Allen delves into the classic soul sound for this next release. Of course, he has always had his own style of soul, tinged by Road and Curtis. Like J J Cale and Bert Jansch, you will be playing his records for years to come because they are fad-free but feeling-full. Here’s what we know about the new album but we shall be speaking with Jon for the full low-down…

On 18th May 2018, the highly acclaimed singer-songwriter Jon Allen returns with his fourth album ‘Blue Flame’, a soulful confection of feel-good tunes delivered with Allen’s inimitable whisky-soaked voice.

In these troubled and uncertain times, Allen invites the listener to turn off their Twitter feed, log-out of Facebook and, instead, turn up the volume and sink into the rich and reassuringly soothing sounds of his first album in four years.

From the infectious optimism of the Blue Flame’s opening soul shuffle ‘Jonah’s Whale’ (the album’s first single, which is released on Friday 9th March 2018) to the resolute ‘Keep On Walking’ and the poignant-yet-hopeful refrain of ‘Better Day’, Allen illuminates the common experiences of joy, love, loss and change, ultimately reminding us it is what we share that matters more than what divides us.

His music has a universal quality that is so needed in these times of division and disunity.

Even when Allen sings his ode to Donald Trump, ‘It’s Just The End Of The World’, he somehow manages to make the prospect of a looming apocalypse sound a little more palatable – or at least a little less terrifying.

Allen’s second album ‘Sweet Defeat’ (2011) continued his rise, spawning the Radio 2 A-listed hit track ‘Joanna’ – the song that made it onto the soundtrack of the global TV smash Homeland. It also landed Allen a featured slot on the BBC’s Glastonbury TV coverage. “It was Beyoncé then me! I like to think that she supported me,” Allen says.

Allen toured extensively during this period, both solo and with his band, appearing with Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris, Seal (who would tell Jon every day he should be making soul records) and Damien Rice, amongst others. Allen also became a TV star in the Netherlands, prompting him to sarcastically remark, “In a year or two I could be a judge on the Dutch version of ‘The Voice’.

‘Deep River’, Allen’s last album, released in 2014, received the best reviews of his career to-date from the UK’s national press and was made BBC Radio 2’s ‘Album of The Week’. After his UK tour to promote ‘Deep River’, Jon to a break to write songs with and for other artists, while also writing music for films.

While all Jon’s previous albums contained soulful elements, ‘Blue Flame’ represents his first out-and-out soul record. However, it’s not the first time Allen has thrown himself into a record with a classic soul vibe, having worked with producer Tristan Longworth in 2009 on a side project called ‘The Third Degree’.

Together, the pair took modern pop hits by female artists and covered them to sound as if they were authentic soul records recorded in the 1960s. 

One of The Third Degree’s tracks, a cover of Duffy’s ‘Mercy’, became an underground hit, featured in the screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s book ‘Filth’ and, eventually, caught the ear of record producer and founding president of Rolling Stones Records, Marshall Chess, whose father and uncle founded Chicago’s legendary blues and R&B label, Chess Records.

It was the experience of immersing himself in the production and vibe of classic recordings of the sixties and seventies from iconic record labels such as Motown, Stax, Atlantic and Chess that made Allen think it would be great to bring more of that earthiness to his sound for Blue Flame’s recording sessions.

Focussing on the album’s first single, Allen said, “‘Jonah’s Whale’ is about the blind joy of love. ‘The world maybe going down the tubes but I’m in love and everything’s fine’…that sort of idea. I guess it’s a bit selfish in that sense but, hey, it’s a great feeling.” 

Pete Sargeant