Search - Terry Allen :: Salivation

Terry Allen is 90s most Effective Satirist

03/24/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Salivation proves, as its cover art foreshadows, that Terry Allen is one of the most effective satirists of the 90s, certainly the most in country music. This Lubbock (though relocated to Sante Fe) musician & sculptor's (his sculptures can be seen in the Houston & Denver airports) work goes back as far as 1975, and some of the songs are from prior work - "Billy the Boy" from a stage work called "Pedal Steal" in 1985, for example - but this album is at its scathing best in the hard-edged songs dealing with the right-wing millenium fantaticism. In the title song, or "The Doll" (in which Allen declares our savior to be "Jesus Cash") or the hard-stomping COUNTRY song "Southern Comfort" in which Allen declares most Christians to be far from saved, or the song penned with Guy Clark, "X-Mas On the Isthmus", where some Panamanian stoners lament the lack of a fat man in red tight, as well as "The Show", a poke at televangelists & their brainwashed groupies, Allen reaches a level of satiric & ironic clarity that ranks him with the likes of Randy Newman. If Newman wore Cowboy boots, that is. Oh, and, as always, the tunes are catchy and influenced by many different styles: "Salivation", "southern Comfort", "Red Leg Boy" (about Allen's father), and "Ain't No Top 40 Song" (regretfully the least interesting song on the album, and the reason for the 4), are all rockabilly, while "X-Mas" has a real polka stomp to it, as well as some more straightforward country songs - "Rio Ticino" and, a cover of "Give Me The Flowers" (a beautiful old tune, delightful to hear again). Others, like "Cortez Sail" rest between different musical influences, but, like that song, achieve a kind of floating brilliance in their texture that is missing from most country music today, along with the intelligence. Lloyd Maines, also co-producer, lends the album true craftsmanship with his brilliant mandolin and slide guitar, and the rest of the band is sure and backs Allen well. Allen is one of the most underappreciated artists of the 90s, and is a fresh alternative to Nashville. I appreciate his contribution to music, and he deserves a much wider audience. "Salivation" is a good follow up to his remarkable, career-capping "Human Remains", and sits nobly beside his other true masterpiece, the 1979 double-album "Lubbock (On Everything)". Do your ear a favor, and take a listen. Allen writes knowledgeably about many diverse subjects, always with a keen empathic or ironic tone, or both. And his sculptures ain't bad neither."

More twisted country from Terry Allen

wm | ...onward....thru the fog! | 03/24/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Salivation" expands upon "Human remains". Human Remains is one of those CDs that begins resonating only after you've heard it several times. On that one, he collaborated with David Byrne and Lucinda Williams. Salivation is an evolution of the earlier CD. Regretfully, Byrne and Lucinda are nowhere to be found on it, but new instruments, especially the marimba (or maybe it's a vibraphone?) have been added to the mix with great effects.
Some have described Allen's music as country. It's a lot more complex than that, as you can pick up all kinds of musical references throughout. It's difficult to tell whether he's mocking or afraid of Jesus, allowing the listener to appreciate it regardless of religious beliefs. He likes to weave songs within songs, which adds to the intrigue and complexity One of the strangest things I've ever heard has got to be the intro to the second track, where he talks like a spaced out Donald Duck.
If you're not afraid of musicians who blend genres while kicking up a killer beat and drawing you in, then check this out."