Key to the Highway: Calder Allen

Calder Allen photo by John Dougherty

Americana Highways’ Key to the Highway series

Fans always clamor to learn more about their favorite, most beloved musicians and those who travel with them. There’s such an allure to the road, with its serendipity, inevitable surprises, and sometimes unexpected discomforts. This interview series is a set of questions we are asking some of our favorite roots rock Americana artists to get to know more about them and what they’ve learned and experienced on the road for music. We are sure they have key insights to share and stories to tell. Here’s one from Calder Allen.

Americana Highways: How do you like your coffee or other morning wake-up beverage?

Calder Allen: Black!

AH: What’s the most interesting or strangest motel/hotel or place you have stayed (while on the road for music?)

CA: I have slept in the bed of my truck quite a few times.

AH: If one CD is stuck in the player in the van for the entire tour, what do you hope it is? And why?

CA: Chris Whitley’s Dirt Floor.

AH: What’s one personal item you must have with you on your road trip?

CA: Empty journal, when I start out.

AH: What is your relationship with food? How do you handle this on the road, and what’s your favorite dish on the road, (or restaurant, and what do you order there)?

CA: I love food and eat a lot. I have a great relationship with it. A good truck stop hot dog when I am on the road is one of my favorites! As far as my favorite road restaurant, it would have to be Gilberto’s in Moab.

AH: If you could pause your life for a few weeks and spend some time living in a place you only have passed through, which would you choose, and why?

CA: Spokane, WA Because I really wanted to fish the last time I went through there but didn’t have time to stop after the show.

AH: What quote or piece of advice have you gotten from someone on the road that has really stuck with you?

CA: Charley Crockett told me to tell the audience murder stories when I am on stage.

Find more information about his new album, and tour dates for Calder Allen, here: https://www.calderallen.com

See other Key to the Highway interviews here: https://americanahighways.org/category/interviews/key-to-the-highway-series/ (click here for: Todd Park Mohr Jim Lauderdale Vince Herman Jimmy Smith Ben Nichols Bruce Cockburn Charlie Musselwhite Nicki Bluhm Jim White Danny Barnes Patterson Hood Jerry Joseph BJ Barham Rodney Crowell Todd Snider Elizabeth Cook Tommy Womack Eric Ambel, Dan Baird, Robbie Fulks, Malcolm Holcombe Jon Langford Steve Poltz, Lilly Hiatt Sarah Shook & the Disarmers Sadler Vaden )