AN WHEN I HEARD THE CRASH WELL I STOMPED THE GAS AND I WAS BARREL’N THROUGH AGAIN I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD YEAH I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD AN I REMEMBER THE COP WITH HIS SLICKED-BACK HAIR WHEN HE TOLD ME TO GET OUT A’HERE AN I REMEMBER THE JUDGE WITH HIS GOLD PLATED MOUTH HE SAID “GO LIVE IN THE NORTH YOU GOTTA DIE DOWN SOUTH” YOU GONNA DIE DOWN SOUTH chorus I WENT FLYIN THROUGH SOUTH SAN BERDU WITH MY MIND ON EAST L.A. WHERE MY PACHUCO QUEEN SHE’S COOKIN RE-FRIED BEANS AN SHE’S WAITIN FOR ME TODAY YEAH STOPPED ON OFF AT THE LIQUOR STORE MADE EVERY BODY LAY DOWN ON THE FLOOR TOOK ALL THEIR WHISKEY TOOK ALL THEIR BREAD THEN SHOT OUT THEIR LIGHTS JUST BEFORE I FLED YEAH I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD YEAH I LEAVE A FEW PEOPLE DEAD BUT I GOT OPEN ROAD AHEAD AN I REMEMBER THE BITCH WHOSE BLACK TONGUE LIED WHEN SHE TOLD ME SHE’S DIS-SATISFIED AN I REMEMBER HER DADDY BIG AS A TRUCK HE SAID “FUCK WITH ME BOY IF YOU WANT TO FUCK” YEAH, FUCK WITH ME BOY IF YOU WANT TO FUCK chorus SO THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW AGAINST SUNNY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA YEAH THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW AGAINST PUTTIN THE DEVIL BEHIND THE WHEEL … CAUSE AS LONG AS YOU PEOPLE ARE GONNA SANCTION SUCH AN EVIL WELL I’M GONNA TURN YOUR ASPHALT BACK INTO BRIMSTONE YEAH YOU GOD DAMNED BET I WILL
9.
‘BLOODLINES’ CHORUS

about

Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band
Bloodlines (1983/2022)
LP/CD/digital

Album page: paradiseofbachelors.com/shop/pob-066/
Artist page: paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen
Other options: lnk.to/PoB66

ALBUM ABSTRACT

On his manifold fourth album, acclaimed songwriter and visual artist Terry Allen contemplates kinship—the ways sex and violence stitch and sever the ties of family, faith, and society—with skewering satire and affection alike. 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).

This first-ever vinyl reissue, remastered from the original analog tapes, includes a gatefold jacket and inner sleeve with restored, new, and alternate artwork and photos by Allen and friends; an insert with lyrics and original notes; and a high-res download code.

ALBUM NARRATIVE

I’ve never heard such a consistent assortment of unpopular styles.

– Dave Hickey, to Terry Allen, regarding his album Bloodlines, 1983

Since 1970, when they met in Allen’s studio in his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, one of songwriter and visual artist Terry Allen’s great foils and friends was the sometimes cantankerous but always brilliant art critic and writer Dave Hickey, with whom he sparred on topics musical, visual, and beyond (and to whom this reissue is dedicated in memoriam, in the wake of his passing in 2021.) Hickey, a fellow Texan paddling against the currents of the hermetic New York-centric art world, was an accomplished songwriter in his own right, and he and Terry pushed each other to refine their respective practices. In 1983, the two were thick as thieves—brothers in blood—and Hickey’s wry but big-hearted presence haunts the history and periphery of Bloodlines, the album Terry released in June of that year. Dave stood among the chorus of singers on the reprise of the title track that ends the record. Terry reprised the album cover concept, a detail of a painting of Jesus carrying a lamb that he found in the gutter outside a Lubbock botánica and manipulated, for Dave’s 1989 collection of youthful short stories, Prior Convictions—but with Jacques-Louis David’s 1793 bloody-bathtub painting “The Death of Marat” as a replacement savior. Hickey wrote the tour de force catalog essay for Allen’s 1983 solo exhibition Rooms and Stories, which featured, two months before the release of Bloodlines, the premiere of his theater piece Bleeder. Finally, there’s Hickey’s sardonic quip about the dim commercial prospects of Bloodlines. Buckets of blood and ink were spilled.

