Billy Allen + The Pollies

Formed in Alabama around singer Billy Allen and members of The Pollies, Billy Allen + The Pollies combines a rock foundation with elements of soul, gospel, funk and grunge in a band format designed for collective playing. The project grew out of an initial meeting between Billy Allen and Jay Burgess, founder of The Pollies, and took clearer shape a few years later during a session at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals around Little Richard’s “Greenwood, MS.” With Burgess, Spencer Duncan, Jon Davis and Clint Chandler, Billy Allen + The Pollies developed a repertoire where gritty guitars, soulful keyboards and taut vocals move between classic rock, rhythm and blues and more garage-tinged textures. Most of their first album was written during the pandemic, first remotely as voice memos and then in rehearsals in Greenhill, Alabama, before a largely live recording in 2021 in Florence with Ben Tanner producing and engineering. Billy Allen + The Pollies’ trajectory is therefore rooted in the musical soil of northern Alabama, between studio culture, regional soul heritage and a direct approach to American rock.