Shamarr Allen is riding high on touring across the country with the imminent release of the True Orleans 2 album, his first in five years. He’s both a son of New Orleans and a U.S. Cultural Ambassador who talks as real as it gets. We sat down in his studio to get the word on his world.

Allen began, “I started writing the album right after I finished my studio mid-pandemic. I locked myself in here and said, ‘I want to put a project together that has never been done in New Orleans w...