A Truckload of Terry Allen: Two New EPs, Signed Books, and Tamale Shirts

Terry, Bukka, Bale, and Jo Harvey Allen in Plummer Park In LA, c. 1970.

Between the forthcoming book—signed copies of which are now available for pre-order directly from our website (while supplies last)—new music, and a reprint of the Today’s Rainbow is Tomorrow’s Tamale t-shirts, a truckload of Terry is headed your way. Don’t let these limited-edition precious object burn on the highway—pre-order yours today. In conjunction with the publication, by Hachette Books, of Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen, an authorized biography by Brendan Greaves of Paradise of Bachelors, we are releasing two archival Terry Allen EPs of rare and unheard early recordings. You can preorder both now in advance of their March 15, 2024 release date (four days before the release of Truckload of Art.)

Gonna California EP (PoB-076)

Gonna California imagines an alternate reality where Allen’s long-lost first studio recordings, captured with a full band in LA in 1968, saw a proper release. (Instead nearly the entire pressing was destroyed by a fire set by the so-called “Hollywood Arsonist,” and remaining copies were repurposed in artworks.) This first-ever (re)issue edition, limited to 500 copies, features recently rediscovered and remastered early (and superior) mixes of both songs; the original liner notes by Allen; an excerpt from the book; a lyrics insert; and Allen’s contemporaneous visual art in an arresting gatefold jacket.

Pre-order Gonna California vinyl 7″ or 7″+ book bundle from PoB:

$34.00

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Cowboy and the Stranger EP (PoB-054)

Comprising the first recording, in 2018, of a song written in 1969 and three solo demo recordings dating to 1968—all previously unissued—Cowboy and the Stranger is a co-release of L.A. Louver and Paradise of Bachelors, on the occasion of Terry Allen’s 2019 retrospective drawing exhibition The Exact Moment It Happens in the West (Stories, Pictures, and Songs from the ’60s ’Til Now) at L.A. Louver. Originally limited to an edition of 500 cassettes, it is now available digitally for the first time.

Hear “Cowboy and the Stranger (demo)”:

Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen – Signed Copies Now Available

You can now order Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen, the definitive, authorized biography of Terry Allen, written by PoB co-founder Brendan Greaves, direct from us ahead of its March 19, 2024 release by Hachette Books. The first batch of copies ordered directly from us will be signed by Allen and Greaves (while supplies last; we can’t guarantee that you will receive a signed copy). Signed copies are also available for pre-order from Flyleaf Books, also while supplies last.

Pre-order a signed book or book+7″ bundle from PoB (while supplies last):

$34.00

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Book Events

We just returned from the Key West Literary Seminar, where we debuted the Truckload of Art Road Show featuring an opening set by Daniel Milewski, an reading from the book by Brendan, and a moving MemWars performance by Terry, Jo Harvey, and Bukka Allen with Richard Bowden. Stay tuned for announcements of more such book events.

: Terry and Brendan signing things in Key West.

February 28, 2024, 6pm: Reading and bookplate/record signing with Allen and Greaves followed by a full Panhandle Mystery Band concert, Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles (concert doors at 7pm). Tickets here. (There is also a Feb. 29 show at the same venue, but with no book component). Details here.

March 2, 2024, 2pm: Allen and Greaves bookplate signing and meet and greet, L.A. Louver‘s booth at Frieze Los Angeles (free with entry to the fair).

TERRY ALLEN LINKS

BRENDAN GREAVES LINKS

Paradise of Bachelors | Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Truckload of Art Facebook Page – Follow for News and Updates

Today’s Rainbow Is Tomorrow’s Tamale Tees

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: Slate: front detail.

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Tamale tees are back in stock, available only via our website. We print these super soft, 100% cotton, hand-screenprinted shirts—worn proudly by the likes of Kurt Vile and Kevin Morby—in very limited quantities only occasionally, when we have Terry news to announce. Reserve yours before this batch is gone.

$25.00

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Advance Praise for Truckload of Art

The Allen family’s life has been as much an inspiration for me as Terry’s wonderful art and music. I wondered to myself, “How does a creative person navigate family life, and life with friends, with their creative life?” This book is the instruction manual. – David Byrne, author of How Music Works Terry Allen’s creative depth has guided his life, leading him to become the great artist, writer, and musician he is. Like a tornado, he has swirled a community around himself, drawn together by his generosity and inclusivity. It is wonderful that Brendan Greaves has written a book that is as complex and compassionate as Terry and as moving and raw as his art and music. – Kiki Smith Blending West Texas fiction, hearsay, memoir, anthropological dig, and journalistic fact, Brendan Greaves has fashioned a biographical narrative that skillfully frames the life and times of the visual artist, singer-songwriter, playwright, raconteur, and beautiful dreamer known as Terry Allen. Only a Truckload of Art could do him justice. I couldn’t put it down. – Rodney Crowell Terry Allen is my hero, and Brendan changed my life when he introduced us. It’s about time they change your life too. – Kurt Vile Brendan Greaves is an unusually deft and perceptive historian of music and art, but he writes with so much heart and verve that after a few chapters, his prose starts to feel like its own song: wild, intelligent, rhythmic, true. His subject here—the inimitable Terry Allen, one of the deepest and most wonderful American artists I can think of—is so well-served by Greaves’s adventurousness and smarts. What a gorgeous, necessary book. – Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker; author of Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records Written with the narrative verve of a great novel and a poet’s eye for enchanting detail, Truckload of Art is an inspired, definitive illumination of the life and genius of a vital American artist. – Wells Tower, screenwriter and journalist; author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned Terry Allen is our modern Michelangelo—a painter, sculptor, and conceptualist informed by honky-tonk sensibilities and a singer-songwriter of incisive, vividly-depicted songs who knows his way around galleries and museums. His Florence is Lubbock, Texas, where a local boast was “Lubbock Has More Sky.” This biography tells precisely how Terry Allen filled up all that empty space. It is the most detailed history of the making of a life in art that I’ve ever read. – Joe Nick Patoski, author of Willie Nelson: An Epic Life; director of Sir Doug & the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove When I was asked to write a few sentences about this new book on Terry Allen’s life and art, I immediately felt that it was an impossible task. Then I thought about Terry and all the times I have asked him impossible questions and received the most profound responses from him in one or two words. He has been hands down one of the most influential characters of my life, and I’m looking forward to having this book to reference and share with friends, family, and future generations who may look to find their way through life in art and music. Because today’s rainbow really is tomorrow’s tamale. – Ryan Bingham Truckload of Art is a monumental work that captures the passionate, complex life of an artist whose career blends visual art and country music with unique power. Brendan Greaves unveils the supercharged art and music worlds created by Terry Allen, from his formative years in Lubbock, Texas, to California and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Truckload of Art brilliantly captures the soul of a truly great American artist who embraces his Texas roots and energizes them with his genius at every step of his career. – William Ferris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; author of Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues; former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities Once upon a time when I lived in Pasadena and Terry and Jo Harvey were in Fresno, I was there with my wife working at a stone quarry and had dinner and stayed the night with them. We cleaned squid, and Jo Harvey made a lovely dinner. The next morning all of us had violent diarrhea and we quickly ran out of toilet paper and then every possible useable paper-like material. When we returned home, I bought and shipped a large box of toilet paper from a restaurant supply store. Terry sent one back painted black, which still sits on my dining table, used as a candlestick holder. Terry and Jo Harvey—friends as long as we last. – Bruce Nauman