Terry Allen - Lubbock (On Everything) [1979]

Lubbock (On Everything) came to me at a birthday party as a gift from a former roommate who knows a thing or three about obscure outlaw country. I don't think he said more than 4 or 5 words to sell it to me, something along the lines of "You're gonna love this." Perhaps that's all my surely inebriated state seemed able to process. Drunk or no, an economy of hype (you won't be so lucky) delivered in reverent tones always gets my attention and I found this album really helped me nurse a hangover the following day.

Concept country is a rarefied art. With few entries in the field, the The Red-Headed Stranger is generally held up as the unassailable pinnacle. Lubbock (On Everything) operates in a Kinksish environment as a collection of loosely tied character sketches illustrating the foibles of humanity--small town prosaic tragedies that could fit into the pages of A Fan's Notes. Terry Allen is coming from somewhere like the "fictional memoir" of Exley, as he grew up in Lubbock but traveled around before returning and recording this album. Allen is also an accomplished visual artist, a true renaissance man who interlaces his songs with comical insight from dealing with dealers, art mobs and a truckload of art.

Even if you are no fan of country, hear this 20 track double album out in its entirety. The lyrical phrasing is occasionally surprising and the excellent arrangements feature the finest session guys Lubbock could offer in 1979.

Haul a truckload of haute avant-garde.