Jim Allyn
Thanks for coming by! I hope you're doing well
as we get through these challenging times.
For information on lessons for guitar, piano,
or other instruments please click the "lessons"
tab below or in the menu.
As I begin work on some singles and my third album I'm happy to share the news that my song Lindytown won both grand prize and the Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest this year (folk category).
Lindytown is track five on my album
Backyards of the Brave which is available
here on i-Tunes and on streaming services.
The album title track hearkens back to 1968.
So when my design team found this photo from
that summer long ago, well - there it is!
UPCOMING SHOWS
During this pandemic there are no scheduled
shows but I look forward to some livestream
performances this fall. Production on my second album starts soon. In the meantime here are
clips from shows back in the day. More recent clips can be found on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jimallyn.2.

VIDEOS
Priority Gal (from the new album)
With Jonathan Edwards - Sunshine
With Livingston Taylor - City Lights
With Livingston Taylor - City Lights
LIVE
UPCOMING SHOWS
Flagpole Radio Cafe is on hiatus during this time. Our show with with special guest Peter Yarrow
of Peter, Paul and Mary, may be re-scheduled.
in 2021.
here: www.flagpoleproductions.org
Video by Robert Moran
BIO
New England singer-songwriter Jim Allyn is known for his freewheeling improvisations on mandolin, guitar, piano and harmonica. “He plays a lot of good bluegrass too,” according to the legendary Bill Monroe.*
With a musical compass forged in roots, rock, country, and blues Allyn writes songs that cut a path straight to the heart. This year his song Lindytown was named Grand Prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the folk category.
The song is from Allyn's 2018 release Backyards of the Brave, featuring all original works: true stories from train yards, backroads, battlefields and coal mines (see review below).
Recent years have included multiple tour dates with folk legend Jonathan Edwards as a member of Edwards' band. Allyn has also performed extensively with Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and at venues and festivals over the years including onstage jamming with Bela Fleck, Livingston Taylor, Dar Williams, Tom Chapin, Guy Davis, Christine Lavin, Vaneese Thomas, Chris Hillman of the Byrds, Newgrass Revival, Vassar Clements, legendary fiddler Kenny Baker, and many others. Allyn's multi-instrumental work and vocals are also heard on recordings by numerous regional artists.
As co-creator of the Flagpole Radio Cafe in Connecticut (2008-2020), Jim and the house band and ensemble have garnered rave reviews: a "hit" show, according to the New York Times.
Pianist Tom Snow offered this praise for Backyards of the Brave:
"This album is a treasure. The amount of sonic and compositional variety is really quite incredible. One of the many wonderful attributes of this creation is that it stands up to multiple listenings. There is so much richness on many levels that I find myself hearing new things on successive listenings. Priority Gal and Lindytown and This Old Guitar and Jazzbo are real stand-outs for me. I love the compositional subtleties that inform the songs, especially chord choices! "
- Tom Snow (check out Tom's site at www.tomsnow.com)
* Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine, 1985 : Monroe was asked about the mandolin player that preceded him onstage as our band had just performed . In an unlikely chain of events he had arrived late and walked onto the stage as we were finishing. I had the honor of meeting him in that moment and you can imagine my surprise when the article appeared weeks later.
Friends, Photos, and Links
Scroll Down.
Links are highlighted

With Jonathan Edwards and Rick Brodsky - our first show at Fairfield Theatre. Check out Jon's site and new album Tomorrow's Child here

With Francine Wheeler, Richard Neal, and Howard Bujese of Flagpole Radio Cafe.



With Francine Wheeler at Flagpole Radio Cafe
With Tom Chapin

With Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary

Francine and Howard
Flagpole Radio Cafe
photos courtesy
Greg Van Antwerp
Mark Barden joined us for an incredible show



Jamming with Alex Lampel and Greg Padovona at the Meeting House Pub.
With Ramblin' Jack Elliot


With Jonathan Edwards at Mohegan Sun.


With Howard Bujese, Richard Neal, and Rick Brodsky.

Media Kit
For a complete media kit please contact
me through this site or call 203-270-9659




Lyrics
This Old Guitar
(Words and Music by Jim Allyn and David Shugarts)
This old guitar drifted up a delta flood
and this old guitar was souped up,
painted and plugged in
drenched in the dust and the tears of a train yard
sung her lullabies deep in a graveyard
This old guitar been traded pawned and stolen
got some scars from bar stools and car wheels rollin’
handed down and tossed out of second floor windows
she’s been around, been down to the crossroads
So pick her well my son, he said,
You might find she’ll choose you instead
treat her right, she’ll take you far
remember me when you get to be a star
This old guitar, signed here by Jimi and Django,
it came down hard on a drunkard’s head in Durango
sticker on the back says Panama City
fell for a girl down there, man she played it pretty
This old guitar rang through the walls of a prison
rang like a bell, she’ll give you songs if you listen
deep in the wood she remembers a forest
where the stream and the meadowlark
all sang in a chorus
So pick her well my son, he said,
You might find she’ll choose you instead
treat her right, she’ll take you far
remember me when you get to be a star
remember me
when you play this old guitar
Train Calling Your Name
Better get on board, better get on board
this train is bound, she’s heading for
the land of glory on rails of gold
got a silver engine and a light that glows
Better get on quick, better get on quick
she’s pickin’ up steam, you don’t want to miss
that freedom ride to the land of bliss
this old train is calling your name
calling your name, calling your name
See the old box car with the door ajar
if you reach your hand and let your feet fly far
you can be on board this train to glory
this old train is calling your name
calling your name, calling your name
and it sounds like this
and it sounds like this
this old train she’s callin’ your name
Priority Gal
Twas in the year of '44,
the last day of July
Twenty thousand feet and falling
over German countryside
the plane they call Priority Gal
was spinning in dive
and out jumped eight brave souls
as one remained at the controls
Here's to all we knew so well
the Bride of Mars, the Memphis Belle
Jack the Ripper, old Maxine
Careful Virgin, Sweet Seventeen,
and to you old friends and pals
and the man who flew Priority Gal
There's a little town in Austria
where they drink all night long
and there's one they make called the Henry S.,
and they make it good and strong
for long ago, as that plane dove,
'twas Henry at the wheel
spinning as he gripped it tight
somehow he set those wings aright
five hundred feet above the ground
with one last turn he spared that town
He spared that town
Here's to all we knew so well
the Bride of Mars, the Memphis Belle
Jack the Ripper, old Maxine
Careful Virgin, Sweet Seventeen,
Lady Luck, the Nine-O-Nine,
Desperate Journey, Bachelor's Bride,
Just Plane Lonesome, Red Wing, Nightmare,
Anxious Angel, my Baby, My Prayer
and to you old friends and pals
and the man who flew
Priority Gal
Hear the People
For one day, one day,
may our voices all be heard
and harmony hold sway
to quell the noise, to end a curse
Bird on a wire sings out
and over the street I hear the people
nothing can turn us now
and nothing can stop the day
those we have loved and lost
near as the heart are here beside us
here today, oh hear
For one life, each life,
this our sacred freeborn right
is to live in peace and grow
and to ban these brutal tools of war
So tell me what you will
and how much more this blood must spill
before it all sinks in
the thickest heads and hearts and skin
Bird on a wire sings out
and over the street I hear the people
nothing can turn us now
and nothing can stop the day
those we have loved and lost
near as the heart are here beside us
here today, oh hear
For one day, our day,
is soon to come we won't give way
'til reason she prevails
in common sense we cannot fail
Bird on a wire sings out
and over the street I hear the people
nothing can turn us now
and nothing can stop the day
those we have loved and lost
near as the heart are here beside us
here today, oh hear
Lindytown
Close to Twilight,
down this old Appalachian road
night falls black as the coal
over Lindytown
1895, my great-grandfather
waded through those streams
crystal clear flowing through
the green hills and down
over Lindytown
Now there’s no one at all
at the old union hall from the mines
and scattered on the floor
from a lifetime before
all the papers for wages and lost time
But I remember that old school bus,
the kids, and everyone,
and a church bell ringing out
when day was done over Lindytown
Before Massey started blasting
all these mountaintops away
The dust falling day after day after day
over Lindytown
Now there’s no one at all
‘cause when mountains fall
it’s hard to stay
Mister Cook, I’ve been told,
says we got to have the coal
But I believe with all my heart
there’s a better way
Now Mama she’s got
memories in rooms she can’t unlock
Now and then one opens
for a moment as she walks
here in Lindytown
Close to Twilight,
down this old Appalachian Road
night falls black as the coal
but there’s one light still burning
in the place she calls home
