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DEAN OWENS FEATURING WILL KIMBROUGH & NEILSON HUBBARD : PICTURES
- Hills of Home
- Pure Magic
- Sometime
- Staring At The Lid
- Boxing Shorts
- Great Song
- In My Dreams
- Dalry Cemetery
- Buffalo River
- Friend
- Pictures
Label : Songboy Records
Release Date : November 3, 2023
Length : 44:35
Review (Folk Radio) : Having put his Desert Songs project to bed, Dean Owens returns with Pictures, a new collection of Americana produced by and (recorded long distance during the pandemic) featuring Neilson Hubbard on drums with Will Kimbrough playing every other stringed instrument on the record save for one track. It’s a generally reflective album, with several songs touching on mortality, opening with the nostalgic Hills Of Home (“Today I flew over the old church/Where my sister was married/Over the streets where I grew up… I remember the walkers and the loves/All the families I grew up with/Looking out over the rooftops/I could see the hills of home”), recalling discovering music and planning his way out into the wider world, and now it “means so much more than it used to/We had so much, more than we knew”. Taking the pace down to a soulful strum with a wash of lap steel, Pure Magic is both self-reflective (“one minute I’m up, the next minute I’m down/In my family tree there’s both lion tamer and clown/Lion tamer and clown that’s me… I’m just like my father, no patience at all/I don’t drive, I was born to be driven/And drive you up the wall”) and a love song thank you (“I don’t have to face this alone/I don’t have to wear a brave face/All the kindness you’ve have shown/You’re amazing”). Another mid-tempo strum, accompanied by Hubbard on piano, Sometime oozes optimism with lyrics that sound as though written in lockdown (“Sometime we’ll be together again/Sometime I don’t know when…Someday there’ll be singing again…We’ll gather in the sun the darkness will be gone”), followed by the first of the mortality (“First you’re born and then you die/And in between you try and try/To make it through without giving in”) and carpe diem (“You only live once so don’t think twice/Take a chance and roll the dice”) tracks, with Staring At The Lid, albeit taking a wry perspective and a bouncy, upbeat musical shuffle with, mandolin, dobro and the catchy refrain hook “I remember what my father said/Son, you’re a long time staring at the lid” and words of wisdom such as “be sure to learn from your mistakes” and “there’s nothing like old friends/They shine like diamonds til the end/They’ll always be there when you need them to be”. Backed by organ with Scotty Huff on brass, the rhythmically brisk, brushed snares Celtic soul Boxing Shorts is another reflective piece (“I had my name on my boxing shorts/ I wasn’t much of a fighter/And taking punches hurt/But when I stepped into the ring/I was where I wanted to be”), the bittersweet memory of how “Graham McFarland was the first guy to take me to the gym/But Graham fought the needle and that was a fight he would never win” and of going to see Rocky 2 with his mate Scott, offering hard-won wisdom that “when you get trapped in the corner cover up/Sooner or later the punches have to stop” but also “you have to know when enough is enough”. In contrast, however, whistling his way into the particularly cheery, upbeat busking strum Great Song, he also says, “we’re all climbing up the hill/Trying to reach the top/Maybe we won’t, maybe we will/But we just don’t know how to stop”, another song about looking for the bright side, “waiting for that spark/For things to ignite”, the “flowers in the dust/water in the well/chrome under the rust” or, in a musician’s terms, looking to write that great song that’ll have everyone singing along. This may not be that masterpiece, but it’s most certainly very crowd-friendly. Sparsely accompanied by acoustic guitar and piano, In My Dreams is one of those songs that sounds like it should be sung at the end of the night in some Scottish pub as everyone slips into a melancholic reverie on times past and lost (“I’ve been thinking about you/A dream that once came true/All those years ago/I had tattoo with your name/Your photo in a frame…You’d just turned twenty two/The year that I met you/I was just nineteen /That was all so long ago/Where the years went I don’t know/But I still see you in my dreams”), opening up into a narrative of a broken marriage (“I married Lou at twenty four/Took a job working offshore/Did some crazy things/Lou never lets me see our kids/I’m stuck out here on these rigs”) and those memories that still haunt (“Now there’s no photo in the frame/A faded tattoo on my arm/But I still see you in my dreams”). Another narrative, Kimbrough ceding the violin to Amy Geddes and taking to the piano, the folksy Ronnie Lane era Faces, mandolin-tinted shuffling Dalry Cemetery, a historic garden cemetery and wildlife haven in Edinburgh, unfolds the story of ageing Grateful Dead fan spinster Annie and her three ginger cats who’s “lived there since 1970/When they knocked down her street to build flats” and of Frank, who prefers the big bands, who “visits on this way to the match/Takes roses to his wife’s Celia’s grave/Stays and has a wee chat”, just two ordinary people whose lives sometimes intersect when she tends the flowers and he visits (“They’ve smiled at each other once or twice”). It’s sentimental but never twee. While Lane’s stint in The Faces echoes, there’s more of a hint of John Hartford to Buffalo River, moving from Edinburgh to Arkansas (“Where the deer roam under the moon/And the stars shine bright in the sky”) seeking to soothe a troubled soul (“There in the highlands/I will ease the hurt/And my mother and father/Can keep an eye on me”), an idealistic utopia where “I’ll see all the faces/That I want to see/Go to the places/Where I want to be”. He returns to home and the mortality that comes with the changing seasons on the penultimate valedictory Friend To The End (“We scattered your ashes up there on the hill/In your favourite place/Near the old bench where we would sit down/And look over the town”) before ending on a final reflective note about that same childhood friend with the title track (“The pictures I keep finding are with you/Young and full of life/Two young kids up to no good/Laughing, so alive”), a bittersweet mingling of affection, regret and guilt (“I always smile when I think of you/You were the wild one/All that shit you went through/Was there more I could have done… I feel I maybe let you down/I was just trying to get out of this town/I never meant to turn my back on you”) that raises a parting glass in the toast “see you on the other side”. An album haunted by ghosts and anchored by love, it might just well be the best he’s ever made.
