Allen Family Band - Blood Sucking Maniacs (2 LP)

Blood Sucking Maniacs is a self-titled country album released in 2026 by the multigenerational Allen family band, led by patriarch Terry Allen and matriarch Jo Harvey Allen. Spanning five generations and 121 years, the ensemble includes their sons Bukka and Bale Allen, grandsons Kru, Sled, and Calder Allen, along with collaborators like Panhandle Mystery Band mainstays Charlie Sexton, Lloyd Maines, Richard Bowden, and frequent partner Will Sexton. Issued as a deluxe gatefold double-LP by Paradise Bachelors, it captures the essence of family through wild, wide-ranging songs that blend heartrending ballads with arch in-jokes, ranging from sublime to unabashedly sentimental.

The album embodies blood entropy over traditional harmony, serving as a bricolage of potent symbols and spare parts—affectionate yet defensive, vulnerable and dangerous, fiercely protective of past and future wounds. This debut marks Terry Allen's first new music since 2020, interpreting family as a creative force with unwieldy, ardent, and slightly deranged intent, like a vampire trap in construction. The sympathetic playing from these bloodline maniacs elevates the miscellaneous and multiplex material into a tender testament to lineage and entropy.