Allan Wachs

ALLAN WACHS BIO

Allan Wachs has been at this singer-songwriter thing for a while.

Born in the 1950s, Allan came of age in Southern California in the 1960s and ‘70s, soaking in the tenor of the times socially, politically, and musically. Even before he could drive, he started going to clubs like the Ice House and Ash Grove, getting there by bus or by thumb, and gaining inspiration from such musicians as Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Dillard & Clark. At 13, he got his first guitar, and Allan’s solo music career officially began four years later with his appearance on Howard and Roz Larman’s now legendary Folk Scene weekly radio broadcast on KPFK in Los Angeles, followed by showcases on “Hoot Night” at the world-famous Troubadour, which gave spawn to such acts as The Byrds, Joni Mitchell, and others.

Speaking in 2016 with music reviewer and blogger/musician David Lerner for his blog Ovis Aries about his first album 1979’s “Mountain Roads & City Streets,” Allan said:
“The earliest song on the album is Least Of My Strangers from 1973, I was 19 when I wrote it, a mix of influences mostly (Bob) Dylan and (Leonard) Cohen. I was an acoustic purist for a while but fortunately I got over that. I wanted to make rock and roll poetry writing modern traditional songs with acoustic instruments or something approximate.”

As most people near their twenties they focus on either college or career, Allan focused on a different path: life. He left Southern California and hit the road for the backwoods of the Oregon Coast Range, living, working, honing his creative life and music, and finding inspiration in his love of the people and the land. The connections he made endure to this day and include what, apart from his children, are the two greatest loves of his life: his wife, Patrice, and his 1969 Martin 0018.

Allan returned to Los Angeles and formed the True Vine Records label, on which he released his first independent single, “Least Of My Strangers/“Adventures Of The Invisible Dog.” The self-distributed 45 garnered extensive airplay in Portland, Oregon and areas throughout the Northwest, also getting play on college radio, including in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where it was number one for six weeks. Soon after, Allan recorded and released the underground Folk-Rock vinyl rarity “Mountain Roads & City Streets,” an album of ten original songs that continue to influence other artists to this day, and which brought Allan both notice and awards. Writing about the album, music reviewer Eric Slyter said:

“Mountain Roads & City Streets has become one of my favorite albums. What I love most about it is how personal the songs feel. They sound genuine and introverted; close to the heart of the writer. Though the tracks draw on well-established styles, there’s something about them that feels identifiably unique.”

Slyter’s sentiments echoed by contemporary singer/songwriters such as Andy Schauf and Frances Quinlan, who have both singled out “Adventures Of The Invisible Dog” as influencing their own work.

The release of Allan’s album led to appearances on radio with Tom Schnabel and his Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW and John Davis and Brian May’s shows on KPFK. Traveling back to the Northwest, Allan became a fixture in Portland’s Saturday Market, its music clubs, and busked all over the city, selling his album straight out of his open guitar case to the many who stopped and listened.

Allan’s winding road eventually took him back to Southern California, where he started a family with his wife Patrice and began a career as a line producer in film and television, working with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Prince and many, many others, but his devotion to singing and songwriting never ended, gaining him ever growing respect as an artist. He created a collection of children’s music, “Songs For Children And Young Animals,” which brought him a new following young and old, inspiring many children to pursue music careers of their own. He chronicled L.A.’s terrifying 1992 riots with his song “Peace Is Not A Gun,” which was part of the last Fast Folk collection on the Smithsonian/Folkways label. He wrote about growing income inequality in America and the selling of the American dream with his song “Willy Loman Blues,” recorded in 2011. In 2016, his song “Mountain Roads” from his first album “Mountain Roads & City Streets” was released by the Numero Group as part of its “Wayfarin’ Strangers” series “Cosmic American Music,” leading to the song being featured in the 2019 film “Wish Man.” Also in 2019 Allan’s song “Northwest Passage” won Song Of The Year at The West Coast Songwriter Competitions.

In 2023, the Numero Group gave Mountain Roads & City Streets a full vinyl release to great reviews. If you’ve read this far, Bill Bentley’s stunning review in Americana Highways is worth quoting in full:

Allan Wachs, Mountain Roads & City Streets. It might be more correct to call this vinyl pressing of Allan Wachs’ MOUNTAIN ROADS & CITY STREETS a reissue, but just for fun it’s going in the new release section. What hopefully will happen is that people will listen to these ten songs with totally fresh ears and discover one of the great American albums of folk-based music ever recorded. Wachs’ mixture of country-edged musical styles and a hard-eyed look at American culture hasn’t quite been equaled since its original release in 1979 on Wachs’ small independent label True Vine Records. When first heard 45 years ago, there weren’t a lot of other contemporary albums like it. With Wachs wandering up and down the West Coast highways, from Los Angeles’s wild-eyed metropolis to the rural wilderness of Oregon’s coast, the man was able to see what the country had been and what it was quickly turning into. With songs like “Adventures of the Invisible Dog” and “Least of My Strangers” bumping into “The Lord Will Provide” and “Traveling Light,” the musician was able to capture a shifting culture that hadn’t really found its real footing. Not that it has today, but with all the confusing elements of the world’s present craziness, it’s a unique occasion to hear from a singer-songwriter who was looking at America when an open-eyed wonder was a bit more possible. Hearing how Allan Wachs captured that time is something that won’t ever happen again. Listen and feel.

Bill Bentley/Bentley’s Bandstand
Americana Highways
12/22/23

Allan recently moved to Sonoma County with his family and is currently finishing an album of recent songs as he continues the journey he began in his teens, actively writing, recording, and performing up and down California. It’s a journey that, as far as Allan is concerned, will continue as long as he does.