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Truckload of Art: The Life and Work of Terry Allen―An Authorized Biography
Truckload of Art is the definitive, authorized, and first-ever biography of Terry Allen, the internationally acclaimed visual artist and iconoclastic songwriter who occupies an utterly unique position straddling the disparate, and usually distant, worlds of conceptual art and country music.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Allen himself, his family members (including actor and poet Jo Harvey Allen, his wife and artistic partner of more than sixty years), and his many notable friends, colleagues, and collaborators (from musicians like David Byrne and Kurt Vile to artists such as Bruce Nauman and Kiki Smith); full access to the artist’s home, studio, and voluminous journals and archives; and over twenty years of collaboration and friendship with Allen, author Brendan Greaves limns a revealing portrait, as deeply researched as it is intimate, as provocative as it is poetic, of a singularly multivalent storyteller of the American West.
Truckload of Art exhaustively traces Allen’s extraordinary life from his childhood in postwar Lubbock, Texas, spent ringside and sidestage as the only child of a professional ballplayer turned concert and wrestling promoter father and a barrelhouse piano player mother, to his revelatory years as a wide-eyed art student and fledgling musician in incendiary 1960s Los Angeles, and through subsequent decades of troubles and triumphs doggedly pursuing an uncompromising artistic practice distinct from, and often contrary to, prevailing currents. With humor and critical acumen, Greaves deftly recounts how the artist built a career and cult following based on multiyear and multimedia bodies of richly narrative, interconnected art and theatrical works—including JUAREZ (ongoing since 1968), YOUTH IN ASIA (1982–1992), and DUGOUT (1993–2005)—and pioneering albums like Juarez (1975) and Lubbock (on everything) (1979), hailed as, respectively, among the most significant statements in the history of conceptual art and country music.
Allen’s adventures in art and music, from the mid-1960s through his recent renaissance, Greaves asserts, offer a fascinating alternate, or parallel, history of American artistry. It is a history in which established geographies and genre barriers do not hold—in which a song can also be a sculpture, and a play can spring forth from drawings—in which an unlikely confluence of Californian conceptualism and Texan country-rock challenges our preconceptions about the limits and borders of expressive culture, the longevity and productivity of artist marriages and creative partnerships, and what one artist can accomplish in one lifetime. Like Allen’s life work, Greaves’s deep-dive critical biography joins music, visual art, and theater—braiding histories both personal and cultural—in the service of exploring the strange terrain of memory, of conjuring indelible stories, horrific and hilarious alike, out of the howling West Texas wind.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Allen himself, his family members (including actor and poet Jo Harvey Allen, his wife and artistic partner of more than sixty years), and his many notable friends, colleagues, and collaborators (from musicians like David Byrne and Kurt Vile to artists such as Bruce Nauman and Kiki Smith); full access to the artist’s home, studio, and voluminous journals and archives; and over twenty years of collaboration and friendship with Allen, author Brendan Greaves limns a revealing portrait, as deeply researched as it is intimate, as provocative as it is poetic, of a singularly multivalent storyteller of the American West.
Truckload of Art exhaustively traces Allen’s extraordinary life from his childhood in postwar Lubbock, Texas, spent ringside and sidestage as the only child of a professional ballplayer turned concert and wrestling promoter father and a barrelhouse piano player mother, to his revelatory years as a wide-eyed art student and fledgling musician in incendiary 1960s Los Angeles, and through subsequent decades of troubles and triumphs doggedly pursuing an uncompromising artistic practice distinct from, and often contrary to, prevailing currents. With humor and critical acumen, Greaves deftly recounts how the artist built a career and cult following based on multiyear and multimedia bodies of richly narrative, interconnected art and theatrical works—including JUAREZ (ongoing since 1968), YOUTH IN ASIA (1982–1992), and DUGOUT (1993–2005)—and pioneering albums like Juarez (1975) and Lubbock (on everything) (1979), hailed as, respectively, among the most significant statements in the history of conceptual art and country music.
