Harley Allen
Singer-songwriter Harley Lee Allen died Wednesday (March 30) of cancer at his home in Nashville at age 55. His father was
the late bluegrass singer Harley "Red" Allen. The younger Allen established himself musically in the 1980s via such albums
as
Across the Blueridge Mountains (released on Smithsonian Folkways in 1983, reissued in 2010) and
Suzanne with
Mike Lilly (Smithsonian Folkways, 1985 and 2007). In 1996, he released the country album
Another River on PolyGram,
which yielded no chart singles, and in 2001
Live at the Bluebird on the American Originals label. It was as a country
songwriter, however, that Allen had his greatest successes, beginning in 1997 with
Alan Jackson's
No. 2 recording of "Between the Devil and Me." Then came such hits as "The Little Girl" (
John
Michael Montgomery, 2000), "The Baby" (
Blake Shelton, 2002),
"My
Last Name" (
Dierks Bentley, 2003), "Tough Little Boys" (
Gary
Allan, 2003), "Awful Beautiful Life" (
Darryl Worley, 2004), "If Nobody Believed
in You" (
Joe Nichols, 2004) and
"I'll
Wait for You" (Joe Nichols, 2006). Allen is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
