Calder Allen Comes From Texas Songwriting Royalty. He's Determined to Carve His Own Path

Lone Star Legacy

The grandson of the revered songwriter Terry Allen, the 23-year-old is bridging generations of Lone Star state artists — and playing Rolling Stone’s upcoming Stateside festival

Despite being born into a family of Texas songwriting royalty, it took Calder Allen a while to come into his own. He may have been raised in Austin, the grandson of musicians Terry and Jo Harvey Allen, but Calder’s original goal was to simply become a fly fisherman. He even had a chance to work for one of his mentors, J.T. Van Zandt — yes, the son of Townes — as a guide on the Texas coast. But just as Allen was getting his feet wet in the guiding business, his family history grabbed him.

“I knew that I had to give music a fair chance,” Allen says. “To this day, it’s still one of the hardest no’s that I’ve ever had to say.”

But Allen’s decision is proving to be a fruitful one. Last March, he released his latest album, Fault Lines, an eight-song LP reckoning with life choices that helped him grow his fan base outside of his native Texas. On the Fourth of July, Allen will further widen his reach when he performs at Stateside, Rolling Stone’s first-ever music festival, slated for Independence Day in Kingston, New York, with headliner Noah Kahan.