Allen’s adventures in art and music, from the mid-1960s through his recent renaissance, Greaves asserts, offer a fascinating alternate, or parallel, history of American artistry. It is a history in which established geographies and genre barriers do not hold—in which a song can also be a sculpture, and a play can spring forth from drawings—in which an unlikely confluence of Californian conceptualism and Texan country-rock challenges our preconceptions about the limits and borders of expressive culture, the longevity and productivity of artist marriages and creative partnerships, and what one artist can accomplish in one lifetime. Like Allen’s life work, Greaves’s deep-dive critical biography joins music, visual art, and theater—braiding histories both personal and cultural—in the service of exploring the strange terrain of memory, of conjuring indelible stories, horrific and hilarious alike, out of the howling West Texas wind.
560 pages, Hardcover
Published March 19, 2024
22 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Brendan Greaves
5 books2 followersBrendan Greaves is founder and owner of the record label Paradise of Bachelors and has collaborated on numerous projects with Terry Allen, including Pedal Steal + Four Corners, for which he earned a Grammy nomination for Best Album Notes. A folklorist, essayist, and lapsed art worker, he studied at Harvard and UNC, and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife, Samantha, and son, Asa.
https://brendangreaves.com
https://paradiseofbachelors.com
https://brendangreaves.com
https://paradiseofbachelors.com
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 26, 2024
“Desperado Dadaism...”
No one but Brendan could be successfully charged with the feat of sharing Allen’s heroic, winding and often outlandish tale. If you are familiar with Terry’s work, you’ll feel eerily at home with Greaves’ vibrant language which seems as if it’s been steeped in each of Allen’s artistic mediums - tangible, audible, brash and all encompassing.
If you’re curious about any aspect of Terry’s mind, I encourage you to read this book. It’s a voyeuristic view into the inner workings and circle of a brilliant artist and feels as if it was penned in his own hand…though he will deny having much to do with it.
As Terry put it himself at the book signing: “Authorized? I don’t remember authorizing shit.”
No one but Brendan could be successfully charged with the feat of sharing Allen’s heroic, winding and often outlandish tale. If you are familiar with Terry’s work, you’ll feel eerily at home with Greaves’ vibrant language which seems as if it’s been steeped in each of Allen’s artistic mediums - tangible, audible, brash and all encompassing.
If you’re curious about any aspect of Terry’s mind, I encourage you to read this book. It’s a voyeuristic view into the inner workings and circle of a brilliant artist and feels as if it was penned in his own hand…though he will deny having much to do with it.
As Terry put it himself at the book signing: “Authorized? I don’t remember authorizing shit.”
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September 9, 2024Beautifully written in depth history of the life of Terry Allen to date. He is an amazing song writer, singer and artist. His work, which having a lot of country in it, is very different. His latest album 'Just Like Moby Dick' is incredible and I find myself listening to it over and over. I listened to the music as I read the book, so that I could totally understand. Brendan's writing is exceptional. He is also my son in law, and that makes me very proud.
August 17, 2024
A thorough look at what makes Terry Allen tick, with the final act of the book losing track of the emotional core of the story that was being told in favor of simply documenting the dates and locations of various art pieces, meetings, and concerts.
June 7, 2024
Interesting read kinda felt like a broad survey without going tooooo deep on major moments. Kind of an odd read to me always when you’re reading a biography of someone who’s still alive.
May 22, 2024
High art, country music, love, bloodlines, Texas.
(It’s all the same stuff).
(It’s all the same stuff).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2024
My uncle played gimme a ride to heaven at Christmas dinner a few years back and I’ve been down the damn rabbit hole on Terry Allen ever since. I think I’m lost down here to be honest.
May 9, 2024
This book is a very intimate look into Terry Allen's life and work - and, to a lesser extent, Jo Harvey Allen's life and work. I don't mean intimate in a "Terry Allen opens up about his deepest, darkest thoughts" way. There's not a lot of that. But it really delves into minute details, frustrations, and marital challenges. The story is uniquely Terry's, but I would bet any artist, and certainly interdisciplinary artists, would find a lot they recognize here.
