08/26/2026
Join us TONIGHT for Wednesday Night Songwriters featuring Sandy Allen, 8-10PM!
Enjoy original music at southern New England’s best martini lounge and cafe, providing venue for local live entertainment and classic libations for over 20 years!
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About Sandy “Sandman” Allen:
Sandman is a veteran of nearly 60 years in the music biz. We’ll begin in ‘69, after a year of studying dramatic arts at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He’d written (and published) a few songs, and played with numerous bands in high school, and now he decided music would be his path. If one was going to struggle and starve, doing it as an actor seemed a far more serious plight.
Within a few months, Sandman reunited with two high school buddies and formed “Papa Nebo”. That band stayed together for about 2 years, releasing an album on Atlantic Records.
After the break-up, Sandman travelled - bummed around. In ‘74, he moved to NYC, where he and “Papa Nebo” co-founder Michael Packer formed a new band, which eventually became “Free Beer”. The name was the unfortunate result of a looming deadline and three guys who couldn’t agree about much, except their intention to play music and enjoy the party. In any case, “Free Beer” made 3 really good albums (Buddha, RCA). It came to an end at a wonderful farewell gig at Kenny’s Castaways, Easter ‘77.
Sandman remained on the scene in Greenwich Village until ‘80, when he moved to Mystic. He continued to write, but stayed away from performing until ‘85, when he began the playing in a few popular country bands. It kept him busy, but he missed working on original songs. In the early ‘90s, he met Jim Carpenter and a number of other singer/songwriters. They started getting together, with no grand scheme. That music continues today, in the form of the “Hoolios”. Aside from the Hoolios, Sandman is a member of “Sweet Mercy!”, and he enjoys “guest appearances” with his many musical friends.
Sandman sings of love and loss, desire and despair - you know, the usual stuff.
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