Terry Allen Releases Moby Dick into the Deep.

Terry Allen Releases Moby Dick into the Deep.

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Happy New Year! The Year of Papa Rat is now upon us. Following a sold-out release concert at Austin’s historic Paramount Theatre (hello, Houdini Hole), and already sailing forth into an armada of critical acclaim, Terry Allen today releases his magisterial new record Just Like Moby Dick into the deep blue sea. Order it from us, or find it in your favorite ship-shop or ocean stream.

Allen’s heartbreaking, hilarious new album, his first set of new songs since 2013’s Bottom of the World, features the full Panhandle Mystery Band, including co-producer Charlie Sexton (Dylan, Bowie, Lucinda), Shannon McNally, and Jo Harvey Allen; mainstays Bukka Allen, Richard Bowden, and Lloyd Maines; and co-writes with Joe Ely and Dave Alvin. The connections to Melville’s masterpiece are metaphorical and allusive, as elusive as the White Whale. Just Like Moby Dick casts its net wide for wild stories, depicting, among other monstrous things, Houdini in existential crisis, the death of the last stripper in town, bloodthirsty pirates (in a pseudo-sequel to Brecht and Weill’s “Pirate Jenny”), the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (in the “American Childhood” suite), a vampire-infested circus, mudslides and burning mobile homes, and all manner of tragicomic disasters, abandonments, betrayals, bad memories, failures, and fare-thee-wells.

The deluxe tip-on gatefold 2×LP package features lyrics, color labels, high-res Bandcamp download code, three sides of music, and a fourth-side vinyl etching artwork by Allen. The gatefold CD edition includes a six-panel lyrics insert with different artwork by Allen. Check out both formats above.

Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band on Tour

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

March 18: Austin, TX @ GSD&M – Waterloo Records 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

* More dates TBA. *

Concert Tickets and Details

Terry is the subject of a new documentary film entitled Everything For All Reasons, an introduction to Allen’s music, art, and worldview that features the Panhandle Mystery Band in concert and friends ranging from David Byrne to Kiki Smith. Watch a trailer for Everything For All Reasons.

Download Everything for All Reasons.

Allen performing in NYC, 1978—the original cover concept for the album that became Moby Dick.

Early Acclaim for 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

Terry Allen [is] 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—not in the sense that the music will last, which is likely, but for the way they all revive memories. 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

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

Just Like Moby Dick shares Lubbock‘s predilection for mixing humor with horror—never judging its cast of cracked characters but never averting its gaze from the tragedy that unfolds. Another chapter in a book that never gets dull. – Record Collector

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

If Willie Nelson is the outlaw king of Texas music, Allen is the Lone Star State’s poet wizard, framing parables that cross the ages, containing sharp wit and hard truths. Even if you’ve never heard Allen’s previous work, this is a great place to dive in and become acquainted with his rich, funny, amazingly detailed and emotionally resonant magic. – Daily Mirror

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

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

Whisper it loudly, for this just might be Terry Allen’s most consummate album ever. Much like Moby-Dick the novel, Just Like Moby Dick offers the idiosyncratic work of an individual genius. – RnR

More Terry in Paradise (and at the GRAMMYs)

Wish us luck—we’re headed to LA today for the GRAMMYs. PoB’s own Brendan Greaves was nominated in the Best Album Notes category for the book he wrote and designed for Pedal Steal + Four Corners. You can download and read the book in its entirety here (with images), where you can also buy or stream the collection, or here (text only). Read an interview with Brendan about the project for Music Journalism Insider here.