Clabber Street Blues

"I'm looking for another metropolis." - Rue 29 Juillet

Clabber Street Blues is about Ballymena. It’s about Paris and Rome and New Orleans. It’s about reality and imagination. It’s about blues and jazz. It’s about silence. It’s about monotony, boredom and poverty. It’s about magic, wonder and transformation. It’s about wanting to be different and wanting to fit in. It’s about a clash of generations. It’s about seeing yourself in the stream of history. It’s about being young. It’s about getting old.

In other words, it is about life.

Joseph Allen’s latest collection shows the poet in fine form, just going with the flow.

"When I listen to ‘Ruby, My Dear’ or ‘Crepuscule with Nellie’ and Monk hits that unexpected note,I understand his genius."

About the author:

Joseph Allen was born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.

He has published two pamphlets, The Sound of Rooms (2003) and Night Patrol (2004), and three full collections, Landscaping (2007), Family Plot (2009) and Looking for Robert Johnston (2011).

As well as being a poet he is a performing Delta Blues guitarist, singer and harmonica player. He is part of the Bluegrass/Folk Band Biddy Early playing dobra, banjo, mandolin, auto harp and mountain dulcimer. He has recorded four Delta Blues CDs, the most recent being Nothin’ But The Devil on the JA Blues label.

88  pages

ISBN: 9781910996072