Hickey’s commercial doubts notwithstanding, critical recognition was not in short demand. In a 1984 review of Bloodlines, the L.A. Herald Examiner called Allen “one of the most compelling American songwriters working today ... making the most unique art-pop of our time,” elsewhere comparing him not only to Moon Mullican and Jerry Lee Lewis, but also to the Velvet Underground and Philip Glass (probably the first time that unlikely quartet ever appeared together in one sentence). In 1983, against all odds, such sentiments were growing in underground prominence, as Allen’s records gained a fanatical word-of-mouth following—they weren’t easy to find in those days, so sometimes they existed only as a words-in-mouth—that began among fellow artists and within the rarefied air of the art world, and then, following the 1979 release of Lubbock (on everything), circulated farther afield, among musicians and fans of “outlaw country,” a loose (in all ways) subgenre and scene named in part for Hickey’s 1974 essay “In Defense of the Telecaster Cowboy Outlaws.” Allen’s early audiences included an outsized contingent of potters and bikers, due, respectively, to enthusiastic ceramicist friends and an unexpected endorsement of Smokin the Dummy (1980) in Easyriders magazine. The Rooms and Stories opening reception at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art was packed with leather-clad bikers.

On his manifold fourth album, Allen contemplates kinship—the ways sex and violence stitch and sever the ties of family, faith, and society—with skewering satire and affection alike. Bloodlines, which compiles thematically related but disparate recordings from miscellaneous sources both theatrical and historical, is itself kin to its predecessor Smokin the Dummy (chronologically and in terms of its Panhandle Mystery Band personnel and its wide-ranging subjects) and to its descendant, 1993’s The Silent Majority (Terry Allen’s Greatest Missed Hits) (which similarly anthologizes stray and orphan songs). Recorded piecemeal at Caldwell Studios in Lubbock, in sessions spanning August 1982 through January 1983, Terry self-released it, like all his previous records, on his own Fate Records imprint. Despite his frustration with the protracted timeline and some anxiety about the correspondingly higher budget, the production on Bloodlines—courtesy, once again, of master guitarist Lloyd Maines—is slicker, cleaner, and more dynamic than prior efforts, and it reached a broader audience than ever before. UK label Making Waves reissued it in 1985, facilitating semi-reliable European distribution for the first time as well as a 1986 UK tour, on which the great BJ Cole filled in for Lloyd on pedal steel.

Allen wrote two songs as themes for plays: the Pasadena idyll “Oh What a Dangerous Life” for Joan Hotchkiss’s 1982 play Bissie at the Baths and the gospel-coughing hymn “Hally Lou” for his wife and collaborator Jo Harvey Allen’s 1983 performance piece of the same name, in which she plays the titular revival preacher. Bloodlines is the first of several albums to revisit selections from Terry’s 1975 debut Juarez with full-band arrangements: a comic take on “Cantina Carlotta” that inhabits the tone-deaf tourist’s perspective of the hapless narrator, and a terrifying road-rage, burnt-rubber rendition of “There Oughta Be a Law About Sunny Southern California” featuring Jesse Taylor, in his final Panhandle Mystery Band recording, on “asphalt vendetta guitar” (Maines Brothers guitarist Cary Banks deftly handles lead guitar elsewhere). The irreverent hellfire-hitchhiker-on-highway ballad “Gimme a Ride to Heaven Boy” (featuring Joe Ely), in which Jesus steals the narrator’s car and beer for a joyride to the hereafter, remains a fan favorite. Terry wrote the final verses in a Texas Tech practice room the day they recorded it. “Manhattan Bluebird,” a surprisingly earnest (and unexpectedly moving) lament for the cultural insularity and provincialism of a New Yorker deluded by her own alleged cosmopolitanism, boasts one of Allen’s most beautiful minor-key melodies. On tour in Belfast in 1996, Allen’s tourmates feared “Ourland,” a thinly veiled satire of the IRA’s hypocrisy amid the Troubles in Northern Ireland, would incite a riot and urged him not to play it. Of course, he didn’t listen.

