Greg Allen

The Allen Brothers started in the early 1970s and worked both on their own and with their father, including spells on the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia. As Red Allen & the Allen Brothers, with Greg on banjo, Harley on guitar, Neal on mandolin and Ronnie on bass, they recorded Allengrass at Lemco Studios in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1972; Lemco issued it in July 1973, with Greg singing harmony behind his father and brothers.

After Neal died in 1973, Greg, Harley and Ronnie went on as a trio and made two albums for Rounder, Sweet Rumors (Rounder 0079, 1977), with Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas as guests, and Clara’s Boys (Rounder 0154, 1982), named for their mother. On both, all three brothers shared lead and harmony singing. In between, Greg played banjo and sang baritone and harmony parts on his father’s Live and Let Live, recorded with the Kentuckians at Jack Casey Studio in Columbus, Ohio, in 1978 and issued by Folkways in 1979, with Buddy Griffin on fiddle and Dorsey Harvey or Jerry Butler on mandolin.

The brothers played together into the early 1980s. After Harley moved to Nashville in 1989, Greg and Ronnie kept playing, mostly for their own enjoyment, until Ronnie’s death in February 2017, which left Greg the only surviving Allen brother.