Allen seems eternally frustrated, though not necessarily angry or defeated. The stories, the humor, and the quips keep it from being too consistently heavy. And despite some crankiness, he seems to really love and connect with the people he likes most. There's a hangout vibe to a lot of sections and passages, and that's really fun to read.
Overall well-written and organized, especially given it is the author's first book. It occasionally skipped slightly ahead in order to set up where a chapter would head toward - but that caused only momentary confusion. I'd greatly recommend this to anyone who enjoys artist biographies or Texas music.
Allen seems eternally frustrated, though not necessarily angry or defeated. The stories, the humor, and the quips keep it from being too consistently heavy. And despite some crankiness, he seems to really love and connect with the people he likes most. There's a hangout vibe to a lot of sections and passages, and that's really fun to read.
Overall well-written and organized, especially given it is the author's first book. It occasionally skipped slightly ahead in order to set up where a chapter would head toward - but that caused only momentary confusion. I'd greatly recommend this to anyone who enjoys artist biographies or Texas music.
May 3, 2024
Incredible. This was a meaty book - lots of detail, and overwhelming at times because of this reader's ignorance of the many mediums of art - and I had to read multiple books in between. I knew Juarez and I'd listened to Just Like Moby Dick (and loved them both), but I had not an inkling of Terry Allen's non-music creations. Needless to say, his life story is not an easy, Disney-esque fairy tale. There are lots of ups and downs and, of course, he comes out on top, maybe wiser, but also still creating, seemingly going with whatever idea (sculpture, drawings, installations, written work, music, etc.) that comes into his head. I delved into his musical back catalog while reading this. There's not much filler at all and most are very high-level country-informed rock/folk/rock/singer songwriter gems. His marriage to Jo Harvey shows that marriage is not always easy, but takes commitment and patience and it was touching to know that they're 60+ years into their marriage and still together and going strong. Allen is a survivor and clearly has never stopped being creative, regardless of a rough time with his dad dying at a young age, an alcoholic mother, struggling for years to make a living as an artist, and so on, he just keeps pushing and working (to this day). Truly an inspirational, and funny!, life story!
January 13, 2024
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Hachette Books for an advanced copy of this biography on an artist whose songs have been covered by numerous artists, works hung in museums or installations, and yet is more of folk hero, rather than an artist of renown.
"There’s a desperation to be visual when you grow up in a place that has nothing visual.” This line appears in the early part of this biography and made me stop cold. There is a lot of truth to this. Growing up with an interest not in common with many of the people in my community, when I would travel to places that had things that interested me, I went almost drunk with stimuli. For an artist comfortable with both words and creating art from objects, Terry Allen sure has come a long way from being an a house with only one piece of art, an etching of a ship. Albums, installations, memorial pieces, Terry Allen has created quite a lot in his life, and is still going strong, though his songs are more known by the artists who covered them, and his art might not be something one would have at home. Truckload of Art:The Life and Work of Terry Allen—An Authorized Biography by writer, curator, folklorist Brendan Greaves is a study of the man's life, his growing up, inspirations, and how his art came to be.
Terry Allen was born in Wichita, Kansas, but grew up in Lubbock Texas. Allen's father had played baseball, and a mother who had a lot of unfulfilled dreams. After retiring Allen's father Shed started promoting concerts in the area along with wrestling shows, where Allen would hang out, see shows and find a love in entertainment. Wrestling brought him closes with the Mexican community in the area, who came for the Lucha action. The music Allen liked was black musicians, especially Bo Diddley, whose music hit him like the atom bombs people were learning to duck and cover from. The death of his father left him lost, words and music kept him sane. That and the love of his wife, Jo Harvey Allen. Allen went west, studied to be an architect, but the ideas of being an artists were never really shelved. Albums were made, favorites more of a certain class of ears, but songs that have been covered by many artists, and still ring true today. Along with the art, that slowly began to emerge.
