Band members have included Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams guitar alumnus John Jackson, John Prine drummer Paul Griffith, and Janis Ian keyboard player Randy Leago.
Influences
Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Band, Rickie Lee Jones, Leonard Cohen
Sounds Like
Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Tom Petty
With his debut release, "King Kong Serenade," critics are already raving about Allen Shadow, calling him "a true rock poet in the tradition of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan". His gritty, literate New York City style has critics comparing him to early Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Carroll and even Walt Whitman.
"King Kong Serenade" offers a noirish portrait of New York City, from its famed icons to its ill-fated ghosts, as it invokes the spirits of Kerouac, bebop jazz greats, painters, grifters, street hustlers and side-show personae.
"Perhaps not since Lou Reed...have images of New York life, from the sidewalks to the subways to the squatter tenements, from Coney Island to the Bronx, been so aptly paired with the sound of crunching guitars, bass and drums," wrote Seth Rogovoy in the Berkshire Eagle.
"Like Reed, Shadow has the poet's gift for imagery ('Platform cheek to cheek/The paper hides the morning geeks/Signs read in shock speak/Sunglassed to the knees')," said Rogovoy. "Charles Mingus haunts the proceedings, as do Allen Ginsberg, Thelonious Monk and Jack Kerouac, but Shadow is an original storyteller, painting vivid portraits of the romance and terror of life in the world's greatest city."
"At a time when many are wondering about the future of New York City," wrote Terry Ross in a 5-star review in the Daily Freeman," Shadow's work is a lovely repast, truly an abnormally poignant journey through yellow bejeweled images and the splendid squalor of one of the world's greatest microcosms."
Keith Hannaleck of all-reviews.com said: "Allen Shadow gives a classic performance that will surely raise some eyebrows in the entertainment sector."
But where has such an artist been all these years? The answer is simple: in development.
Shadow (a.k.a. Allen Kovler) began his writing career as a poet. Two books of his poetry - "Harlem River Baby" and "A Heart in the Anteroom" - were published by Quick Books (Pueblo, Colo.) during the 1980s, and his work was included in many small and university press publications nationwide.
Also during the 1980s, Shadow co-edited a literary magazine and directed a reading series in upstate New York that included the poets Robert Creeley, Robert Kelly and Gary Snyder.
As a performance poet, Shadow toured college campuses in the 1980s with a staged version of "Harlem River Baby," which included the doo-wop group the Phantoms. The show played to rave reviews at the same time Shadow's writing was singled out by such literary publications as Library Journal, which called his imagery "startling," and Small Press Review.
His music interests led him to a stint in commercial songwriting. He spent much of the 1990s as a songwriter in Nashville, writing for PolyGram, SONY, and Mel Tillis' music publishing company, among others.
Despite working with such artists as Trisha Yearwood, Shadow, like many literary songwriters before him, ultimately decided Nashville's formulaic canon was too limiting. Consequently, he returned fully to his poetic voice, this time marrying it with music as he had always intended.
During the four years it took to write and produce "King Kong Serenade," Shadow was encouraged by fellow writers, including Allen Ginsberg who had spent much of his career working with the convergence of poetry and music, and Pete Hamill.
Ironically, Shadow recorded his offbeat rock album "King Kong Serenade" in Nashville with a cadre of alternative-music veterans. Included were Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams guitar alumnus John Jackson, John Prine drummer Paul Griffith, and Janis Ian keyboard player Randy Leago.
Critics also compare Shadow's work to such artists as Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Ricki Lee Jones, Leonard Cohen, Beck, Townes Van Zandt, Chuck E. Weiss, Robert Earl Keen, the Ramones, David Bowie, the Velvet Underground, and Neil Young. Also, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
"Serenade" calls on the spirits of such jazz greats as Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus, and the writers: Jack Kerouac, Pete Hamill, Allen Ginsberg, John Dos Passos, and Federico Garcia Lorca.
The CD includes such locales as: Coney Island, Broadway, Times Square, 42nd Street, the Lower East Side, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and the New York subway; and such historical figures as Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, Joe Louis, Greta Garbo, Thomas Edison, and Moondog. In addition, the song "Sugar Street" focuses on the Five Points neighborhood that is the central theme of such works as Jacob Riis' book "How the Other Half Lives," Martin Scorsese's film "Gangs of New York," and Herbert Asbury's book "The Gangs of New York."
"Serendade" also draws inspiration from the painter Edward Hopper.
Shadow has been influenced by other Bronx writers, including Joel Scherzer, Richard Price, and Don DeLillo.
Shadow has performed at venues throughout the United States, including such clubs as CBGB's and Café Lena.
He received a New York State Council on the Arts grant in 2001 to support his work as a rock poet.
Shadow resides in Catskill, N.Y. For more information, visit: www.allenshadow.com.
