Excerpt from "These Strings Made For Bows", by James Reaney, London Free Press, May 25, 2008

My London definitely includes the fiddle. Or the violin. Or whatever you want to call the stringed instrument three London-region aces have used to make three of the magical albums of 2008.

The three are former Londoner Lara St. John, a violinist now in New York, and a pair of fiddle stars - Lambeth's John P. Allen and Dorchester's Shane Cook.

Each has a new album - and that sounds like a story to me. The playing on each album is extraordinary - which is no surprise if you know anything about their careers. They are all excellent at pushing the boundaries of their respective genres - classical with an edge (St. John), bluegrass-roots-folk (Allen) and Don Messer for our era (Cook)...

...As for Allen, he'll be out on the road with multi-Juno award winners Prairie Oyster soon. The Bachelor Farmers - the name he's given to the supergroup on A Canadian Portrait - deserve a Juno themselves. "The musicians are a who's who of roots pickers," Allen says with pride of his Bachelor Farmers. "I haven't worked with (banjo player) Dave Talbot since our days with the Dixie Flyers 25 years ago, so it's about time. He's been living in Nashville for the past 10 years and has risen to be the #1 call for sessions down there. He presently plays in Dolly Parton's band.

"Mike Stevens is to the harmonica what Ian Anderson is to the flute... his solo on Teepee Shuffle is one for the ages."

Also helping Allen on such True North classics as Snowbird, Four Strong Winds, Bud the Spud and We'll Sing in the Sunshine are bassist Dennis Pendrith, dobro player Allan Widmeyer, the Good Brothers, a young singer named Joanna Dockrill and other all-stars.

On Allen's last CD, he posed naked (pretty much) for the cover which was funny and cool. He played witty jokes on the disc inside. This time he's singing lead on songs you probably know pretty well. That exposure also works. Allen and the Bachelor Farmers should reunite - if possible - for a gig...

The London Free Press, April 7th, 2005

John P. Allen is the latest London-area fiddler to showcase strategic placement when it comes to a violin. First, it was classical star Lara St. John, who appeared nude from the navel up in a black-and-white photograph on the cover of her first CD. St. John's violin was strategically placed across her breasts for the 1996 cover shot. The photo initially attracted as much attention as the fine music, to St. John's amusement.

Now it's country and bluegrass star Allen's turn to bare even more. On the inside of the booklet accompanying his first CD, The Canadian Fiddle Violin, Allen is seen naked, except for his violin. Allen, of Lambeth, says women haven't shied from posing for similar photos over the years - and that inspired him. "If all these young women can do that, it's time a 50-year-old male fiddle player did the same thing," he smiles.

The Prarie Oyster fiddler has also played with Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, the Good Brothers, Tommy Hunter and many others. As for the photo, Allen was also inspired by his admiration for the British comic crew, Monty Python. Pythonicons John Cleese and Terry Jones would often find themselves unabashedly naked in the crew's skits, he recalls. Allen is 51, but was 50 when the photo was taken. He admits to working out as he prepared for the photo. As with St. John, it is Allen's music that will endure once the talk about the barenaked photo settles. In Allen's case, that is bound to happen because each track represents a style he has mastered, ranging from western swing to folk to his own Hugo Brotter's Polka. Allen saw the name on a sign when he was touring Germany with the Good Brothers and used it for his polka romp with its wild Spike Jones touches.

The Allen CD cost somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 to produce and benefits from a strong supporting cast. "It sounds like a big-time record to me, if I can be so bold," Allen says of his work with producers Joan Besen, a Prarie Oyster bandmate, and Besen's son, Sunny Thrasher.

Among the guest performers are London bluegrass legends, the Dixie Flyers. Allen played with the Flyers for three years in the 1980s. He's back with them at their Saturday afternoon gig at the Forest City Locker ROom Sports Bar & Grill. Other London musicians on The Canadian Fiddle Violin include guitarist Larry Smith and bassist Colin Stewart. They team with Allen on the jazzy swing of Makin' Whoopee. "It's just great. It sounds like (Stephane) Grappelli and (Django) Reinhardt," Allen says of the way the track pays tribute to those European jazz giants.

Other tracks include the rambunctious Side by Side with Thrasher on turntables and Willie P. Bennett adding guitar and harmonica to his lovely tune Lace and Pretty Flowers. Allen also plays viola, mandolin and tenor banjo, his first instrument, on the CD.

- Free Press Staff

Toronto Star, April 28th, 2005

The Canadian Fiddle (Independant/www.johnpallen.com)

There's more to the Canadian fiddle than one musician can summarize in a single 12-track exposition - even a master of John P. Allen's exalted status. As a longtime member of Prarie Oyster, and before them, the seminal '70s folk rock outfit Great Speckled Bird, Canadian bluegrass legends The Good Brothers and The Dixie Flyers, and Canadian country star Tommy Hunter's band, Allen has earned a reputation as one of the most versatile and expressive violinists in North America.

But any student of Folk music will tell you there are as many styles of Canadian fiddle music as there are dedicated practitioners. It's the one instrument that seems to have been adopted by, and able to express a sense of, every region in the country. On Allen's first solo outing, produced by Prarie Oyster pianist Joan Besen and her son, Sunny Thrasher, he covers an amazing mount of territory with seven originals and five covers (mostly Canadian gems) - country swing ("Makin' Whoopee," "Side by Side"), pure western country ("Tumbling Tumbleweeds"), Maritimes Celtic and Quebec jigs, polkas and waltzes ("Jameson's Jig," "Hugo Brotter's Polka," "Beausejour Lament") old-time Ontario dance band music ("St. Anne's Reel"), and troubadour folk (Ian Tyson's "Summer Wages," Willie P. Bennett's "Lace and Pretty Flowers," given a lilting Irish setting). Assisted by some of the most eloquent musicians in the local roots music pool (guitarists Richard Bennett, Larry Smith, Wendell Ferguson, Stuart Cameron and Keith Glass, accordionist Denis Keldie, harmonica and trumpet virtuoso Chris Whiteley, and Besen among them), Allen and his producers have created a rich and finely textured instrumental work that's joyful, stylish and substantial. It's absolutely delightful recording.

- Greg Quill