As far as anyone remembers, Saturday July 20, 2024 was only the third time that singer, songwriter, piano player, recording artist, and visual artist Terry Allen had performed in Nashville. The other two appearances were a joint performance with musical running buddy Guy Clark at Nashville’s renowned Bluebird Cafe and Clark’s memorial service performance at Nashville’s even more famous Ryman Auditorium.
On that Saturday afternoon, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum hosted the latest installment of what the Allen camp has dubbed the Truckload of Art Road Show. The event featured a lovely and poignant performance by Allen and his wife and sometime artistic partner-in-crime Jo Harvey Allen as well as a reading by Brendan Greaves from his recently released book Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen – An Authorized Biography.
The book is a massively comprehensive overview of Allen’s work and life that delves into and explores all aspects of his career, especially his creative and life partnership with Jo Harvey (read more about the book in the Recliner Notes interview with Greaves). So, it was fitting that while Terry was introduced and took the stage first, Jo Harvey was the first one to speak. With her singular and irresistible voice, Jo Harvey told a story about being a teen in Lubbock, Texas in the 1950s, gathering with friends to circle their cars, leave the lights on, tune the car radios to the same station, and dance together under the Texas night sky.
Terry continued the story with his own one-of-a-kind West Texas accent, saying that their radios always seemed to be tuned to the same DJ – the famed Wolfman Jack. Terry said that The Wolfman could make your greasy hair stand up straight and proceeded to sing his 1979 ode to youth, music, sex, and freedom, “The Wolfman of Del Rio.” Jo Harvey grinned at all the right parts of the song, even though she has probably heard the song over 700,000 times before and still beamed at the section of the song that is most certainly about her: “She’d just give up all control on that vinyl tuck and roll.” This combination of story and song was representative of Terry and Jo Harvey’s performance history together.
The rest of the performance aspect of the event shared the same pattern: Terry and Jo Harvey trading off stories from their lives that either connected to or directly inspired the writing of one of Terry’s songs. For instance, Terry launched into a story about the endless possibilities of being at the Denny’s on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s and fast-forwarding a few years to recount a visit to the carnival in Lubbock. Among the thrills of the midway, they recognized The Gorilla Girl, who had formerly been an all-night waitress at the aforementioned LA Denny’s. She told them that she liked waitressing, but she was born for the carnival life. With that, Terry began singing “The Beautiful Waitress,” a song previously examined on Recliner Notes.
The Allens concluded the performance aspect of the event with a story about attending Terry’s family reunions and how the gatherings would inevitably be reduced to his Uncle Shorty and other family members going into great detail about how they would rob their local bank in Amarillo. This set up a rendition of Terry’s perfect song about ranch-size Texas boasting, “Amarillo Highway (For Dave Hickey).”
The rest of the event included Greaves reading from the introduction of his book and an interview with Terry, Jo Harvey, and Greaves by the museum’s RJ Smith. Highlights of that part of the afternoon mostly featured one-liners by Terry:
- On being asked how he came by his storytelling streak, Terry replied “My parents were epic bullshitters!”
- Terry repeated one of his favorite quips about when he was first introduced to Jo Harvey: “I like to say that we met when we were 10, but didn’t screw until we were 11.” Jo Harvey quickly added with a grin, “Of course, that’s a lie!”
- Terry was asked about a diary entry that he wrote in high school expressing a desire to be an artist or a musician, and he said, “Wanting to be an artist or a musician, it was like wanting to be a Martian.” Most of all, he conveyed that imagining being an artist was a way to visualize how to get out of Lubbock.
- Terry related that being at the Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts) in the 60s was when the merging of sound and image began for him, saying that to buy art supplies, “Instead of going to the art store, you went to the hardware store” because you did what your imagination told you what to do.
- When asked for his response to the establishment of the The Terry and Jo Harvey Allen Center for Creative Studies, the archive of his writing, diaries, artwork, and more at Texas Tech, Terry answered, “Makes me feel like I’m glad I’m not dead.” The curator divulged that Terry and Jo Harvey call it “A center for unlearning.” Jo Harvey added that the archive makes for great storage.
- Terry on parenting: “When I’m asked about our children, I say one is an artist and one is a musician, so it’s a double fuck-up.”
- Jo Harvey admitted that she’s not as big of a reader as Terry but when Truckload of Art came out, she read the book three times in three days.
The Nashville crowd — filled with recognizable faces, including Robyn Hitchcock, Emma Swift, John Doe, and plenty of others who looked as though a music fan should identify them — ate up each of these cracks and comments as well as the stories and songs. When asked about his relationship with Nashville, Terry shot back, “I have no relationship with this place,” with Jo Harvey adding, “Terry’s never been invited!”
Nashville appeared to be ready to fully embrace the Allens after this event. Hopefully, the publication of the biography and this new road show will enable the endless fascinating artistic output of Terry and Jo Harvey to connect with more communities, who are only now beginning to understand and grasp it.
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The occasion of the Truckload of Art Road Show was an opportunity for this reviewer to visit Nashville and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum for the first time. Neither disappointed. Nashville seems to be filled with older gentlemen who look like former defensive coordinators of the Dallas Cowboys. Whether tourist or resident, the city forces a visitor to continually ask: Is that Rod Marinelli?
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum was an overwhelming experience, especially for someone who is rightfully awestruck by the sight of Hank Williams’ boots.
It’s hard photographing in the museum space because of the light glare off of the plexiglass vitrines, but also because of ALL OF THE RHINESTONES.
The array of rhinestone-studded dresses and Nudie suits, fiddles and guitars, the Taylor Swift Education Center, seemingly endless gold records, Tex Ritter’s saddle, and other country music lore was overwhelming. There was so much to see. At one point, the museum’s curators seemed to playfully pit Webb Pierce and Elvis Presley in a star-with-too-much-money-celebrating-his-success dick-swinging contest by pointing their respective Cadillacs at each other in a car-to-car showdown. Pierce’s Caddy has a chrome horse on the back bumper, giant steer horns labeled “WEBB” on the front, and six-shooters for door handles.
Whereas Elvis’s customized Cadillac is gold-plated with a television in the backseat.
Also impressive was the selection of instruments from country music fame, including Mother Maybelle Carter’s guitar, Bill Monroe’s mandolin, Buck Owens’ red, white, and blue guitar, but what is this rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The museum also featured an exhibition on country-rock in Los Angeles with objects and text representing artists and bands such as The Flying Burrito Brothers, Buffalo Springfield, Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, and many more.
Also welcomed was the inclusion of second generation LA country rock, which was illustrated by acts such as Los Lobos, Lone Justice, and The Blasters. It’s fascinating to see a venue such as the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum embrace this aspect of country music, which, at the time, was mostly pooh-poohed by the country music establishment.
Lastly, the Hall of Fame Rotunda presents plaques of members of the Country Music Hall of Fame centered around a painting by Thomas Hart Benton called “The Sources of Country Music.”
The solemn space in the rotunda documenting the countless contributions made by these country music royalty and craftspeople, adorned by Benton’s beautiful and appropriately-themed painting, was a proper way to leave and say goodbye to the museum, which certainly lives up to its promise to explore and celebrate the vast wonders of country music.
Featured image of Terry and Jo Harvey Allen courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
Recliner Notes 