Music for the Soul
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping basket is already at capacity.
Add to cart failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Music for the Soul
-
Narrated by:
-
Written by:
About this listen
Slam Allen has got it figured out. He spoke with The Current while driving up I-95 from Miami after a monthlong gig on the Brilliant Lady, a new mega cruise ship that plies the Caribbean and anchors in Aruba and Jamaica. For half the year, he plays guitar for two hours a night and relaxes the rest of the time.
"Those gigs are a beautiful situation, man," he says. "They give guest artists a nice cabin with a balcony and free food."
His parents moved to the Monticello area from Alabama, and Allen retains that drawl, which he brings to the Towne Crier in Beacon on Saturday (Jan. 24). He still lives in the Hudson Valley and has played at the 54-year-old club since its early days in Pawling.
Born into a musical family, Allen earned the cruise ship gigs by developing a gritty, down-home sound rooted in the blues and soul, paying his dues in dive bars.
After 9/11, he moved to Chicago, birthplace of the electric blues, to see if he had the chops to hang with the masters and ended up touring with harmonica giant James Cotton for a decade before taking his guitar on the road as a solo performer.
Allen explored working with major labels but says he disliked what he discovered. "I didn't want anything to do with that system," he says. "They control you and try to change you."
He has performed in all 50 states and 10 countries, a career that derives in part from his nasty guitar tone and infectious onstage exuberance. Having a flashy Art Deco-style six-string also helps.
His playing balances feel and technique with felicity and sets of tasteful tunes are paced with extended endings, call-and-response with the audience and a stroll through the crowd to flirt, joke and pose for selfies.
"Back in the 1990s, when wireless equipment was getting started, I was the first guitarist in the blues community to do that," he says. "People called me crazy but, now, they're all doing it."
Blues is an obvious influence, but Allen says he also plays soul, R&B, funk and reggae "that makes people feel good." Other influences are apparent, but when he plays a B.B. King song, he channels the master's style.
"I studied the man and how he related to the audience, but my first major guitar influence was George Benson," Allen says. "And I learned from the entertainers in the Borscht Belt during the 1980s when I worked in the hotels."
For Allen, there is something deeper than the music. He preaches about the power of positivity and calls himself the SoulWorking Man: "I'm on a mission to work people's souls and put smiles on their faces," he says. Reminded that the blues are equated with sadness, he responds: "It depends on who's playing it."
Allen doesn't use set lists. "I channel the energy in the room, and the guitar is my delivery system," he says. "I'm not pulling from church or the Bible, but from that spiritual energy we all have. I believe in it and manifest it."
The Towne Crier Cafe is located at 379 Main St. in Beacon. Slam Allen will perform at 8 p.m. with guitarist Elly Wininger; tickets are $25 at townecrier.com or $30 at the door.
No reviews yet