I must admit to not knowing much about Terry Allen at all, before reading this. And now I am fascinated. This is due both to the live of the man, and the writing by Brendan Greaves who does a very good job of covering the life of this man in full. Greaves can discuss small town life, parents with addiction problems, the art market, recording and more quite well. The amount of research and work that went into this book must have been extraordinary. There are interviews with Allen, his family, friends and others in the art field, as well as discussions about music, more art, academic life, and life in a small town. There are quite a lot of great lines, most from Allen, about creating art, being an artist, and having the drive to strive. I went into this not knowing much, and now I feel like I have been a fan most of my life. In fact I am listening to some songs while I write this. A really well-written biography, that really looks at a life in full.
Recommended for readers who enjoy music histories, art history, and life in the 60's and 70's. This is also a very interesting book about the creative process, and how are can change a person, and drive them to achieve things they never thought possible.
"There’s a desperation to be visual when you grow up in a place that has nothing visual.” This line appears in the early part of this biography and made me stop cold. There is a lot of truth to this. Growing up with an interest not in common with many of the people in my community, when I would travel to places that had things that interested me, I went almost drunk with stimuli. For an artist comfortable with both words and creating art from objects, Terry Allen sure has come a long way from being an a house with only one piece of art, an etching of a ship. Albums, installations, memorial pieces, Terry Allen has created quite a lot in his life, and is still going strong, though his songs are more known by the artists who covered them, and his art might not be something one would have at home. Truckload of Art:The Life and Work of Terry Allen—An Authorized Biography by writer, curator, folklorist Brendan Greaves is a study of the man's life, his growing up, inspirations, and how his art came to be.
Terry Allen was born in Wichita, Kansas, but grew up in Lubbock Texas. Allen's father had played baseball, and a mother who had a lot of unfulfilled dreams. After retiring Allen's father Shed started promoting concerts in the area along with wrestling shows, where Allen would hang out, see shows and find a love in entertainment. Wrestling brought him closes with the Mexican community in the area, who came for the Lucha action. The music Allen liked was black musicians, especially Bo Diddley, whose music hit him like the atom bombs people were learning to duck and cover from. The death of his father left him lost, words and music kept him sane. That and the love of his wife, Jo Harvey Allen. Allen went west, studied to be an architect, but the ideas of being an artists were never really shelved. Albums were made, favorites more of a certain class of ears, but songs that have been covered by many artists, and still ring true today. Along with the art, that slowly began to emerge.
I must admit to not knowing much about Terry Allen at all, before reading this. And now I am fascinated. This is due both to the live of the man, and the writing by Brendan Greaves who does a very good job of covering the life of this man in full. Greaves can discuss small town life, parents with addiction problems, the art market, recording and more quite well. The amount of research and work that went into this book must have been extraordinary. There are interviews with Allen, his family, friends and others in the art field, as well as discussions about music, more art, academic life, and life in a small town. There are quite a lot of great lines, most from Allen, about creating art, being an artist, and having the drive to strive. I went into this not knowing much, and now I feel like I have been a fan most of my life. In fact I am listening to some songs while I write this. A really well-written biography, that really looks at a life in full.
Recommended for readers who enjoy music histories, art history, and life in the 60's and 70's. This is also a very interesting book about the creative process, and how are can change a person, and drive them to achieve things they never thought possible.
September 18, 2024
Went in not knowing much about Terry Allen’s personal life, or his career as an artist. I pretty much only knew Lubbock, Juarez & Bloodlines. Can’t believe I had never listened to Smokin the Dummy before, what an incredible album! I was constantly amazed at how much art he created as well as how many famous and influential people he knew and rubbed elbows with. I guess in my mind he was always some shadowy underground undiscovered artist. How wrong I was!
The author’s writing style wasn’t my favorite, but the subject matter was well worth it. There are lots of long sentences with ideas often interrupted mid-sentence where the author feels the need to fill you in on the importance of some piece of art or tell you someone’s back story. I found that a bit annoying at times, but again, well worth it.
The author’s writing style wasn’t my favorite, but the subject matter was well worth it. There are lots of long sentences with ideas often interrupted mid-sentence where the author feels the need to fill you in on the importance of some piece of art or tell you someone’s back story. I found that a bit annoying at times, but again, well worth it.
