Johnny Ray Allen, founding member of the subdudes, dead at 56

Johnny Ray Allen, a founding member of the subdudes, a Louisiana band that spent its formative years playing the Boulder-Fort Collins-Denver music scene, died at his home in New Orleans on Friday, Aug. 8.

Allen’s wife, Martha Reggett Allen, told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans her husband was found dead of unknown causes. She told the newspaper he had a heart condition and that an autopsy was scheduled for Monday. Results are pending.

The subdudes are scheduled to play three concerts on the Front Range this weekend. The first of the three, and the band’s first performance since Allen’s death will be at the Louisville Downtown Street Faire at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 15. The subdudes’ other appearances this weekend will be at Bohemian Nights in Fort Collins at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, and the Arvada Center at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17.

Original band members Tommy Malone, John Magnie and Steve Amedee said in a statement their performances “will be a tribute to Allen. … an opportunity for the band’s many longtime Colorado fans to gather in remembrance of Allen.”

The band formed on March 16, 1987, when Allen, Malone and Magnie, then with the Continental Drifters, performed with a friend, Amedee, and called themselves the subdudes.

The band later moved to Fort Collins and was based in Colorado when it signed its first major record deal, with Atlantic in 1989. In their bio, the band says the record deal was the result of getting “some attention from some guys in Boulder, which led to some contacts in Los Angeles. By the end of 1988, three labels were interested in the band, all bidding to host the subdudes. The band signed with Atlantic.”

The band called it quits in 1996. It reformed in 2002 as The Dudes, with Tim Cook and Jimmy Messa joining Malone, Magnie and Amedee. In March 2003, while touring Colorado, the band changed its name back to the subdudes.