Dennis Victor Allen is a busy guy.
He is a film producer with his own company and screened his first film at The Sundance Film Festival. He has acted in National Film Board productions, worked with the CBC and APTN and The Discovery Channel.
During this flurry of activity he has produced his first CD, Wayward Son.
In the liner notes of Wayward Son, Allen says country and western music is the brown man’s blues. I had intuitively thought this, but sometimes it takes an artist to throw these apparent truisms into sharp relief.
Allen says he grew up listening to country and western music of the late 60s when, in his words, “music was pure and powerful”.
If we look back 40 years and listen to what was considered country and western music then, we hear a different voice and some might say a purer form. Allen’s interpretation of this music comes from this earlier time when he says “songs were basically about heartbreak and sorrow that somehow we as native people could relate to”.
I have to concur with Allen on this point and add that County music has changed since that time. It has turned its back on simple tunes, gone uptown and become a sort of Glam Country in the process, losing those simpler themes.
Another element that is added to the mix of Allen’s songwriting is the blues. Taken together, these influences have provided Allen with a powerful platform in which to relate his lyrics to an audience.
Allen’s love of these musical genres has formed his voice and is evident on every track of this album.
Stolen Roses sounds like a cross between the country twang of a good Rolling Stones song and the guitar play of early 70s Eric Clapton.
On the other side of the musical coin is the song, Get Right with Jesus. This is one of those great tunes that takes its cues from bluegrass and gospel. It sounds like it could have been written for a depression-era tent revival.
Its allusions to Satan and the end times ask you to put your sinnin’ ways behind you and let Jesus into your life: all things necessary for sinners (sinners such as you, my friend) to find redemption.
The song is a toe tapper to be sure as the lyrics ask you to “Get right with Jesus if you know what I’m sayin’ / Get right with Jesus and commencify to prayin’”.
I like wordplay, and the word “commencify” is one of those double verbs that have gained popularity with the Simpsons crowd, though its origins most likely hearken back to old-time American slang. In any case, the word, though grammatically wrong, is immediately recognizable for what it means with or without extra verbification.
Wayward Son is available at fine CD outlets or by contacting Allen at his website www.dennisvictorallen.com.
For further info on the productions of Dennis Victor Allen, check out his website devoted to his film works at www.mackdelta.com.
