Dean Owens turns east while staying on the dusty Americana trail.
Dean Owens is in no danger of suffering from underexposure around these parts. Fred Arnold’s recent review of predecessor EP set “The Ridge Trilogy” provides a comprehensive story of Owens’ collaborations with Calexico leading up to working with Don Antonio (who has himself worked extensively with Alejandro Escovedo) and his band while Paul Kerr’s wide-ranging interview with Owens pretty much deals with everything else. Owens recorded “Spirit Ridge” at Don Antonio’s Crinale Studios with a band of local musicians and guest appearances from Calexico’s John Convertino, Tom Hagerman and Martin Wenk.
The album’s opening track is ‘Eden Is Here’ which has a languid feel both in terms of instrumentation, which is quite sparse, and Owens’ vocal delivery. The singer sounds contented and relaxed. The song is said to have been inspired by the surroundings of Crinale Lab which is set out of the way in the hillier part of the lush Emilia Romagna countryside. The faster-paced introduction to ‘Spirito’ comes as something of a surprise. A short (1:14) instrumental with a distinctly US border feel, it pricks memories of similar tracks on Calexico albums and tour CDs.
Third track, ‘My Beloved Hills’, opens with a twangy guitar rapidly joined by strings, horns and piano. Owens’ vocal recalls family and the sense of place that people carry with them “when I leave here my heart will not”. The full accompaniment swirls around the chorus and a trumpet solo leads the swelling instrumental break and outro. ‘Light This World’ returns to the US border with strings prominent. Horns, piano and twang guitar take the track to its climax.
‘The Buzzard And The Crow’ features some scratchy violin and doomy bass and percussion setting a desolate mood in which Owens imagines himself in flight with the scavenging birds. Violin and drums echo into the fade out. The sixth track and likely side one vinyl closer is ‘Burn It All‘ with a funky almost disco ambience including a rubbery bass as Owen sings of fleeing to a new life razing the one being left behind.
The hushed tone of ‘Face The Storm (The Buffalo)’ is embodied in lyrics involving keeping on in adversity “like the buffalo, face the storm”. The pedal steel twines itself around the backing in a manner that makes the listener shiver. ‘Sinner Of Sinners’ which follows sees Owens in (or his narrator) confessional mode while at the same time locked into denial (“I don’t know you and you don’t know me”). The violin is a highlight of the music in this song.
‘Wall Of Death’ opens at an up-tempo spirited pace. The almost jaunty backing belies a lyrical content referencing “the black dog” amidst a lot of circus imagery. The piano playing on this song is pretty impressive. A heavy beat announces the arrival of ‘A Divine Tragedy’ along with some drawn-out twangy guitar. Owens keeps the song slower-paced and reflective throughout. The outro feels like it should be danced to.
‘Spirit Of Us’ has a quite acoustic setting at first while he contrasts the physical and the emotional elements of relationships. The chorus is enhanced with a female backing vocal from Kirsten Adamson. The album’s twelfth and final track ‘Tame The Lion’ revisits themes – mountains, lion taming – used earlier in the record. Musically mid-paced, it has a light, funky sound characterised by a strong beat, sparse bass and lo-fi horns, which are amped up with added electric guitar as it heads to its close.
“Spirit Ridge” is very much a continuation of the path that Owens has been on for several years, drawing on the strengths of the musicians he’s working with as well as the surroundings to enhance his songs and his own performances.
