Lubbock (On Everything)

About

A Texas country classic by an internationally recognized conceptual artist, <i>Lubbock (On Everything)</i> has shaped much of what’s come since the ambitious double album was released in 1979—both in and out of the Panhandle college town it’s dedicated to. Terry Allen is a Lubbock native, but he had already spent over a decade in California, studying art and pursuing anything but odes to his hometown. “I had a pretty sarcastic and negative attitude about Lubbock and Texas—on the surface, anyway,” as he put it later. “It wasn’t until I listened back to the songs I’d written that it dawned on me. The songs weren’t angry. They had a real care, <i>love</i> for this country and these people.” He wrote those songs ahead of his return to town, when he joined forces with fellow local and soon-to-be frequent collaborator Lloyd Maines—a Texas country legend and father of Natalie—to craft the expansive and intimate vision of Texas life. For all Allen’s erudition and artsy accolade, the album is straight country: catchy melodie, winking portraits of local, and more than a little grit. There’s fiddle and pedal steel and jangling barroom piano, and Allen’s exaggerated twang riding easily atop it all (how many other country singers have leaned into their accents to similar ends but for different reasons?). .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →