Billy Allen + The Pollies at the Raccoon Motel -- June 19.
Wednesday, June 19, 6 p.m.
Raccoon Motel, 315 East Second Street, Davenport IA
With his outfit lauded by LAST.fm for their ability to "seamlessly blend and arrange the root elements of rock and roll while forging new territory," singer/songwriter Billy Allen and his band The Pollies headline a June 19 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the group also praised by LAST.fm for "songs that sound so natural and effortless that you don't notice the intrinsic complexity and massive undertaking that each track represents."
Touring in support of their 2023 album Black Noise that SingleLock.com deems "a genre-defiant haymaker that lands," Billy Allen + The Pollies, the Web site, continues, "is a hybrid of four piece rock outfit The Pollies and fellow Alabamian, and frontman, Billy Allen. The story of what fused Allen and The Pollies is one that begins in a bar eight years ago. This particular bar was on Allen’s gig circuit and it just so happens to be where Jay Burgess (founder of The Pollies) was having a drink that evening. While there was intrigue and potential in that first chance meeting, the two would remain ships in the night, each building their own careers, until years later when the stars would align at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals.
"As the story goes, both Allen and The Pollies, who were all occasional session musicians at Fame, were finally in the room together and the track on deck was Little Richard’s 'Greenwood, MS.' To hear Allen retell this part of the story is to hear a man talk about the beginnings of a priceless friendship. 'There was an immediate romantic musical connection,' Allen said. 'This is my band.' To hear Burgess tell it, the feeling was mutual. Over the subsequent year, the two groups rehearsed, toured, wrote, and gelled together under the moniker Billy Allen + The Pollies. The joining of Billy and Jay (along with the other charter members of The Pollies: Spencer Duncan, Jon Davis & Clint Chandler) was like the clicking of a dislocated bone back into true.
"Named after a theoretical sound bomb with the power to destroy whole cities, Black Noise was written almost entirely during the pandemic, beginning as voice memos between Burgess and Allen. With the lockdown in full swing, the musicians became each other’s micro-community, and voice memos progressed to writing sessions in Jay’s garage, and continued to full band rehearsals at Jay’s Greenhill, Alabama, sanctuary Studio 144. When the time to cut the record arrived, they tapped long-time friend and Grammy winning musician Ben Tanner to produce and engineer. Tanner (co-owner of Single Lock Records and former Alabama Shakes keys player) brought the band to Sun Drop Sound in Florence where the bulk of the recording was done. The band was so deeply meshed that the album they captured between April and November of 2021, other than a small overdub section, was recorded fully live, without a click, and three takes or less per song."
Billy Allen + The Pollies play their Davenport engagement on June 19, admission to the 6 p.m. concert is $21.17, and tickets are available by visiting TheRaccoonMotel.com.
