Joe Allison and This Machine

For Fans Of: Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Terri Hendrix, Holly Figueroa O'Reilly, and tasty hooks.

"Nice!" Joe yells from his cramped little corner of the rehearsal room, a 10' x 12' space in west Dallas, draped from floor to ceiling in maroon carpeting.
"Who turned up the suck knob?" he continues. "Oh, wait, I think it was me that time. Alright, it's Lee's turn next."

Typical sarcasm from an atypical songwriter.

"I just love writing. And songs. And the pointlessness of most rock lyrics. I really cut my teeth on metal, stuff like Megadeth, Slayer, Deicide... Anything that I could swing my mane of hair around to and get the aggression out. But what really turned me on to music was a lot of Texas artists like Stevie Ray. Because, you know, there's not anyone else from Texas who listens to Stevie Ray."

At that last remark he rolls his eyes and twists his mouth in a not altogether attractive gesture.

"I still love all of that stuff, but I grew up listening to The Beatles, Otis Redding, old R&B, blues, and punk. I've also listened to my share of honky tonk and jazz. I can rant for a while about all of the music I like."
That ought to be fine for now.

"I got turned on to Ani DiFranco in the late 90's and a slew of female artists that really rocked in spite of the fact that they were clinging onto an acoustic. Or maybe because of it. So here I am. We're pretty fond of saying that 'Without Joe, none of this would be necessary'."

The definitive "we" that Joe mentioned is a pretty varied group of individuals. There's:

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Scott, the brooding drummer that's followed Joe through everything from wall of noise to lilting folk.

Randy, the guitarist with a history in west Texas dance halls and cover bands.

Lee, a classically trained bass player from New York with a long past of successful bands.

And Tara, the newest member of the group and co-singer.

"We're all in love with her. She grew up singing, and it really shows. I'm proud of the ladies I've worked with, and I hope they all have huge careers, but Tara is really amazing and I’m excited about the future."

Praise duly noted. When Tara opens a song, it's easy to understand the praise. Her vocals simply explode.

"We'll always play an old song or two," Joe says, twitching in his seat. "But I write. A lot. My preference is always to give you something new. If you want to hear what I wrote a few years ago, then download my CD. Hopefully whatever I’m writing is always better than the last thing I wrote. If you just listen to the CD you'll never have the foggiest idea how across the board my writing gets."

You can catch Joe Allison & This Machine on the web at www.joeallison.com, with links to MySpace, Facebook, mp3 downloads, and anything else that he's got the mind to post.