Red Allen - Biography
Red Allen was a fine guitar picker, but it was as a vocalist that he made his mark on bluegrass. In 1956, Allen joined the bluegrass band the Osborne Brothers and, with his high tenor lead vocals and the wailing harmonies of the Osbornes behind him, they established a signature sound like none other in the bluegrass scene at that time. His lead tenor vocal style became the template for every bluegrass band that followed. He later made recordings under his own name and was part of the seminal groups the Kentuckians, the Kentucky Mountain Boys, and Red Allen and the Allen Brothers. Allen died in 1993.
Allen was born in Kentucky and grew up singing, playing guitar, and listening to country music on the WNOX radio station out of Knoxville, Tennessee. He joined the Marines when he was 17 and then moved to Dayton, Ohio after his tour of duty. He worked days in a refrigerator factory and played nights in a loosely-formed group that included Noah Crase and Sonny Osborne on banjo and Frank Wakefield and Bobby Osborne on mandolin. Each of the five men contributed on vocals. In various combinations, the group played country bars in Dayton until Bobby and Sonny Osborne moved on to join up with Jimmy Martin on a project called Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Brothers. In 1956, Bobby and Sonny left Martin to create the Osborne Brothers and recruited Allen for guitar and lead vocals. The early recordings they made for independent labels before they were signed to MGM are collected on The Osborne Brothers & Red Allen (1980 Rounder).
The Osborne Brothers became regulars on WWVA’s Wheeling Jamboree. Allen’s distinct vocals are featured on their early recordings including Country Pickin' and Hillside Singin’ (1959 MGM), which included their first big hit “Ruby.”
Allen quit the band just after cutting Country Pickin' and, when his wife divorced him, he moved to Washington, DC to join Wakefield’s new band. With Allen on lead vocals, the Kentuckians soon became the leading bluegrass outfit in DC and began recording albums and singles for Folkways, Melodeon, County, Starday, and Rebel. Those recordings can be found on Red Allen, Frank Wakefield and the Kentuckians (1964 Folkways), The Solid Bluegrass Sound of the Kentuckians (1965 Melodeon), Bluegrass Country (1966 County), and Red Allen and the Kentuckians (1966 County.) Compilations of songs from this time include Lonesome and Blue: the Complete County Recordings (2004 Rebel) and Keep on Going: the Complete Rebel and Melodeon Recordings (2004 Rebel).
In 1967, Allen left the Kentuckians to replace Lester Flatt in the Foggy Mountain Boys while Flatt recovered from a heart attack. In 1968, he started the Kentucky Mountain Boys with progressive banjo picker J. D. Crowe. Their only album together, Bluegrass Holiday (1969 Lemco), helped lay the foundations for the progressive newgrass movement.
In 1970, Allen returned to Dayton and put together a band with his four sons called Red Allen and the Allen Brothers, who recorded for Lemco and King Bluegrass. They were one of the first newgrass bands and played regularly on WWVA’s Wheeling Jamboree. In 1979, Allen began recording solo albums including Live and Let Live (1979 Folkways), the tribute album In Memory of the Man: Dedicated to Lester Flatt (1980 Folkways), Red Allen and Friends (1981 Folkways), and The Red Allen Tradition (1983 Folkways). In 2001, Red Allen: The Folkways Years, 1964-1983 (2001 Folkways) was released, which collects 28 songs from Allen’s solo albums and his work with Frank Wakefield and the Kentuckians.
By the mid-80s, Allen was struggling with cancer and subsequently toured and recorded infrequently. In 1987, mandolinist David Grisman invited Allen to be part of Home is Where the Heart Is (1988 Rounder), a super session that included Doc Watson, Ricky Scaggs, Del McCoury, Tony Rice, and Sam Bush. The album was nominated for the first ever Best Bluegrass Album Grammy. In 1992, Allen and Wakefield began remastering The Kitchen Tapes (1994 Acoustic Disc), a series of demos they made in 1963 to teach their band, which included Grisman at the time, the songs in their repertoire. Unfortunately, Allen died on April 3rd, 1993, before the project was finished. Grisman and Wakefield dedicated the album to their fallen friend and collaborator.
