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Terry Allen | U.S.(b. 1943)


Juarez (1975)

  1. The Juarez Device (Aka Texican Badman)
  2. The Characters/ A Simple Story
  3. Cortez Sail
  4. Border Palace
  5. Dogwood
  6. Writing On Rocks Across The USA
  7. The Radio...And Real Life
  8. There Oughta Be A Law Against Sunny Southern California
  9. What Of Alicia
  10. Honeymoon In Cortez
  11. Four Corners
  12. The Run South
  13. Jabo/Street Walkin' Woman
  14. Cantina Carlotta
  15. La Despedida (The Parting)
  16. El Camino Instrumental
  17. El Camino


“I scribbled down some of the mysteries and I stopped that howling wind.” — Terry Allen

In “a simple story” of epic proportions, Allen imagined the travels and travails of two couples — Jabo and Chic, Sailor and Alice — whose journeys across the American West and its southern border converged in a violent clash. This surrealist jaunt materialized in Allen’s 1975 record Juarez, considered one of the most important concept albums of all time, as well as a complement of phantasmagorical works on paper (1969-75) that match the tone, tenor and mystery of their musical counterpart. It was then that Allen enlightened to the possibilities of narrative-driven works. “I realized what I really wanted to do was tell stories.”

“JUAREZ is a haunting. Over the years, the piece has presented itself in many manifestations: a series of drawings, texts, and constructions; stacks of notebooks with notations and sketches; two books of writing, poems, watercolors, and photography (one published); numerous prints; a multitude of songs and recordings; a record album accompanying a suite of lithographs and texts; a screenplay; an NPR radio show; a live one-woman musical piece with Jo Harvey Allen; a musical theater work cowritten with David Byrne (not produced); and five full-room museum installations with video and sound. JUAREZ is an ongoing project that began in the late sixties, runs to the present, and I have no doubt is still lurking in some form or another in the future. It has probably instigated and/or informed everything I’ve ever made.”

– Terry Allen


Terry Allen (July 6, 1981), Part 1
Terry Allen (July 6, 1981), Part 2

Charles Amirkhanian introduces the Country and Western art satire works of painter/composer Terry Allen. Selections from his Fate releases "Smokin' The Dummy" and "Lubbock (on Everything)" will be heard. Allen had recently worked with the Panhandle Mystery Band, an ensemble of long time C&W veterans who seem tolerant and supportive of the younger composer's wacky and surreal lyrical bent. All the favorites including "Truckload of Art" will be heard on this outsized retrospective.