We had a great trip to Texas. I saw bayous for the first time, we both munched out first fried fish tail, Ellie had her first swim (not in a bayou), and lots of other great things happened. Great connection time and house concerts were fabulous. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and for finding us along the way.
Sidenote: We’re back in Boulder/Broomfield next weekend with a house concert (open to the public with rsvp) and leading worship at Cornerstone. Calendar.
We met a duo from Bedford Texas–shared the stage actually–at the opening of Crooked Tree Coffeehouse in uptown Dallas. Traded CDs and loved theirs. We’ve listen several times through. The Allens‘ CD is so wide and warm that you almost don’t notice the lyrical potency at first–they don’t pull any punches. And I mean that in the most contemplative, cryptic possible way.
Laurie likes “Grey’s the New Green” for melodic and vocal reasons. I think “Black Sheep” is a a good, honest mad-at-God song, which is something that I feel more people need occasionally. I also find “New Song” quite haunting, not a little because of the pedal steel.
Fortunately for you, it looks like the Allens have linked up with some of our good artist friends who are doing something very progressive called Noise Trade. You can listen to free samples and then download the album for whatever cost you think seems right, or tell some friends about the whole deal and get the album free. Click the photo above to get there.
Our former bandmate Katie Herzig’s new album is there too, as well as lots of other people we like, not the least of whom are Matthew Perryman Jones, Derek Webb, and Waterdeep.
Unrelated postscript: happy birthday to Bill Monroe’s mandolin, the one he used to start something called bluegrass.