Terry Allen’s New Album Just Like Moby Dick Out Today on Paradise of Bachelors

Today, following a sold-out release concert at Austin’s historic Paramount Theatre, Terry Allen – “one of outlaw country’s strongest and oddest talents” (Uncut) – releases his first new album in seven years, Just Like Moby Dick. Casting his net wide for wild stories—featuring, among many other things, Houdini in existential crisis, the death of the last stripper in town, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—the “cult favorite” (Rolling Stone) Allen continues the remarkable artistic trajectory he began over forty years ago with influential classics like Juarez (1975) and Lubbock (on everything) (1979). Featuring collaborations from his longtime group the Panhandle Mystery Band—including Lloyd Maines, Richard Bowden, Charlie Sexton, Shannon McNally, and more—Just Like Moby Dick is a collection of “tall tales for strange times” (The Wire) that takes you on a journey through the brilliant mind of this “master lyricist” (New York Times).

Buy or listen to Just Like Moby Dick: http://smarturl.it/PoB55 

Alongside his iconic musicianship, Allen also is an accomplished, “flat-out inspiring” (LA Times) visual artist. In December, he presented an exhibition of his drawings at Nina Johnson in Miami during Art Basel, which the New York Times described as “too good to miss.” The LA Times called his summer 2019 retrospective at L.A. Louver in Venice, CA “so jampacked with love, suffering, and resilience that there’s a good chance you’ll be moved to tears,” suggesting that if “you only see one exhibition this year,” to make it that one. 

Allen is the subject of a recent documentary concert film called Everything for All Reasons, featuring friends and collaborators like David Byrne, Kiki Smith, and Joe Ely, among many others. Watch a trailer here: https://youtu.be/y4T26t0eMdQ. His 2019 collection of radio plays and “country-concrète” narrative audio works Pedal Steal + Four Corners is nominated for a 2020 GRAMMY for Best Album Notes (by Brendan Greaves of Paradise of Bachelors). 

KUTX featured the single "City of Vampires" as their Song of the Day and discussed how Allen has been able to "maintain a legacy of excellence." Listen here: https://bit.ly/36jw48k 

Terry Allen will be hitting the road with The Panhandle Mystery Band for select dates in support of Just Like Moby Dick, including stops in Los Angeles, Austin, Washington DC, and New York, with more dates TBA..  

Praise of Terry and Just Like Moby Dick:

“Still weird and wonderful … One of outlaw country’s strongest and oddest talents returns. It has always been a fool’s errand to frame Allen in terms of other artists—there was nobody like him before he showed up, and the subsequent 40 years have been equally light on plausible peers. Just Like Moby Dick reconfirms Allen as one of Americana’s greatest indefatigable mavericks.” – Uncut 8/10 (Lead Review)

“Delectably barbed country songs … too good to miss.” – The New York Times

“Like a smart, funny musical without a stage.” – MOJO (4 Stars)

"The kind of singular American artist who expresses the fundamental weirdness of his country. There’s a wistfulness to Just Like Moby Dick that emphasizes the timeless quality to all his albums...The album underlines Allen’s uncanny, mysterious balance of humor, tragedy, and a kind of just-folks plainness. A set of tall tales for strange times." – The Wire

“The cult country icon and artist surveys disasters with a comic eye and a tender twang, creating a world of shuffling balladry and mysticism.” – The Guardian (4 Stars)

“Phenomenal… endlessly fascinating and moving songs. Most songwriters wouldn’t even conceive of songs on topics like Harry Houdini’s battle with spiritualists, a stripper’s demise, or a vampire carnival, let alone be able to pull them off. But for Texas legend Terry Allen, it’s all par for the course.” – American Songwriter

"Though it would be near impossible to claim any one of Allen’s records as his pièce de résistance, his latest album, Just Like Moby Dick may vie for that title." – No Depression

“Terry Allen hits a late career peak with Just Like Moby Dick. It’s almost not fair, this band he's assembled.” – Austin-American Statesman

“A maverick beyond measure and one our best storytellers.” — Glide Magazine

Tour Dates (More TBA)

Feb. 15–16: Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon (Saturday and Sunday)

March 18: Austin, TX @ GSD&M – Waterloo Records presents an album signing/meet-and-greet, Everything for All Reasons film screening, and performance

May 21: Brooklyn, NY @ Pioneer Works (via Blank Forms)

May 23: Washington, DC @ City Winery

Just Like Moby Dick Tracklist

1. “Houdini Didn’t Like the Spiritualists” 

2. “Abandonitis” 

3. “Death of the Last Stripper” 

4. “All That’s Left Is Fare-Thee-Well” 

5. “Pirate Jenny”

6. “American Childhood I: Civil Defense” 

7. “American Childhood II: Bad Kiss” 

8. “American Childhood III: Little Puppet Thing”

9. “All These Blues Go Walkin’ By” 

10. “City of the Vampires” 

11. “Harmony Two”

12. “Sailin’ On Through”

Find out more info about Terry Allen:

http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/terry-allen/