Creating a Feeling: CMA New Artist of the Year Jimmie Allen Talks Music, Family and Making His Way in Country Music

By Holly Gleason

“It’s not about me being Black,” says 2021 CMA New Artist of the Year Jimmie Allen, “but me being me. Everyone’s different! I love Country Music; I love the stories and the lyrics in it. But I also love pop and hip-hop. I love all kinds of music, so I guess you could say I try to be Jimmie, whatever that is. That makes it a little bit different, but it’s also always Country.” 

Allen grew up in Milton, DE. His mother, who came from Oakland, CA, married a Country Music-loving man. Growing up exposed to all kinds of music made Allen’s sense of Country more expansive than your average kid. That same desire to understand the world led to a stint at Delaware State College, one of America’s historic Black colleges.  

“I knew I’d meet all kinds of people from different backgrounds, different communities,” Allen explains. “I knew I wanted to be an entertainer even then. I knew I didn’t want to get a paper degree, but a degree in people and how to reach them where they live.”

“I realized even if I wanted to play Country Music, if it’s just Country, you’re going to run out of people who are just Country Music fans. And the truth is: Country isn’t a style of dress. It’s not the way you talk or where you’re from. It’s how you connect.” 

While very aware of being a Black artist in Country Music who is carrying on the groundbreaking tradition of Charley Pride as well as Darius Rucker, Allen wants to make music that brings people together. Whether he’s scaling the Country charts with the freewheeling “Freedom Was a Highway,” slow-burning in the pop arena with Noah Cyrus on “This Is Us,” or good-time hybridizing with Nelly on the rhythm-driven “Good Times Roll,” there is a fluidity that gives Allen a fresh take on what Country Music can be. 

Allen, who is currently nominated for Best New Artist at the upcoming 64th Grammy Awards – the only Country nominee in an all-genre Big 4 category – embarks on his Down Home 2022 Tour (his first headline trek) beginning Feb. 3 at West Hollywood’s Troubadour, understands the power of honest influence merging. Laughing, he talks about all the feels that make him who he is. 

“I go with feeling. ‘Don’t Blink’ by Kenny Chesney, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Temptations, Matchbox 20, Alan Jackson all contain a feeling. How those songs I grew up listening to, how they made me feel, that’s what I want my music to do for others.”

“Take ‘Freedom’: that’s a story about the streets I grew up on. I wanted the momentum of U2, the groove of One Republic, and I wanted the feel of summer, that Keith Urban/Rascal Flatts thing. I’ve been a fan of Brad Paisley, since … that younger Brad Paisley music was me. So, when I got to work with him, I wanted to work with the Brad Paisley who helped me fall in love with Country Music! That’s where the passion comes from.” 

Defying conventional wisdom, Allen moved to Nashville in 2007, determined to make a career. He put in his time, played all the showcases — and found his first break at a writer’s night in 2016 where Ash Bowers heard him play. Bowers signed him to a publishing deal, then began working to develop Allen’s flannel ‘n’ sunshine voice, youthful hope and realism into something that made the aspiring performer stand out. 

Signing with BBR Music Group/ Stoney Creek Records in 2017, he released Mercury Lane in the fall of 2018. While he had a pair of No. 1s with the Platinum-certified “Best Shot” and “Make Me Want To,” it was Bettie James and its subsequent Bettie James Gold Edition, named after his late father James Allen and late grandmother Bettie Snead, that took things to another level for the entertainer. Beyond the aforementioned Cyrus, Nelly and Paisley duets, Allen also teamed up with Mickey Guyton (“Drunk & I Miss You”), Tim McGraw (“Made for These”), Rucker and Pride (“Why Things Happen”). 

But few things demonstrate Allen’s musical breadth as well as “When This Is Over,” a song inspired by his grandmother’s love of Country gospel. Teaming with the Oak Ridge Boys, contemporary Christian star Tauren Wells and Rita Wilson, the man who this year competed in “Dancing with the Stars;” wrote his first children’s book My Voice Is a Trumpet; and collaborated with Elton John, made time stand still, offering a sweeping blueprint for living a good life. 

“When we had the Oak Ridge Boys on ‘When This Is Over,’ I purposely wanted them to have their moment,” Allen explains. “They’re my grandma’s favorite. Someone said, ‘But that won’t get on Country radio,’ and I said, ‘This is about being something special.’ Because a great Country song that moves you, that’s what I want.” 

Enlisting artists to be their truest selves has given Allen’s Country a platform to welcome Babyface, Monica, Pitbull, teamwork and Nathan Warlick alongside BRELAND, Lindsay Ell, Little Big Town, and Urban. 

“With Pitbull, there’s that Latin beat, that flavor,” Allen explains. “Great music is great music and a good song is a good song. When you let people be real, bring them together, what you get is so much more. By respecting all kinds, you create something beautiful and say something meaningful that’s really unique. 

“It’s like a milkshake: it’s all these things mixed up together. It’s not about the individual ingredients, but the way the whole thing tastes.”

That milkshake concept extends to Allen’s audience. The man who’s not afraid to wear shocking pink to the CMA Awards recognizes style is part of it; that individuality is what makes life interesting. 

“I literally stand onstage and really take in the diversity. I see Black people in cowboy hats, in dreads, in Timberlands. I’ll see Asians and Mexicans looking like they’re going to the rodeo or just anywhere, see white guys who look like they’d never go to a Country show, just Kanye and Jay-Z.”

“I’ll pick out two, three people every night. A white person who looks like ‘a Country fan’ and one who doesn’t, a Black guy in Jordans and one in cowboy boots; I’ll ask them how they got here. For some it was ‘Good Time’ with Nelly, or the song with Tim McGraw, or something that was more Christian. That’s what they come for, but then they like so much more. 

“Now I have the platform to inspire some Black kid, some Asian kid to believe they can be a Country artist. That’s awesome.”