over Lindytown
Jazzbo
(Words by Jim Allyn, music by Jim Allyn and Richard Neal)
Jazzbo was a boxer 1929
made the rounds from New York town
way down to Caroline
and when they raised the winner’s hand
it was Jazzbo every time
he was king of the bareknuckle ring
when he was in his prime
Jazzbo, where did the good times go?
Now he had a manager,
Mister Reginald Arthur Tate
took all the money to the bank
put it down in his own name
fast women, pretty cars,
Jazzbo was feeling fine
and when the fight was over
Mister Tate would buy the wine
Jazzbo, where did the good times go?
It was late one night in Memphis
he was up against Two-Ton Lou
Jazzbo sees Mister Tate
sneaking out of Louie’s dressing room
he says, “hold on Mister Reginald sir,
something here ain’t right.”
Tate just smiled, “can you believe it Bo?
They want us to throw the fight.”
Jazzbo, where does the money go?
“Have a sip of water son,
before they ring that bell.
Teach them boys a lesson.
Old Louie don’t look so well.”
But when Jazzbo got back into the ring
the room began to spin
and he woke up three hours later
in the alley by the Salvation Army bin
Jazzbo where did the good times go?
Sweet New England Home
From my front door
you can see for miles across the valley
to the east lies morning skies
smiling on my home
On these old streets, farms and factories,
backroads and places there
and on this blue porch facing true north
I can breathe the morning air
Right there is where I want to be
in the hills I’ve roamed
right there with you in my
my sweet New Enland home
I’ve been down south
I’ve been way out west
I’ve been out on the wide Atlantic
I’ve flown up high and looking down I
I knew just where my heart was planted
And see that old tree, for centuries
blooming on the fence line
in the sweet summer air
she still gleams there
and on this quarter in the moonshine
Right there is where I want to be
where deep waters flow
right there in the harbor of my
my sweet New England home
From my front door
you can hear for miles across the valley
every rain song, every train gone,
down the Housatonic line
Right there is where I want to be
when that whistle blows
right there as evening falls
on my sweet New England home
Honeybee
Hey my honeybee
won’t you stay awhile with me?
‘cause if you fly away
you might not find your way
back home across the sea
The flowers blooming in the field
are calling you away to steal
all the sweetness of summer deep in love
drifting light along your heels
They know how it feels to be
waiting for you my honeybee
spread your wings and let your soul fly free
The ragged winter came and went
the tides, the hurricane, the rent,
swept across the floor,
yesterdays and more,
fade away the good times spent
But you, you’ve got it laid in store
the sweetest honey and I want more
so when you take your flight
I’m hoping you just might
find your way back to my door
You know how it feels to be
waiting for you my honeybee
spread your wings
and let your soul fly free
You know how it feels to be
waiting for you my honeybee
spread your wings
and let your soul fly free
Backyards Of the Brave
Johnny took his first step
as they walked across the moon
grew up with Nixon
just a little bit too soon
cops and robbers,
GI Joe and the Viet Cong
running through the backyard
where the battle lines were drawn
in the long hot summer days
rolling by like a motorcade
on the block where the kids all played
kick the can and blind man's bluff
hit the ground with your guns held up
learn to drive you just might
fall in love one day
in the backyards of the brave
Mama sat at the tv screen
all that summer long
Liddy, Mitchell, Magruder and Dean,
one last wave from the White House lawn
and we raced our stingrays
on the driveway after dark
Daddy's still on a Mekong Hill
all we got was the purple heart
and the long hot summer days
rolling by like a motorcade
on the block where the kids all played
kick the can and blind man's bluff
hit the road with your head held up
call it home you just might
find it's enough these days
but something always stays
in the backyards of the brave
Lighthouse
Gazing on the water
a bright and golden beam
guides the weary sailor
home across the sea
safely into harbor
standing on the shore
singin’ oh my lighthouse
shine forever more
And the sun will light your windows
and the moon bring all her jewels
and the waves will sing to the watchman
and I’ll be watching too
I will watch for you
Bright across the water
steady through the storm
oh my lighthouse
shine forever more
And the sun will light your windows
and the moon bring all her jewels
and the waves will sing to the watchman
and I’ll be watching too
I will watch for you
Lighthouse
Gazing on the water
a bright and golden beam
guides the weary sailor
home across the sea
safely into harbor
standing on the shore
singin’ oh my lighthouse
shine forever more
And the sun will light your windows
and the moon bring all her jewels
and the waves will sing to the watchman
and I’ll be watching too
I will watch for you
Bright across the water
steady through the storm
oh my lighthouse
shine forever more
And the sun will light your windows
and the moon bring all her jewels
and the waves will sing to the watchman
and I’ll be watching too
I will watch for you