The audience attending the iHeartCountry Album Release Party also got to hear some of Allen's biggest songs, including “Best Shot,” “Make Me Want To” and “Down Home,” the emotional tribute to is late father, James, who died in 2019.

“‘Down Home’ is probably one of the most special songs I’ve ever written,” Allen previously explained. “I wrote it about my father – kind of like, hopefully he’s in heaven and looking down on everything I’m doing and hope he’d be proud of me. I wrote it with my friends [Tate] Howell, [Rian] Ball and [Cameron] Bedell. It’s a song that’s actually helped me a lot because in the midst of missing my father, I think about him seeing everything I’ve got going on and it’s like… even though he’s gone, he’s always with me. I hope this song finds its place in the world and this song helps people that have lost not only a father, or a parent, or a loved one just like the song has helped me.”

Tulip Drive also includes a few collaborations with several iconic artists, including a track featuring CeeLo Green and T-Pain, a song featuring Katie Ohh, one featuring Aadyn, and one with iHeartRadio’s icon award recipient, Jennifer Lopez. Allen teamed up with Lopez for a reimagined version of “On My Way” from her movie Marry Me. When they released the new version, Allen reminisced on meeting Lopez for the first time in 2010, as a contestant on American Idol. As soon as he heard her early 2000s song “I’m Real,” Allen recalled in a tweet: “I told myself one day we would do a song together and It happened. I’m honored to be a part of the reimagined version of ‘On My Way.’”

Chris Janson

with special guests Drew Green and Shane Profitt