Lloyd Maines wept when Terry first played him the poignant eponymous ode to the arteries of ancestry and landscape, which sounds as ancient and eternal as a psalm. But that didn’t stop Lloyd from complaining about having too large a chorus on the album-closing extended version (he’s a notorious stickler for tuning and pitch). Twenty-five friends and family members packed the studio that day, including Dave Hickey, Joe and Sharon Ely, and Stubb of BBQ fame. “Bloodlines II” represents the recorded debuts of the Allens’ sons Bukka and Bale as well as Lloyd’s eight-year-old daughter Natalie Maines, later of the (Dixie) Chicks—a true testament to the power of blood. In 1998 Lucinda Williams covered it in a spookily spare version on Allen’s soundtrack for Jane Anderson’s film Baby Dance, starring Laura Dern and Stockard Channing. As the credits roll, the river runs through the mountains, under the moonlight. Hear the song.

KEY POINTS

+ The first-ever vinyl reissue of Allen’s manifold, moving fourth album, remastered from the original analog tapes.
+ Deluxe LP edition features 140g virgin vinyl; a gatefold jacket and inner sleeve with restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends; an insert with lyrics and original notes, and a high-res download code.
+ Deluxe CD edition features a trifold jacket and inner sleeve with original notes and restored, new, and alternate art and photos by Terry and Jo Harvey Allen and friends; and a six-panel insert with lyrics and alternate art.
+ RIYL: Dave Alvin, Ryan Bingham, Bobby Bare, David Byrne, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Guy Clark, the Chicks, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Joe Ely, Little Feat, The Flatlanders, Blaze Foley, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Jason Isbell, Robert Earl Keen, Kris Kristofferson, Lloyd Maines, Willie Nelson, Randy Newman, John Prine, Doug Sahm, Charlie Sexton, Bill Joe Shaver, Silver Jews/Purple Mountains, Sturgill Simpson, Kurt Vile, Jerry Jeff Walker, Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, Warren Zevon, Wilco.

credits

released May 6, 2022

Terry Allen: lead vocals, Casio, piano, maracas, claps, bird calls
Richard Bowden: fiddle, mandolin, harmony vocals, cello, claps
Lloyd Maines: harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, guitar, mandolin, drums, pedal steel guitar, claps, ‘Bloodlines II’ chorus
Cary Banks: Casio, electric guitar, harmony vocals, marimba, guitar, slide guitar, claps
Kenny Maines: bass, harmony vocals, tambourines, claps
Donnie Maines: drums, tambourine, congas, harmony vocals, cabasa, claps
Joe Ely: harmony vocals
R.C. Vega: accordion
Tommie Anderson: trumpet
Donna Jo Barnes: harmony vocals, claps
Bonnie Wilkerson: harmony vocals, claps
Latronda Maines: harmony vocals
Jack Bowden: whistle penny
Susan Paulk: harmony vocals, claps
Don Caldwell: saxophone
Ponty Bone: accordion
Jesse Taylor: guitar

‘Bloodlines’ chorus in ‘Bloodlines (II)’ vocals: Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, Bukka Cain Allen, Bale Creek Allen, Lloyd Maines, Natalie Maines, Kimberly Maines, Donnie Maines, Latronda Maines, Richard Bowden, Cary Banks, Dave Hickey, Joe Ely, Sharon Thompson Ely, Mark Ely, C.B. ‘Stubb’ Stubblefield, Jesse Taylor, Linda Taylor, Laura Wilson, Susan Lewis, Sonny Palmer, Bonnie Wilkerson, Donna Jo Barnes

Music and lyrics written by Terry Allen
Re-issue produced by Brendan Greaves
Original production produced by Terry Allen, Lloyd Maines
Original production executively produced by Jack Lemon, Ethel Lemon
Engineered & mixed by Terry Allen, Don Caldwell, Lloyd Maines.
Mastered by Josh Bonati, Bonati Mastering, NYC
Album artwork by Terry Allen
Album photography by Lindsay Metivier, Mike Tilden, Dave Peabody
Design and layout, re-issue sleeve notes by Brendan Greaves
Lyrics transcribed by Greta Travaglia

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Terry Allen Santa Fe, New Mexico

Legendary Texan artist Terry Allen occupies a unique position straddling the frontiers of country music and conceptual art; he has worked with everyone from Guy Clark to David Byrne to Lucinda Williams to Bruce Nauman, and his artwork resides in museums worldwide.
paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen
... more

contact / help

Contact Terry Allen

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Bloodlines, you may also like: