Terri Allard: remembering a brother

This event has been reset for June 14th. All other details remain the same. Check out the online site if you aren't able to attend --it's a great cause.

Terri Allard's music looks at the hard and true things of life, celebrating the joys, laughing at the funny stuff, walking with the sorrow, and speaking of it all with a clear hearted grace. She's been called too folk for country and too country for folk: what she is, really is a writer and singer of remarkable insight and focus. Recently she's been involved in bringing music and songwriting to children near her Virginia home through the Kid Pan Alley project, in teaching songwriting workshops, and in another project:

Terri Allard's older brother Scott died of melanoma in 2005. This field day and the fund are part of what Allard and her family are doing in his memory. If you're near Charlottesville on May 3rd, it's bound to be a time of great music and good fun, as well as useful health education. It's a chance to support a great cause too, and you can do that even if you'll not make the field day, through the information above. There is more about Terri Allard's music and her latest recording below, and at her website, and more about Scott Allard here.

Terri Allard: Live from Charlottesville

Choosing love, choosing hope, celebrating those choices through life's twists and turns: if there's a theme running through the thirteen cuts onTerri Allard's latest release, Live from Charlottesville, that would be it. The music is a mix of country, folk, Americana, and blues, served with a dash of laughter and a seasoning of reflection. Allard kicks things off with Wings of Love, in which she remembers and reminds that it's necessary to trust taking time for love in the midst of the clatter of other demands. A rocking bluesy cover of the Traveling Wilburys song Rattled follows.

At this show, recorded on an icy winter night last year at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, Allard chose include a number songs she'd never put on record. It's a wise, and confident, choice; Allard is a writer on par with her down the road neighbor Mary Chapin Carpenter, who co wrote one of the songs here with Allard, and whose long time buddy John Jennings plays guitar on a couple of tracks. She sings in a smoky, inviting alto with a natural storyteller's gift, and there's just enough interaction with her audience to give a sense of the connections which happened on the night.

There's a solid mix of fun and and insight, from songs like Once Upon a Time, in which the protagonist is looking for prince charming but "just can't get past once upon a time" to the quiet, engaging and reflective piece called Hope, which could just be the centerpiece of the album. Upbeat Back to Barboursville is a lasting evocation of growing up in a small town, while We'll Have Elvis is a funny and engaging road trip fueled in equal parts by The King, Patsy Cline, and NPR.

Allard often closes her live shows these days with Randy Newman's Louisiana 1927, and she does that here, in a a soulful duet with her dad, Bill Allard. Heart, soul, fun, great songs and great singing set the atmosphere of a fine live show, Terri Allard's Live from Charlottesville will make you wish you'd been at the gig and glad you're able to share the music and the memories through this recording.

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Kerry Dexter is an independent music writer and photographer. Her credits include VH1, CMT, the folk music magazine Dirty Linen, Strings, The Encyclopedia of Ireland and the Americas, and The MusicHound Guides.. She is the music editor for Wandering Educators and writes about the arts and creative practice at Music Road. She also contributes to Fred Bals' Series of Tubes.