Across the Blue Ridge Mountains is Harley Allen’s first solo album, released on Folkways (FTS 31076) in 1983 and produced by his father, Red Allen. Eight of its ten songs were recorded in October 1982 at Jewell Studios, and two, “Dirt in My Face” and “Hey,” in August 1982 at Vassar’s Studio in Nashville. Allen sings and plays guitar and mandolin. The musicians credited are Mike Lilly on banjo and vocals, Scott Adams on mandolin, Steve Bryant on electric bass, J.D. Crowe on banjo, Vassar Clements and Junior Bennett on fiddle, Josh Graves on Dobro and Larry Nager on bass, with Kathy Chiavola singing.
Allen wrote “Wildwood Flower Blues,” “Mandolin Man” and “Things Have Changed,” and co-wrote “Hey” with Red Allen. The other songs include Bill Anderson’s “Dirt in My Face,” Ernest Tubb’s “Letters Have No Arms,” Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’s “Loving Another Man” and Bill and Earl Bolick’s “Are You from Dixie?”
Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1956, Allen grew up in the Dayton bluegrass scene and played from the age of twelve with his brothers Greg, Neal and Ronnie. He moved to Nashville in 1989. Two more solo albums followed, Another River (1996) and Live at the Blue Bird Café (2001). BMI named him its Songwriter of the Year in 2005, and he sang harmony on “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which earned him a Grammy.
Tracklist
- 1 Carolina in the Pines alt version 2:43
- 2 Dirt in My Face 2:53
- 3 Wildwood Flower Blues Source Recording 2:38
- 4 Letters Have No Arms 2:45
- 5 Loving Another Man 2:20
- 6 Hey 2:54
- 7 Are You from Dixie? 3:13
- 8 Mandolin Man 3:01
- 9 My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mountains alt version 2:42
- 10 Things Have Changed 3:15
