Hear Jimmie Allen's New Single 'Free Fallin'
(Cleopatra Records) Soulful country star Jimmie Allen releases his first new album since 2022's Tulip Drive on March 20; and, for the first time, he puts his own songwriting to one side and focuses solely on the songs that helped inspire him in the first place.
Wild Dreams - The Cover Collection is a 12 song collection of what Jimmie describes as "songs that I love, that I wish I had written, and those are the ones that came to my brain. I spent a couple of days with it, just thinking 'if there were songs I wish I wrote,' and songs by some of my favorite artists and I just picked from there."
There are definitely some surprises on board. "When I do cover songs," he continues, "I never try to do it like the artist. They've got their version already. So whether it was 'Alone' (Heart), or 'Free Fallin' (Tom Petty), I kinda add my own little twist to it. I have to make it my own." This is especially true of "Free Fallin'," released as a single today and, across its 45 second Philly Soul style intro, positively defying recognition.
The other shock, of course, is his choice of material. A lot of people, after all, would expect Jimmie to focus on country songs for a project such as this. Instead, he says, "I don't think I did one country cover." And while Toby Keith's "Should Have Been a Cowboy" comes close, Jimmie take goes in a very different direction. "When I first got my record deal, Toby was the first artist to take me on tour. So, to pay homage to him, I wanted to do that song."
He also reveals, however, that - like his grandfather before him - he himself was once a cowboy, at least until he realized that "it's a lot of hard work. It's not like the movies."
Other songs on the album, too, have a personal aspect. "The first time I heard 'Always Remember Us This Way' [Lady Gaga], it hit me like lyrics I've lived," says Jimmie. "Ever since then I've had an obsession and connection to this song. I'm so grateful to Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna, Natalie Hemby and Lady Gaga for writing this amazing song."
Hootie & The Blowfish's "Only Wanna Be With You" is a tribute to one of his closest friends, Hootie frontman Darius Rucker, and Jimmie enthuses, "I love that song. And the crazy thing is, if Hootie came out today, and 3 Doors Down and maybe even Matchbox 20, if they were new artists,. They'd probably be considered country, if you listen to the style of music that they did. It fits right in there."
And then there's "Small Town" ("I love that song")... growing up in Milford, Delaware, with a population of just 7,000 at the time, Jimmie understands exactly what John Mellencamp was writing about. It's one of the reasons he relocated to Nashville as soon as he could, although he admits, "if I could have started my career in Delaware, I'd never have left."
And what a career it's been. Jimmie first hit the headlines in 2017 with an eponymous EP that instantly spawned a hit, as "Blue Jean Baby" leaped onto Spotify's Top 50 Viral chart. The following year, the single "Best Shot" became the second most-added song on country radio before establishing Allen as the first Black artist ever to top Billboard's Country Airplay chart - an accomplishment he repeated with his next single, "Make Me Want To."
Needless to say, his debut album Mercury Lane was massive! Two further full lengthers, Bettie James Gold Edition and the aforementioned Tulip Drive followed, ensuring Allen's status among country's brightest stars, and one of its most respected songwriters as well. Wild Dreams gifts him with another accolade, as one if its most visionary interpreters, too,.
On the road Jimmie is regularly dropping songs from Wild Dreams into his live show, alongside the expected hits. "Some of the cities, I may do 'Free Fallin'' and 'Here Comes The Sun' [George Harrison] one show, I might do 'Alone' and something else at another."
In other words, Jimmie Allen's not run out of surprises yet!
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