Red Allen and the Kentuckians, the 1967 Melodeon release, offered a formal showcase for one of bluegrass's most distinctive and underappreciated lead vocalists. Allen, a Kentucky native who had recorded with Frank Wakefield and with the Osborne Brothers earlier in his career, possessed a raw, high lonesome tenor that placed him firmly in the old-school tradition even as the genre modernized around him. This album, recorded after his period of regional gigging in the Ohio Valley bluegrass circuit, documents his mature vocal authority and his band's tight, straightforward arrangements. Allen never achieved the commercial recognition of his contemporaries, but among serious fans and musicians his records — particularly this one — are prized for their emotional directness and stylistic purity.
Tracklist
- 1 Are You Waiting Just For Me 2:59
- 2 Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On alt version 2:21
- 3 My Baby's Gone 3:15
- 4 Heaven 2:24
- 5 Summertime Is Past And Gone 2:17
- 6 That’s How I Can Count on You alt version 2:12
- 7 Purple Heart 4:01
- 8 I Heard My Mother Call My Name In Prayer 3:35
- 9 Seven Year Blues 1:58
- 10 I'm On My Way Back To The Old Home 2:34
- 11 What About You 3:12
- 12 Out on the Ocean alt version 2:54
- 13 We Live In Two Different Worlds 2:44
- 14 There Must Be Another Way To Live 3:27
- 15 Have You Come To Say Goodbye 1:56
- 16 Bluegrass Blues 3:50
- 17 Send Me You Address From Heaven 2:10
- 18 Milk Cow Blues 2:31
- 19 Branded Wherever I Go alt version 2:33
- 20 I'm Lonesome And Blue 4:28
- 21 If That’s the Way You Feel alt version 2:24
- 22 Maiden’s Prayer alt version 4:08
- 23 Love Gone Cold alt version 1:49
- 24 I Wonder Where You Are Tonight alt version 3:13
- 25 No Mother or Dad alt version 2:32
