Deborah Allen

Early life and rise to fame Allen was born Deborah Lynn Thurmond in Memphis, Tennessee.

After returning from Russia, Allen gravitated to the Nashville offices of Waylon Jennings, the Glaser Brothers, and John Hartford, where her close friend, Marie Barrett, was a secretary. There Allen met Shel Silverstein, her soon-to-be songwriting mentor, the poet, playwright, artist and songwriter. A more pop-oriented album of the same name was issued in the same year, and Allen released her last single for RCA, "You're the Kind of Trouble".

1990s–2000s Allen co-wrote her No. 1 hit "Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby" and wrote the Tanya Tucker hit "Can I See You Tonight", and earned further No. 1s for Janie Fricke ("Let's Stop Talking About It") and John Conlee ("I'm Only in It for the Love"), the latter a co-write with Kix Brooks and Van Hoy. The first single was "Anything Other Than Love", co-written by Gary Burr. The album also contains Allen's song "Amazing Graceland", a tribute to Elvis Presley.

In 2013, she released her first holiday album, Rockin' Little Christmas, through Weblast Records, and played Christmas shows at the Fontanel Mansion in Nashville. On March 22, 2019, Bill Lee, the Governor of Tennessee, officially designated June 5, 2019, as a Day of Recognition to honor Allen. In 2021, Allen signed with a new record label, Audium/BFD Nashville. The first single, "Blue Collar Baby", was released in January 2022, followed by her first album for the label, The Art of Dreaming, on March 18, 2022.

Allen's publishing companies, Delta Queen Music and Delta Rose Music, are partnered with Delta Rock Music. She is represented by Raymond Hicks, her husband, of Rolling Thunder Management.

Personal life In a 2019 interview in Guitar Girl, Allen shared that she was physically abused by her first husband. She and Raymond Hicks, a promoter and music producer are married. Allen is a Christian.

Album discography

Trouble in Paradise (1980) Cheat the Night (EP) (1983) Let Me Be the First (1984) Telepathy (1987) Delta Dreamland (1993) All That I Am (1994) Anthology (compilation) (1998) The Best of Deborah Allen (2000) Hands On (2000) Deb In the Raw (2000) Memphis Princess (2006) Hear Me Now (2011) Rockin' Little Christmas (2013) The Art of Dreaming (2022)