Features : Rich Allen introduces his new-country stories with rocking, upbeat “Innocent Kiss”

Suppose there was this girl, and you kissed her last night, or this afternoon, or 20 years ago, and you’re thinking about it and wondering, “What if she’s the one?”

Rich Allen has a song about that. “Innocent Kiss” tells the story to a country beat with slide guitar blended with some rock licks.

I never felt love coming on like this
Never fell in with an innocent kiss

“The story line and the music just hit me all at the same time,” he said, and that’s the way songwriting works for him.

In fact, despite the relish he obviously takes in his playing and singing, despite his excellent guitar work and his great musical voice, songwriting rather than the stage is the focus of his career goal in music. His ambition is to get signed to a contract as a writer rather than as a performer.

“When I write, I feel the music and the lyrics at the same time, including the bridge or the structure — the production of the song itself. I just hear it in my head and transfer it to paper. ”

“Innocent Kiss,” he said, was about a 15-20-minute write, and he remembers when and where: Las Vegas. 

“What if that person that I met at the coffee shop, was who I was meant to be with, and I didn’t get her number? Or I was in a relationship that could have been a lot more? I just thought that would be a cool little story. So, I got my guitar and penned that song.”

From the chorus:

This may be my one last chance
This could be the girl for a true romance
This could be the girl I’m looking for

Rich Allen Stacy got his first guitar when he was 2, put into his hands by his father, taught himself to play it and has been playing music ever since. 

“I was self-taught, refined it through the years, was a songwriter but a musician my whole life.”

His early influences were artists like Johnny Cash, George Jones, Glen Campbell, Elvis, Buck Owens. His father also enrolled him as a child in the Columbia Record Club, with a new vinyl album every month.

“I was under 10, and I couldn’t wait to get the next album. I would sing to it, learn to play those songs on the guitar,” he said. 

“I had a really fun ride with a lot of different genres. The diversity of my music comes out in my songwriting. You’re going to hear a little bit of everything. To me, music is an emotion, and my songs are a compilation of all music influences I’ve been exposed to my entire life.”

But when he started writing music, it was country, “and I haven’t changed.” The diversity of musical styles you can hear in the songs he has put out so far is why he calls his genre, for want of a better name, new country.

“More balance in my life created an opportunity to do what I love — write music!”

He wants to get his music out there, would love to have artists pick it up and record it.

“I do what I do because I think my songs have merit. I tell stories in all my songs. They’re easy to follow, and I want to put them in the hands of an artist who picks them up and puts them on an album. That would be really cool!”
 
Make sure to stay connected to Rich Allen on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

Amazon Music
Spotify
YouTube