DEAN OWENS : INTO THE SEA

DEAN OWENS : INTO THE SEA

Dora
Closer To Home
Evergreen
Kids (1979)
Virginia Street
It Could Be Worse
Up On The Hill
Valentine's Day In New York
Day's Without You
Sally's Song (I Dreamed Of Michael Marra)
The Only One
Bonus Track :
I'm Pretending I Don't Love You Anymore (with Suzy Bogguss)

Label : Drumfire Records

Length : 52:43

Release Date : April 27, 2015

Review (Folk Radio) : After years touring with some of Country’s biggest names including Emmylou Harris, Steve Earl, John Hiatt and Nanci Griffith, April 2015 welcomed the fifth solo album of Dean Owens who comfortably took his rightful place centre stage with Into the Sea. The album is filled with self-penned songs capturing the storytelling of folk music while accompanied by a, dare I say, rock vibe. It is undeniably difficult to place the Scottish singer-songwriters style, but with Owens’ song writing skills, delivering simple but catchy melody lines time after time his fan base is undeniably growing. The sound of the album resembles that of an early 90s David Gray but with the sweet addition of a subtle Scottish touch. Although the album was produced, recorded and mixed by Neilson Hubbard at Mr Lemons in Nashville, Tennessee and is bursting with American musicians, Owens roots are represented through stories and tales from the streets and hills of Scotland setting the scene of a charming Scottish landscape. Dora is the opening track and perhaps the highlight of the album. The song tells the story of his grandmother, who was raised in a travelling circus, and the intriguing characters like ‘Charlie the boneless wonder’ with whom she lived with. The uplifting fiddle playing and Heather Donegan’s sweet vocal line compliments the track justly. Kids (1979) is a sombre track in which Owens reflects on his school years and the friends he had as a teenager. Owens’ lyrics are not surging with poetic charm but, nonetheless, powerful in the message they bring. With lyrics such as ‘Jimmy died at 20’ and ‘Andy’s a drunk’ the song drowns in melancholy and is a stark reminder that we are not all gifted with the same fortunes. While the accompaniment is unimposing to the vocals throughout the record, the layers that are built by the musicians provide a showcase of their musical intuition and raw styles. Fans of Travis will be pleased with Virginia Street as it resonates with a Travis-like feel. Here, Owens takes inspiration from a friend by turning a conversation – which took place over a pint in a pub in Glasgow – into a gentle song with an unexpected hook. The song, alongside others on the album, dives into the personal life of Owens. The piano accompaniment and percussion drive the song and assist in giving the track a slight heart-warming quality. The bonus track, ‘I’m Pretending I Don’t Love You Anymore’ brings an entirely different sound with an old country style duet. Owens is joined with the smoky and haunting voice of Suzy Bogguss. The combination of the voices is an enjoyable and uplifting end to a great album and is likely to leave fans hopeful for more of this flattering collaboration in the future. Owens has taken his music throughout Europe, the US and Australia and will continue this year with gigs across the UK alongside his band Whisky Hearts. The five piece are sure to flaunt their skills and attract their already fast growing fan base with their charismatic stage-presence and chorus-heavy songs, encouraging audience participation, bringing the great Scottish ceilidh tradition into their performances.

