Mark Lee Allen Locked Down! (LP, 10inch, 33rpm)

Mark Lee Allen's claim to fame amongst contemporary collectors and trash-a-billies is based upon his re-issue series: 'Twisted Tales from the Vinyl Wastelands,' a series comprised of conceptualized compilations dealing with Johnny Cash soundalikes, aliens, and other abnormalities. He also re-discovered veteran honky tonker Bill Carter, spawning two releases on Bear Family Records®, Bill Carter 'Cool Tom Cat' (BAF14010) and Bill Carter 'Ramblin' Fever - The Complete Recordings 1953 – 1961' (BCD17650).

The ‘humble son of a bank robber who started playing guitar & making tiny tapes pretending to be a Rockabilly Singer, imagining my bedroom was a recording studio,’ as Allen introduces himself on 'Locked Down!,' started in English rockabilly bands during the height of the craze in the mid-1980s. After his move to the US in the early 2000s, Allen went full-tilt boogie collecting, trading, and producing his eclectic compilations. During the lockdown of 2020, the restlessly roving Allen desperately needed to channel his excessive energies and decided to buy instruments and recording gear to home-record his favorite songs, hundreds of them – just to keep from going crazy.

On 'Locked Down!,' Allen carefully collects the favored of the favorites and comes up with a delightful and entertaining compilation. Considering the vastness of the material at hand and his familiarity with the far-out and obscure gems of recorded rubbish, one could have feared a hard-to-digest freak release. But – the true artist and music lover within Mark Lee Allen rounded-up pleasing classics like Till the Law Says Stop, Don't Be Unfair, and Lonely Lonely Train and paired them with hardcore rockabilly anthems like Bertha Lou and In The Deep Dark Jungle. But Mark Lee wouldn't be the Allen he is unless he would not offer us the obscure and zany ones as well: Pick 'em Up and Shake 'em Up (obscure) and $ F--olding Money $ (zany) are highlights on an album that bursts with killer rockabilly – rough, edgy, manic – and with a voice and feel that are as authentic and vintage as can get. This one's a winner!