We are not vampires
We are not ghouls
We are not dumbasses
We are not fools

Beware Blood Sucking Maniacs!

It’s been a while, y’all, but we’re back. Today we have the pleasure of joining living legends—and our dear friends—Terry Allen and Jo Harvey Allen, along with their children and grandchildren, in announcing the self-titled debut (and double) album by their new project, Blood Sucking Maniacs, a multigenerational family band, out on April 24th. You can pre-order the album (the first release of all-new Terry Allen recordings since 2020’s Just Like Moby Dick); hear the first single, the eponymous theme song, “Blood Sucking Maniacs“; and buy tickets to the May 21 record release show at Austin’s Paramount Theatre, below.

Blood Sucking Maniacs, helmed by Terry and Jo Harvey, spans five generations and 121 years, including (among others) their sons Bukka and Bale Allen; grandsons Kru, Sled, and Calder Allen; Panhandle Mystery Band mainstays Charlie Sexton, Lloyd Maines, and Richard Bowden, and frequent collaborator Will Sexton. The wild and wide-ranging songs collected on their eponymous album are miscellaneous and multiplex, comprising heartrending ballads and arch in-jokes on a spectrum from sublime to unabashedly sentimental. The unifying principle here is not so much blood harmony as blood entropy.

Get sucked …

Pre-Order 2xLP, CD, and Digital Album:

Price range: $14.00 through $44.00

FORMAT

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Pre-order and Stream “Blood Sucking Maniacs” Elsewhere

The Allens will also perform two nights, in different configurations, at the fabulous Big Ears festival in Knoxville, TN, with the Truckload of Art Road Show (an intimate book reading/signing, concert, and discussion/Q&A) on March 26th and with the full Panhandle Mystery Band on March 27th. See y’all there.

“The Allen family’s life has been as much an inspiration for me as Terry’s wonderful art and music.”

– David Byrne

“Terry Allen is my hero.”

– Kurt Vile

Live Maniacs

March 26: Knoxville, TN – Big Ears – Truckload of Art Road Show (anintimate book reading/signing, performance, and discussion/Q&A)

March 27: Knoxville, TN – Big Ears – MemWars (a concert with Terry Allen and the full Panhandle Mystery Band)

May 21: Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre – A Night with Blood Sucking Maniacs (Album Release Celebration)

More dates TBA.

In Case You Missed It …

Terry and fam have been busy lately. Among other things:

+ A few months ago Ethan Hawke and Killer Mike sang Terry’s praises in their Amoeba Records What’s in My Bag? video. Killer Mike is apparently making a record inspired in part by Allen’s 1976 album Juarez, described by Frieze as “a singular moment in the history of country music [and] one of the most singular and underrated works in the history of US conceptual art.”

+ Terry won the Texas Cultural Trust Medal of the Arts in 2025, alongside director Richard Linklater and actor Dennis Quaid, among others.

+ Cultured Mag recently published a long print interview and photoessay (excerpts here) about Terry and Jo Harvey and their Santa Fe home.