Bluesy, twangy and reflective, Gary Edward Allen’s “First Day of School Part 1” – is an ode to one’s inner child and the immutable person within us. Check it out here:

 “I like the idea of being true to yourself and knowing that the core of you is just as true at seven as it at 27 or 54 or however old you are,” Allen says.

If I could run away .... but not to follow
I'm so easily led astray …
Once I passed a note to the child I once was…

Sometimes when you’re in the heat and tumult of living, it’s hard to know exactly what a particular time of your life might mean. Toronto-based folk rocker Gary Edward Allen captures the beauty and confusion of youth in his warm, reflective new single “Understood” – Check it out on YouTube here:

Featuring the very steel guitar used on Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Allen’s “Understood” is jangly, melancholy, and journeying through the years. The song begins with a beautiful walk home, one that the narrator can still see vividly in his mind’s eye:

The trees they dance and sway

The traffic rolls by
We live in complicated times
From the floor of an old friends house
...pictures hanging upside down 

One thing about rock music that some people forget is that it is an amalgamation of different genres including such as country and blues. For music artists who know this, they have the potential to bridge the past and present by bringing the roots of rock music to a contemporary sound. This is the case with psychedelic folk and classic rock singer Gary Edward Allen and his new single "Final Surprise". Check out YouTube here: