Songs, Stories, and Skeletons: Terry Allen & Jo Harvey Allen Evolve With ‘Blood Sucking Maniacs’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Blood Sucking Maniacs from Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, and the Allen family seems to be a weird title choice. While “Blood” is central to the theme, vampires are only figurative through this indirect reference, partly stemming from a device that Bale, their son, assembled in the front yard of the Allen home in the ‘70s-a bizarre mixture of crucifixes and mirrors suspended in deadfall. Bale explained it to his parents as a vampire trap. Beyond that, it is this expansive family ‘feeding off’ each other.

The project spans five generations of the Allen family. It’s the first album for Terry Allen since 2021’s Just Like Moby Dick by the Panhandle Mystery Band, but it couldn’t be more different. The family spans five generations and 121 years, including (this is not the full list) their sons, Bukka (keyboards) and Bale Allen (drums); grandsons Kru (piano, accordion), Sled (drums), and Calder Allen (guitars); Panhandle Mystery Band mainstaysCharlie Sexton, Lloyd Maines, and Richard Bowden; and frequent collaborator Will Sexton. So, the concept of ‘blood’ is obvious, yet this project doesn’t represent an organized or harmonious flow.  Instead, this collection of songs/poems is complex and disorderly, perhaps maniacal, but held together by the theme of family.

To complete the lineup, we have pianist Pauline Allen, who passed in 1984, but whose piano instrumentals grace the album in a couple of places. Cru similarly follows suit.  There is granddaughter-in-law Sophie (music executive and mother), and Sophie’s boy Lucky Marlo, whose fetal heartbeat opens and closes the album. The Allens are all labeled “The Allen Family.” Bowden and Maines are the “Blood Brothers,” and the Sextons are the “Bastard Children.”

The album was written and recorded at the Allens ’ Santa Fe home. Musically, the album is rather staid. The appeal lies in the poetic lyrics, with the river theme running through many of them. Terry Allen reprises his country, Flatlanders-like “Bloodlines,” one of the few real musical songs. Jo Harvey’s “Peaches and Sap” is a plodding spoken word lullaby that sets the stage for many of the spoken word pieces that follow. Bale Allen’s “A Pogo Is a Logo” introduces electronics and a spacey backdrop that colors the rest of the tracks. His fascination with religious imagery is apparent –“Dip your brush in that blood and paint me a picture/Of good things that fly and evil that slivers/Walk under a ladder and test your faith/There’s a green light glowing at heaven’s gate.”Sled Allen recites his “Dirt Road” in punk poetry style over acoustic and electric guitars.

Jo Harvey’s “Down to the River” is arguably the pivotal track, given the river as the central theme. She recites over simple guitar and piano, making references to the Bay of Bengal, the Nile, the Rio Grande, the Mississippi, and the Seine. – “How about the Nile at Aswan/We’ll watch the sunset off a felucca/Float between the lush Bougainvillea and the ancient sand dunes.”

“Just Pray” by Calder Allen and Charlie Sexton presents Calder’s haunting voice and another major theme, the Power above, in a mix of spoken word and multiple hymn-like verses. Jo Harvey and Susanna Clark (wife of Guy Clark) offer an ode to nature in “Let It All In,” while Bale Allen toasts his newborn in “Little Baby Boy.”

The musical quotient finally picks up on the second LP. Dobro and piano accompany Calder Allen’s existential “No Rush to Fly.”  The band renders Terry  Allen’s “Red Leg Boy” Up-tempo. The song references Terry’s father, Sled, a wrestling and music promoter and professional baseball player. Terry’s grandson, Sled, introduces the song, just as he did as a four-year-old on Terry’s 1999’s Salvation. Four generations call out their forbear on the choruses. For his part, grandson Sled presents vivid imagery about the family abode in the spoken word, “Sante Fe,” while Calder delivers emotive sentiments in “Arroyo.

The final LP side is devoted completely to family. Bukka Allen’s “Four Rocks” traces to the sons’ pocketing four small stones from the Mojave Desert, claiming them as family tokens of unity. Jo Harvey’s most famous poem, “Shuck Some Corn,” is appended as part metaphysical riddle, but ultimately, also a nod to family.

In the end, Blood Sucking Maniacs isn’t meant to be tidy listening—it’s meant to feel lived-in.