Allen, Terry -& The Panhandle Mystery Band-
Pedal Steal + Four Corners (+3cd)
Legendary Texan artist Terry Allen occupies a unique position straddling the frontiers of country music and conceptual art; he has worked with everyone from Guy Clark to David Byrne to Lucinda Williams, and his artwork resides in museums worldwide. 'Pedal Steal + Four Corners' collects, for the first time, Allen's radio plays and long-form narrative audio works: two and a half hours of cinematic songs, stories, and country-concrète sound collage in a deluxe gatefold edition, including one LP, three CDs, a DL code, and an exhaustive 28 page color booklet boasting the first in-depth essay to explore this singular body of work, dozens of images of Allen's related visual art and full scripts and credits for all five pieces (a total of 33k words). 'Pedal Steal' (1985), originally composed as a soundtrack to a dance performance, appears on vinyl for the first time, as well as on CD. 'Torso Hell' (1986), 'Bleeder' (1990), 'Reunion (A Return To Juarez)' (1992), and 'Dugout' (1993) comprise the 'Four Corners' suite, radio plays broadcast on NPR and never before released, now spanning two CDs. All audio has been meticulously remastered from the original tapes. Fans of Allen's violent masterpiece 'Juarez' will find much to love in these haunting Southwestern desert dramas, which feature Jo Harvey Allen, Lloyd Maines, Butch Hancock, Stones saxophonist Bobby Keys, and many others. Roger Corman tried to option the film rights, Jesse Helms tried to ban them, now you can own them!