Customer Reviews

Lubbock On Everything

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There's a beer company that is currently running an ad campaign that features a bunch of old jocks who are supposed to be "originals" and somehow drinking this beer is supposed to make you "an original" too. Naw, that ain't original. This is original. This CD defines original. The graphic on the picture dictionary entry for "original" ought to be the cover of "Lubbock on Everything."

I can't imagine who would have played this when it came out. Country radio wouldn't touch this with a barge pole. Same for rock. Maybe a "progressive country" station or two in Texas. Its a wonder that it even got made in the first place. Still have never heard it on the radio, web or otherwise.

I bought this disk because a buddy of mine from Texas swore that this was "like, the greatest record ever made" and forced his band to cover "The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma." I don't know if its the greatest record ever made, but it certainly fits into a handful that I have heard (Conlon Nancarrow, Captain Beefheart) that reflect one pretty unique vision.

The instrumentation is pretty conventional country, and Allen has an adequate, limited voice, and a West Texas twang. But, Lord, what songs. The man has a real eye for characterization, and the parody of "Wreck on the Highway" ("Truckload of Art") complete with dobro and yodeling may be the funniest song that I have ever heard.

I practically grew up listening to Terry Allen and Lubbock (On Everything) is the crown jewel in his canon. The Great Joe Bob (A Regional Tragedy) is the inspiration for songs written by Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen and others. If I had three CDs to take to a desert island, I'd take two of these in case the first got scratched. True piece of Americana.

I once wrote (I'm a professional writer) that "Austin is where kids go when they're too weird to live in Texas, but too Texan to live anywhere else." Although Terry doesn't live in Austin, he is exactly the kind of person I was thinking of. Anyone who loves their Texas roots and yet doesn't quite fit in with the fundamentalist conformity will immediately identify with this album. Terry's lyrics say it best:

Well I may not wear a Stetson
But I'm willin' to bet, son
I'm just as big a Texan
As you are.
There's a girl in her bare feet
Asleep in the back seat
And that trunk's full of Pearl and Lone Star.

If you truly want to understand the West Texas music phenomenon, there are lots of musicians you could listen to - Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, the Maines Brothers Band, Buddy Holly - the list goes on and on. But if you are looking for a primer on the musical innovation and wry and loving observations of the people and the place that characterizes the music there is no better place to start that Terry Allen's "Lubbock on Everything."

It is easy to hear musical influences reaching back to frontier days in songs like "Truckload of Art", but leave it to Terry Allen to juxtapose those sounds with modern, cutting edge commentary and humor. Meet his characters like "The Great Joe Bob" and "Lubbock Woman" and experience the best in story telling ability. But don't think for a minute that this collections of songs will not also make you rock. If "Amarillo Highway," "New Dehli Freight Train," and "Flatland Farmer" do not make you get up and move - you might want to make a doctor's appointment. Never mind when this album was recorded, it is timeless.

If you cannot visit the vast Great Plains see the incredible sunsets of West Texas for yourself - see them through the eyes of Terry Allen. You will not be disappointed.

And then there was Lubbock (on Everything). Simply the greatest country album ever. The country Exile on Main St, Blonde on Blonde, and London Calling rolled into one. Terry Allen is undescribable. Perhaps the closest I can get is John Prine by way of Randy Newman? But that's not even it. That can't convey the wit, the wry irony, the gothic comedies in miniature. Everyone should own this album. The insane stories, the vast melodic leaps between songs, (and within them). "And it certainly seems some disease of the dreams has been going around..." He captures the southern inferiority-complex/ rebel pride dichotomy perfectly, but this album is about high art, Wolfman Jack, cracker crunches, Pepsi & gin, some chair that come'd from France, and anything else you can think of. It's all of fringe America, Raymond Carver meets Tom Waits meets Walt Whitman and beyond, our into the ether. If you hate country music, you still need this one album. If you wonder where every alt-country kid and Texas music rock star has spawned in the last twenty years, this is the answer.

. . . and one of the greatest records I've ever heard.

It was recorded entirely in Lubbock, I believe in 1978, completely free of any music-industry pressures or dictates, with an all-Lubbock cast of musicians led by producer/steel virtuoso Lloyd Maines. A whole generation of talent shines on this album. Many of these musicians were in the Joe Ely band of the late 70's/early 80s, and between Terry Allen's work and Joe Ely's albums of that period, something marvelous was captured about the soul of that place.

In any album of songs, the music can only be as good as the songs it sets up, and these are memorable songs that encapsulate entire life histories into a few lines. This is one of those records that inspires friendships among people who know about it. I'm glad to find it on CD -- for years you practically had to hire a private detective to track down the vinyl. I also highly recommend Terry Allen's followup, "Smokin' the Dummy," which might be my all-time favorite country-rock album.

If Terry Allen has recorded any substandard music, he's been kind enough not to release it ... Lubbock is another winner from argulably one of the most consistent musicians on the scene today ... If you listen to Joe Ely, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Lyle, Robert Earl Keen, then you'll definitely enjoy this recording ... A final recommendation: Some reviewers have lamented musicians such as TA can't get on the radio nowadays ... Well, I can't solve the underlying problem when profitability comes before quality but I will encourage you give KPIG (Freedom, CA) a listen ... They play it all ... Online at KPIG.com or if you're ever in the Monterey-Santa Cruz area, turn the dial to 107 oink 5 on your FM dial (their tag line, not mine) ... It'll take you back to when radio wasn't a wasteland of commercials and noise, when you actually used the tuner attatched to your amp ... enjoy and buy Lubbock ... we need to support these musicians to ensure quality remains, however obscure ...

There's something in the water here that makes people like Terry Allen write songs such as these. I've lived in Lubbock a long time and used to see Terry along with the Maines Brothers,Ponty, Richard,Jessie and Joe, Butch and Jimmie Dale perform pure West Texas Magic in places like the ORIGINAL Stubbs BBQ where there was often more people on stage than in the audience. Now people all over the world want to know what is the secret ingredient in that water. It must have something to do with the wind and the dirt cause I don't want to drink anything else. And once you get just a tiny taste of it neither will you.

Lubbock (On Everything)Credited by no less an authority than Joe Ely himself with being a seminal force in Texas Music and with serving as an inspiration for Ely's legendary Flatlanders, Terry Allen is also a recognized artist of considerable standing when he has a paintbrush (or eight) as his work tool.

There's one person we know for certain has never heard a Terry Allen collection of songs and that's the individual at TIME Magazine who called Lucinda Williams "America's Greatest Living Songwriter." I for one would not enjoy living in a world in which that was true. Listen to this record--especially the amazing "The Great Joe Bob," with whom we all grew up--and you'll understand why the writer's testimonial misses its mark. This is the fella, right here--The Man Himself: Terry Allen and "Lubbock (On Everything)" is his top album, from a field without a clinker.

If this keeps you interested and tapping your toe, you'll probably like more of Allen's songs. He is truly inventive and has a biting saterical social wit, backed up with a varied and entertaining style. Not everyone's cup of tea, but a favorite of mine.