Scroll through Calder Allen’s Instagram, and two distinct styles of photos dominate. One is the tall, 23-year-old songwriter slinging his guitar on increasingly bigger stages across the country, and the other is the Austin native on the water holding impressively large fish he’s caught.
“For me, they do the same thing in my head,” Allen says of fishing and songwriting. “I am completely ADD, and growing up in school, I’m the last person to be focusing in class. But I can go get dropped off by a river and be there for, like, 16 hours and not think about anything else. That’s how music and songwriting also make me feel.
“A lot of methodology and approach that goes into music, I instinctually acquired because of how I view fly fishing,” he continues. “There’s a lot of similarities in mindset. A lot of songs that you write, the song really does tell you what it wants to do, and it’s the same thing with rivers and the ocean and any body of water. You should never try to go in there and make it something that it’s not. There needs to be a level of honesty and dropping of the ego, and giving yourself into this thing. It’s the same thing with music. The most important thing is being honest and telling your story and expressing yourself.”
That absorbing concentration and open willingness to adjust has served Allen well as he’s committed to songwriting. While he admits to having no formal training in music, he has grown up surrounded by and learning from legendary musicians and artists – most notably his own family, as the grandson of Texas icon Terry Allen.
“I’ve been really fortunate to have a network of people that have always encouraged me to stay true to who I am and write my story, and just really dive deep into what I’m trying to say personally and artistically, and it’s really just let me grow in a sense of just being completely honest,” he offers.
That network also includes Charlie Sexton, who joined the young songwriter onstage at his ACL Fest debut five years ago, and has produced Allen’s first three albums. This year’s Fault Lines delivers his most polished and personal writing to date, Allen’s low dry voice drawing out lines restless with youth and finding his place in the world to a driving country-rock sound he’s honed over the past year of touring.
“I’m in a really good groove right now,” he says. “I’m so happy with the band, and it’s just more fun and more comfortable onstage. That’s the biggest thing that all this touring has been doing. I’m just learning so much of how to get in the pocket when I’m up there. And ACL, it’s just always something I don’t take for granted, just being from town. It carries more weight than probably a lot of other festivals would just because I love Austin so much. Austin’s always home.”
Calder Allen
Sunday, 3:15pm, Tito’s stage
This article appears in October 2 • 2026.
