And here's an interesting contrast to the overly polite and artsy "roots
rock" types: Terry Allen's an arty Texas singer-songwriter who also just
happens to be thoroughly immersed in various roots styles. He does more
than just name-check roots music greats in his publicity sheets (a la
Bruton) -- his music is identifiably based in country, cajun, tex-mex,
etc. There's also an edginess to his sound that's noticeably absent from
that of the polite snooze-rock guys. His new album's definitely gonna
make some folks uneasy, and others even downright mad. Titled Salivation,
the album takes dead-aim at religion, skewering its hypocrisies with irony
and irreverence while also demonstrating that Allen's lost none of his
ability to tell a powerful tale. Terry Allen doesn't make background
music, and thank god for that.--don