Review (Rocking Magpie) : I can’t remember when I first encountered Dean Owens music; probably more years ago than either of us care to remember and it was probably when he was a de-riguer support act for touring American acts; and he was always destined to be the headline act. Here on his fifth solo album Dean has finally pulled all of the jigsaw pieces together and created the album he has always deserved to make. Opening track opens with some ghostly electric guitar and a soft bass drum beat before Owens slides in with a tale of a girl born into a Circus family in the early part of the 20th Century and the hook will reel you in like a floundering haddock. There’s a subtle ‘Scottishness’ to the sound Owen’s has created here; and this lends a certain melancholia to songs like Upon the Hill and the sumptuous Days Without You both of which will make you want to curl up into a ball and hug a big fluffy cushion. Virginia Street is a timeless piece of quality Americana that tells a gorgeous tale of a (probable) teenage love affair looked back on through misty eyes many years later; and will ring a few bells with many of us now. On Kids (1979) Owens again looks back on his life; this time to an old school photo of him in 1979 and sadly not all of them; are still with us today and others have taken darker paths than expected. While including a fantastic string section to emphasise the pathos during the choruses; it never sounds cheesy or overpowering but helps move the song into an unexpected new stratosphere. Dean Owens has always had a very sharp and astute way with lyrics; but on Closer To Home he’s managed to combine that with a laid back and gritty sound that’s not afraid to include a melody and nothing showcases that better than the ethereal Valentine’s Day in New York which un-surprisingly got a lot of National airplay when it was released as a single earlier in the year. My copy of the album includes a lovely Special Bonus Track, called I’m Pretending I Don’t Love You Anymore which will be a terrible waste if it’s not on the official release as, although it sounds nothing like the rest of the tracks here, it’s a delicious Country Swing duet with none other than Miss Suzy Bogguss and hopefully serves as a taster for things to come.

Review (Blabber 'n' Smoke) : Dean Owens recorded his second solo album, Whisky Hearts, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. For Into The Sea, his latest release he’s returned to Tennessee, this time Nashville, enlisting again the talents of Will Kimbrough along with appearances from Suzy Bogguss and Kim Richey. Although the Nashville connection (and Owens’ past with The Felsons) might lead one to expect a pedal steel adorned collection of country songs, instead, Into The Sea is a mature set of reflective songs that showcase his ever improving writing skills and vocals. As is often the case with Owens he delves into family memories and his roots in Leith. I’m sure someone somewhere must have said this of him; You can take the man out of Leith but you can’t take Leith out of the man. The album opens with the wonderful Dora, a song that rings with faint echoes of Richard Thompson especially in the guitar chords as Owens delves into his family tree to tell the story of his grandmother, raised in a travelling circus. He follows with the grand sweep of Closer To Home which opens with strummed guitar before a folksy accompaniment adds a lift to the song. A yearning tribute to those soldiers who didn’t return from war the song gains a melancholic piano refrain as it soars towards the end. Owens sparkles when he is in nostalgic mood and Evergreen is a nod to his past as he sings, “I remember you and me as we were that summer on the beach at Gullane” on what turns out to be a fine love song with Kim Richey adding fine harmonies. Kids (79) again mines his memories, a school picture leading to recollections of old school friends and their chequered stories. With a degree of resignation and sadness the song gradually gives way to anger with guitar bursting in as Owens recites, “Jimmy died at 20, Andy’s a drunk. Stevie’s still a good friend, Davy’s on the junk.” There’s a cosy warmth to the soft acoustic rock of Virginia Street and Up On the Hill vibrates with shimmering guitars that slide and swarm around the vocals. A more subdued feel attends the organ draped It Could Be Worse which has a crumpled melancholic tenderness to it while Owens’ elegy for the late Michael Marra, Sally’s Song (I Dreamed Of Michael Marra) successfully marries Marra’s wearied delivery with more of Owen’s reflections on his own past as he again remembers past friends and times in a recently demolished housing estate. The melody and arrangement along with the lyrics are a fitting tribute to Marra and the closing words are obviously from the heart. Owens hits a peak towards the close of the album with the guitar undulations that reverb gently through The Only One adding a fifties dreamlike quality to the song. Written for a friend whose partner had a terminal illness the song is masterful and evocative. There’s sadness sewn into the melody while the words convey the loss and sense of emptiness thereafter. Finally, there’s a bonus track tacked onto the end of the album, a reprise of a song from Owens first album, I’m Pretending I Don’t Love You. It’s a wonderfully woozy honky tonk waltz in the George and Tammy tradition and features Suzy Bogguss duetting with Owens and some insouciant whistling.