Burning Near the Highway

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Red Roses, Red Roses
A girl of mystery
Her hair hangs down yellow
But her skin is Shawnee
She lives in caliche pits
Outside of town
And fires her long rifle
At the sun going down...

Gawd, Terry Allen has a brilliant mind for character creation. Spin #1 today:

O, K
L, A
H, O
M, A
Outside Oklahoma
OK, LA

-Terry Allen, "The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma" (1979) (about a move from OK to LA): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDv...

Below, ED RUSCHA, OK (State I), 1990 & Hollywood, 1999, exhibited in OKLA in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum.

Born (1936) and died (2004) on this day: master of dirty realism, Lucia Berlin. Glad I found her writing. I return to it and think of it often.

Focusing on singer-songwriters in my American Lit II class this week. Better believe this is on the list.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgsS...

Well, he took his first release on a highway
In a 1953 green Chevrolet
And he's carrying an awful load for just a 15 year old
Til he laid his mind on the center line & turned up the radio

-"The Wolfman of Del Rio," Terry Allen 1979

Terry Allen, "Wolfman of del Rio" (2018-19):

Album artwork by Terry Allen.

YouTube video by Amoeba Ethan Hawke & Killer Mike - What's In My Bag?

Ethan Hawke & Killer Mike mark out to the genius of Terry Allen at @amoebamusic.bsky.social (and talk Charley Crockett, Merle Haggard, and other cool shit).

m.youtube.com/watch?v=B-zw...

YouTube video by Terry Allen Terry Allen - "Bloodlines (I)" (Official Audio)

Oh, my mother
She is a mountain
And her breast
It touch the sky
And my father
He is a river
Running through her
Sweet bye and bye

Just listenin to Terry Allen's "Bloodlines (I)" on repeat, contemplatin existence: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrfs...

YouTube video by Charlie Robison - Topic Flatland Boogie

Well moon lights a-falling, look at that caliche glow
And a coyotes howling, he doesn't know that he's too old
Headlights are shinin' on all we ever need to know...

Charlie Robison does Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsm...

Americana Podcast

Newest episode of the AMERICANA PODCAST with @robertearlkeen is an interview with Terry and Jo Harvey Allen y’all. Good shit. www.americanapodcast.com

I had Terry Allen's radio plays wrapped around my brain as I wrote this one...

YouTube video by Charlie Robison - Topic Flatland Boogie

Well moon lights a-fallin, look at that caliche glow
And a coyote's howling, doesn't know that he's too old
Headlights are shinin' on all we ever need to know

Charlie Robison does Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEsm...

Count the Dust...the trailer.

Terry Allen, HOLDING, 1996

3 Terry Allen quotes currently driving/inciting my WIP:

L-Terry Allen's story of what inspired VISIONS BEHIND GLASS (BILLINGSGATE), courtesy of @laweekly01.bsky.social.

R-Terry Allen, VISIONS BEHIND GLASS (BILLINGSGATE), 1983

Look for Cowboy Jamboree's Terry Allen incited anthology of fiction, cnf, verse and sketches, I FEEL JUST LIKE A DOGWOOD TREE, round about November.

And they met out on the highway
At the Paradise Motel lounge...

-"High Plains Jamboree," Terry Allen (1979)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LQ8...

Below: The Paradise (1976 installation created for The Great American Rodeo Show, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth)

YouTube video by Live From Austin TX The Flatlanders - "Gimmie A Ride To Heaven" [Live from Austin, TX]

He just grinned and said "My friend,
I know you might think it's odd
But you got nothin to fear about drinkin a beer
If you share it with the son of God"

The Flatlanders do Terry Allen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2Z...

"I told her she was drawing sausages, not horses
She said, 'No, they were horses'"

"She comes in and takes his hand. It’s time. Her fingers move lightly over his big knuckles like she is playing the piano..."

Left: Terry Allen, HITTER, 1996

Right: ending of Terry Allen's radio play DUGOUT (the story of an old ballplayer's marriage to a barrelhouse piano player)

"She comes in and takes his hand. It’s time. Her fingers move lightly over his big knuckles like she is playing the piano..."

Left: Terry Allen, HITTER, 1996

Right: ending of Terry Allen's radio play DUGOUT (the story of an old ballplayer's marriage to a barrelhouse piano player)

Terry Allen Really Likes Bird Imagery in His Art

Part 4

POSITIONS ON THE DESERT: Z, A, J and R (1990)

Look for Cowboy Jamboree's Terry Allen inspired, incited and ignited anthology of good grit, I FEEL JUST LIKE A DOGWOOD TREE, this fall...

Ah but see how the lightning
Makes cracks in your air
Tearing the clouds
Then closin the tear
Yeah but you're not surprised anymore
You're going home
To Paradise

Can't find anyone covering this, so Terry Allen does Terry Allen's "Cortez Sail" (the song): www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-ZR...

Terry Allen Really Likes Bird Imagery in His Art

Part 3

Left: THE CORTEZ SAIL, mixed media on Strathmore paper and acrylic box frame

Right: Text from the radio play, REUNION (A RETURN TO JUAREZ)

"History exists temporarily, and people take place."

This collection from Paradise of Bachelors of Terry Allen's radio plays made a huge impact on my own writing. Like Sam Shepard-who Allen is a stated fan of-it just showed me new possibilities for story telling.

Anyway, spin #1 today:

"then a bird flew out of his chest
then he remembered his childhood
and the bird dropped dead in midair"

Highly recommend the radio play/theatre piece Terry Allen wrote to accompany the exhibit. Here, his wife Jo Harvey Allen performs the piece: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfNO...

In GHOST SHIP: RODEZ "Allen pursues a fictional investigation of what may have happened in the mind of French artist, playwright & actor Antonin Artaud during a 17-day journey restrained in the dark hold of the freighter Washington in 1937, & later, in various mental institutions." (From @LALOUVER)