During Monday’s (March 7) Academy of Country Music Awards, Stoney Creek Records/BBR Music Group artist Jimmie Allen pulled double duty as co-host and performer, leading the evening’s festivities alongside Dolly Parton and Gabby Barrett and making the debut performance of his new single, “Down Home.”
“It was a good night and I’m still on a high from last night. All good things,” Allen told Billboard the morning after the show. “I got to work with the legend Dolly Parton, who I’ve been a fan of for a long time. Gabby Barrett is an amazing singer, one of my favorite singers. Getting to work with two women who I think are remarkable made it extra special.”
Even more special for Allen was his performance of “Down Home,” which he wrote in honor of his late father James “Big Jim” Allen, who died in 2019 at age 65.
“We would watch the ACMs and CMAs together,” Allen recalled. “It was so special. That’s what really made it cool. The show that me and my dad used to watch together, I got to co-host and perform a song I wrote about him on the show. I have been looking forward to it, like, ‘Man, I get to have this moment to be closer to my dad.’ It felt like forever [waiting] for ACMs night to get here.”
Allen wrote “Down Home” with Cameron Bedell, Rian Ball and Tate Howell. The song is one of the most personal Allen has crafted to date, a musical vessel detailing both precious moments he spent with his father, but also how life has progressed since his father’s passing.
“I wanted to write a song that pretty much just talked to him and said, ‘Hey, man, you are in heaven doing all this and hanging out and I’m holding on to everything that you taught me. We miss you and everything is going well down here,’” Allen says.
Chief among those lessons was celebrating individuality, something that has helped Allen become one of country music’s most multi-faceted entertainers and artists. “He always told me just be yourself,” Allen says. “That was one thing he pressed all the time. Just be you, no matter if being you is the most popular thing, or isn’t.”
“Down Home” also nods to his father’s love of fishing, laughter and country music, especially the songs of Charley Pride. “I really wanted lyrics that are tied to memories me and my dad had,” Allen says. “We would ride in his truck when I was a kid, listening to music. [Pride’s 1967 release] ‘Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger’ was my jam — and it was my dad’s jam, too. And everybody loved ‘Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’.”
Another lyric nods to Allen wearing the number 15 every chance he gets, the same number his father wore when he played baseball. “It’s kind of like the Allen family number. I wear it, my son wears it, my brother wore it all through high school and college when he played baseball. It’s the family number because of my dad,” Allen notes.
Allen says it took some convincing from his co-writers to craft the tribute at first. “They said, ‘We need to write a song about your dad.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I ain’t tryin’ to do that,’” Allen recalls. “After about a year, we finally did. I feel like it was I just wasn’t emotionally ready at first, wasn’t ready to go that personal at first. Now, I feel like the time is right, and I’m at the point where I can go there, because once you put the song out there, especially as a radio single, you have to sing it all the time and I wasn’t ready to do that before.”
Allen’s father was by his son’s side for many of the singer-songwriter’s earliest career milestones, including Allen’s first sold-out shows, his first No. 1 hit (which came in 2018 with “Best Shot”), and his Grand Ole Opry debut performance in 2018—a moment made even sweeter as Pride was celebrating his own 25t anniversary as an Opry member that same evening, and congratulated Allen on his Opry debut performance backstage.
In 2020, Allen followed “Best Shot” with a second No. 1 hit, “Make Me Want To.” Last year, he collected the Academy of Country Music’s new male artist of the year award, as well as the Country Music Association’s best new artist honor.
In addition to earning three No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hits, Allen has collaborated with artists including Elton John, Monica, Nelly, Tim McGraw, the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter and Tauren Wells. As a businessman, Allen launched the management/production company JAB Entertainment (with flagship duo Neon Union), as well as Bettie James Music Publishing (a partnership with Sony Music Publishing, with flagship signing Howell). He’s also competed on Dancing with the Stars and released a children’s book.
This year, he’s poised for even bigger success, nabbing his third Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 with the Brad Paisley collaboration “Freedom Was a Highway” and following last year’s ACM win with a nomination for male artist of the year. Allen is also a current Grammy nominee for best new artist, and was nominated in the outstanding new artist category at this year’s NAACP Image Awards.
“One of the biggest compliments for an artist is when your peers respect what you did,” he says of this year’s ACM nomination. “With the ACMs being industry-voted, being one of the five guys who were nominated for the award out of all the other amazing male artists we have, it lets me know that people respect what I’m doing, that they appreciate what I have to say and how I am representing country music.”
In 2020, Allen released his Bettie James EP, which featured collaborations with Paisley, Tim McGraw and Mickey Guyton, as well as a multi-generational collaboration with Pride and Darius Rucker. Last year, he expanded the EP into the 16-song Bettie James Gold Edition. “Down Home” signals a new era of music from Allen, as the first single from his upcoming album. “It’s a lot of things I’ve always wanted to say,” Allen says of the new project. “What I love and am most excited about on this record is the honesty in it.”
Naturally, fans can also expect a few more collaborations on the upcoming project. “I may or may not have a song with Cee Lo [Green] and T-Pain,” Allen hints. But not all of the guests artists on his new album are music luminaries — at least, not yet. He also collaborates with an unsigned Nashville artist Katie Ohh. “A lot of times in Nashville, people will call her to sing demos. She’s a great singer,” Allen says.
Leading up to the album, Allen also takes another massive step forward as an overall entertainer, launching his first solo headlining Down Home tour this year, with openers Chayce Beckham, Neon Union and Madeline Merlo. Allen and his team spent hours studying performances from some of Allen’s favorite entertainers, including Coldplay, OneRepublic, U2 and Keith Urban, as they worked to put the show together.
“If you took a country artist, a hip-hop artist, a pop artist and put them together, that’s kind of what this show is like,” Allen says. “My vision was to create an arena show, even though I’m not headlining in arenas yet. I feel like the type of venue shouldn’t determine the quality of the show you put together. The show we have, we could take and put in an arena right now.”