October 18, 2024
As a longtime fan of Terry Allen’s music, I wanted to love this book and soak up every ounce of it. But I didn’t. Hell, I couldn’t even finish it. Although there were some very interesting passages that I was glad to have read, I often found myself drowning in mundane detail and forcing myself to skim several pages at a time. That’s no way to read a book. So I put it down. Terry Allen certainly deserves a biography, but maybe not a door-stopping tome.
I’ll shelve it for now and perhaps pick it up again one day to give it another shot.
I’ll shelve it for now and perhaps pick it up again one day to give it another shot.
July 15, 2025
"…He titled the funerary piece Caw Caw Blues, Its feathers pebbled with Clark’s silver-gray cremains, which Allen poured into the molten bronze at the foundry, it resides in the Witliff Collections of Texas State University in San Marcos, while a smaller brother (sans cremains) perches on a fountain on the patio of Allen’s home…"
Please read my review in total here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...
Please read my review in total here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/msarki/...
April 3, 2024
This impossibly rich book was my spring break. I just finished it tonight.
Brendan Greaves exchanged five years of his life to give us the nearly complete story of the comet Terry Allen and his orbit I’ve been waiting most of my adult life for.
Bless you, Brendan Greaves, for Paradise of Bachelors and everything that you’ve done to bring Terry Allen’s art of living into the world in your way.
Initial impressions remain below:
I’ve read more amazing anecdotes this afternoon after its arrival than I can ever recall in one basket just by flipping around to names I recognize from the Lubbock cosmology.
The Exact Moment It Happens In The West at Louver is and was my favorite art show I’ve seen with my own eyes.
I left his two most recent concerts feeling like he may be the greatest living songwriter after first being awakened at 6 am every school morning to Bloodlines coming from the old man’s living room turntable.
Is there another living, breathing human being whose art, musical ensembles, and relationships have intensified to this pitch?
I’m ready to rip into the rest like a late Saturday afternoon chopped beef sandwich from Pinkie’s on the shores of Buffalo Springs Lake prior to the Tornado Jam.
Brendan Greaves exchanged five years of his life to give us the nearly complete story of the comet Terry Allen and his orbit I’ve been waiting most of my adult life for.
Bless you, Brendan Greaves, for Paradise of Bachelors and everything that you’ve done to bring Terry Allen’s art of living into the world in your way.
Initial impressions remain below:
I’ve read more amazing anecdotes this afternoon after its arrival than I can ever recall in one basket just by flipping around to names I recognize from the Lubbock cosmology.
The Exact Moment It Happens In The West at Louver is and was my favorite art show I’ve seen with my own eyes.
I left his two most recent concerts feeling like he may be the greatest living songwriter after first being awakened at 6 am every school morning to Bloodlines coming from the old man’s living room turntable.
Is there another living, breathing human being whose art, musical ensembles, and relationships have intensified to this pitch?
I’m ready to rip into the rest like a late Saturday afternoon chopped beef sandwich from Pinkie’s on the shores of Buffalo Springs Lake prior to the Tornado Jam.
February 23, 2025
What a gift to have an in-depth look into the life of one of the greatest living American artists, Terry Allen: From his paintings, to his sculptures, to his songs, to his travels, from the his roots in Lubbock to his sunset years in Santa Fe. An inspiration for anyone with a creative itch, and a guidebook for how to live life as a good person, a loyal lover and a family member. Be more like Terry Allen! The first step is reading Truckload of Art. Your ego is not your amigo!
July 22, 2024
If you already know the life and work of Terry Allen, you'll love this book - go read it! If you don't already know the life and work of Terry Allen - fix that! Read this book and then enjoy learning.
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November 23, 2024Beautiful
January 7, 2025
fascinating book about allen's life, art, music, and how they combine into a spectacular fashion.
January 25, 2025
Amazing book on the life of Terry Allen. I only knew him as a musician but his work is much deeper than that
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews