Charlie Allen is an American country musician born in Bristol, TN, into a family steeped
in Country music. Allen’s mother, Louise Bouton was a regular on WCYB Radio’s
“Farm and Fun Time Show,” she is a member of the Bristol Hall of Fame. His father,
Charles D. Bouton was an artist manager.
Singing and performing was the family business, and Allen learned from the best. Just
as some mothers give their child a toy to play with, Allen’s mom gave him a broom, and
taught him to pretend that it was a microphone. Eventually, he would learn to play the
guitar, piano, steel guitar, fiddle and drums. When most of his third grade friends were
getting on a school bus, Allen was getting on a tour bus.
Allen’s Uncle, Jim Harless, was also in the music business in Ft. Worth, Texas. It was
there, at age seven, that Allen began to hone his skills as a singer and performer with
his family at the legendary Panther Hall. The stage was his classroom, and his
teachers were the pillars of Country music; Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Jr, Waylon
Jennings, Dottie West, Willie Nelson and Jerry Lee Lewis were just a few of the touring
performers whom Allen shared a stage with. It was during this time that Allen signed his
first recording contract with Decca Records.
By age fifteen, Allen was fronting his own group, The Bouton Brothers where they
appeared on various television shows in the Bristol and Kingsport area, opening for the
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Charley Pride and others. Allen also hosted his own television
show, sponsored by Martha White.
Allen was later signed to Parc Records, an independent label and publishing company
with offices in Orlando, Florida, and Nashville, TN. Parc Studios, boasted a stellar list of
clients such as The Backstreet Boys, ‘N Snyc, Britney Spears and Mariah Carey, among
others.
Commuting between Nashville and Orlando, Allen wrote and recorded many songs,
including Billboard Hit “Better Said Than Done,” co-written with the legendary Earl
Thomas Conley. That song garnered Allen his first critical acclaim from Music Row’s
toughest critic, Robert K. Oermann, who has been an ardent supporter of Allen ever
since starting “I have said this time and again this artist can stand toe to toe with
anything Sony throws down” . He also made fans of the nationally syndicated radio
show hosts, John Boy and Billy, who had this to say: “We believe that Charlie is
destined for stardom. He has a heart as big as Tennessee and a voice to match it.”
As fate would have it, his CD titled “Charlie Allen” was released on 9/11/2001.
Later, in 2008 with his current label River Run Records he released the appropriately
titled CD That Was Then, This Is Now, where he again achieved national and
international recognition including Music Row and Billboard chart success with singles
“I Did This To Me”, “See If I Care” and “Proof” which hit number one on the Texas chart.
His videos were also being played all over the world including CMT and GAC, BBC etc.
All prior to the digital age, He toured the US and the UK until 2010. He then went on to
host the “American Farmer Show '' which aired on RFD and Discovery channels for
two seasons where he penned the theme song “The American Farmer” and was
designated “Top Ten Farmers Songs” by Taste Of Country’s annual contest. Today he
is in the process of releasing his first Americana EP, produced by Johnny Garcia, one of
Garth Brooks guitar players and Trish Yearwood’s current band leader and guitar player.
After hearing the new tracks, it prompted radio promoters and Sony executives to
exclaim “This Is Grammy worthy”.
Allen’s vocals and musicianship can only be matched by his songwriting skills. He has
to date written thousands of songs and has amassed an amazing catalog which has
many co-writes with the top songwriters in the business. He currently writes for U Tell
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