Review (For The Love Of Bands) : Dean Owens gives us another musical gem with his newest album ‘Pictures’ , released on November 3. He continues his transatlantic connections and this time It’s East meets East as he teams up with long time collaborators and pals, Will Kimbrough and Neilson Hubbard. Recorded remotely both in East Lothian and East Nashville, the trio have melded their considerable talents and experience to deliver a rich collection of Owens songs, written during the pandemic. Owens is a busy lad. He’s released two highly acclaimed albums (including a double CD) in the last 18 months, recorded with musicians from desert noir icons Calexico. These have deservedly raised his profile, leading to a string of sold-out tours, and festival dates across Europe and more upcoming gigs in the UK, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands . He recently joined Calexico’s Joey Burns on stage in Utrecht, and without pausing for a breath, headed off to northern Italy where the is currently recording for his next project Spirit Ridge (in the footsteps of the lion tamer). To read about this exciting project, including the opportunity to work with renowned musician and producer Antonio Gramentieri, in the region his Italian ancestors hailed from (including his great, great grandfather, the lion-tamer), go here. ‘Pictures’ is exactly that…songs painting a snapshot of emotions, desires, events, relationships. Owens does this so well, documenting life in song, put to music that helps paint the picture. This album seems very personal, – not surprising perhaps given the songs were written during the COVID pandemic. It’s a long way from the desert noir and Americana of his previous releases Sinner’s Shrine and El Tiradito, with a more stripped back, reflective tone. Deans says of making the record: This album was such a joy to make, during some very difficult times. From East Lothian to East Nashville. It very much feels like a band record to me. Although we weren’t able to be together in the same room physically, I feel we were very much connected by our hearts and souls. I love working with Will and Neilson and I think that really comes across on this record. My favourites on the album? The opening track Hills of Home is a nostalgic look back at home and family, community. It’s a lovely subdued acoustic number with Dean’s voice drawing out the melody and the emotion in the song. ‘Sometime’ is definitely vying for #1 on my favourites list at the moment. Have a look and listen to the video below, and see if you don’t agree. It is achingly beautiful, testament to the principle of less is more. Dairy Cemetery has a kind of Faces/ Ronnie Lane vibe, Lane being a favourite of all three musicians. Dean really has turned whistling into an art form and again here, it fits in seamlessly with the song. Add a smidge of honky tonk piano provided by Will, and also Amy Geddes on violin, both building on the character of this song. It’s another classic Owens track and I like it a lot. Buffalo River takes us in a different direction, with a bit of Nashville creeping in. It’s catchy with some deft harmonising too. ‘Friend, Pictures and In My Dreams are reflective and emotive, with a touch of melancholy overlaying them but there is hopefulness too.. All imbued with Owens talent for bringing emotions to the fore with his intense resonant vocals and innate sense of melody, with the addition of Will and Neilson’s talents, perfect. Neilson says of Dean’s voice: Dean’s voice hangs in the air like a bird flying majestically through the sky. It’s the thing that always stops me in my tracks after hearing one note. It’s the thing that makes me say “yes I’m in” each time a new project is conjured. Every track on the album has a story to tell, whether it be from Dean’s personal life and experiences or his keen observations of the world around him. Dean, Will and Neilson’s camaraderie is clear, understanding exactly how to paint the lyrics musically, choosing just the right instrument or harmonies for each moment, and the whistling too is always perfectly placed. The album is available as a global digital release, and also a special limited edition CD to help raise funds to get Dean and his band The Sinners to the prestigious Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City in February 2024, where they have been invited to perform an Official Showcase. You can hear about this from Dean in the video below as he battles against Babet, a major storm in Scotland late October. You can visit his crowdfunder page to contribute and help Dean and The Sinners realise this fantastic opportunity. This is usually where I pull together a few last words about the music and the artist. If you’ve read my previous reviews, you already know how much I admire this Scottish troubadour and his music. So, I’ll just say this: ‘Pictures’ is another wonderful album in Dean Owens’ musical journey, and a must have for your collection. Buy the album. Support the artist. …there’s rarely been an artist more deserving of this mantra.