Dean Owens “The Ridge Trilogy”

Continental Song City, 2024

A captivating foretaste of Dean Owen’s forthcoming new album “Spirit Ridge“.

For someone who claims to have listened to a large number of Americana artists, it’s always pleasing to come across someone you haven’t heard before – even one with the name recognition of Dean Owens.  Owens is a class act, superb songwriter and guitar player, excellent soulful singer and a true troubadour; originally from Scotland (where he now lives in the Borders region), but so well-travelled that he has found like souls in Nashville, Tennessee and Tucson, Arizona and in Crinale in the Italian hills, where we shall return a bit later.

Owens has released numerous albums over a recording career that started in the 90s with his Scottish band, The Felsons; then solo in the early 2000s after meeting and working with renowned producer Neilson Hubbard (with acclaimed guitarist and songwriter Will Kimbrough) in the USA where his albums were produced, to some serious critical acclaim.

In 2019 during a tour break in Tucson he met Joey Burns of Calexico and the upshot of that meeting was, after releasing some ‘teaser’ EPs (known as “The Desert Trilogy” and made up of future album tracks, outtakes and ‘lockdown’ tracks), he released “Sinner’s Shrine” with the band and forged a friendship in particular with group drummer, John Convertino.  Interestingly his voice, perfect for his americana-style offerings with a little tinge of Scottish dialect, was not dissimilar to Burns’, so their voices gelled brilliantly on the album.  Owens’ observational skills, honed on the Leith in Scotland, from where he emanates, and absorbed from regular trips to the USA, produced a stunning musical and visual landscape of the American southwest, with Calexico’s trademark horn accompaniment enhancing the vision.

Fast forward and John Convertino introduced Owens to Don Antonio (Antonio Gramentieri), an Italian guitarist and producer of predominantly instrumental music for cinema and TV, with his band Sacri Cuori. Convertino could envisage synergy between Antonio’s Spaghetti -Western style of instrumental music and Owen’s’ cinematic musical vision. Don Antonio produces his music in a recording studio in Crinale (in English it means ‘ridge’, hence (you’d assume) the title of the three EPs, with his alternative Stone Buffalo band). Collectively known as “The Ridge Trilogy”, it incorporates three separate EPs of tasters for a forthcoming album, different recordings, some original demos, and some tracks that remain on these EPs exclusively.

Well, let this writer tell you, gentle reader, that if the new album due out soon and called “Spirit Ridge”, is to be a more sophisticated version of these EPs, listeners will be in for a musical treat. The EPs comprise 13 tracks in total in three volumes, named “Ghost Walking”, “Ridgeline” and “Sacri Cuori” respectively, and they collectively create a musical vision of the landscape around Crinale (with a dollop of Leith thrown in) that matches that of the US South-west that was the focus of his earlier albums. They also include a beautiful love song to his wife rather than the countryside.

Let’s try and whet your aural palette with a small breakdown of the songs:

“Ghost Walking” kicks off with the quite wonderful ‘My Beloved Hills’, ostensibly about the hilly countryside around Crinale, but with echoes of the hills around Leith and Edinburgh. With stirring lyrics and a driving rhythm, the track closes out with a wonderful trumpet solo from Martin Wenk, Calexico’s horn player. And this after a Sergio Leone-style soundtrack opening – “All around me / On Spirit Ridge / Where I found me / Where my heart is / I can hear my mother / Her voice in the wind / See my father  / Wandering” – chorus “My beloved hills / They comfort me / My beloved hills / Will always be”.  ‘Tame the Lion’ speaks to the spirits of people long since passed, in particular his great great grandfather, who came from Italy and was indeed a lion-tamer. Slightly slower than the opener but no less stately, Owens’ voice has just a little of a Scottish lilt. ‘Sergio’s Kitchen’ is a beautiful instrumental driven by Owens’ extremely expressive whistling – and is in honour of Sergio, the recording studio cook, although it could easily be an homage to Sergio Leone. ‘Sinner of Sinners’ is, in Owens’ words, a dark song about a dark soul and is the original acoustic demo of a song that will appear in full band version on the new album – “I’m the sinner of sinners / Around me all the birds stop singing/ There’s a price upon my head / Someday I know somebody’s going to stick a knife in me”. Dark indeed.

Ridgeline” is Volume 2 and its opening track is a glorious piece of upbeat twin-drum rhythmic rock, driving ‘Light this World‘ towards a horn-embellished ending over a Duane Eddy guitar riff and, for this writer, a highlight from the entire sessions (think The Mavericks on a roll). John Convertino joins Piero Perelli from the Stone Buffalo Band, and Martin Wenk again shines. ‘On the Ridge’ is a marvellously descriptive and cinematic offering about the countryside around Crinale, while ‘Come with Me‘ is lyrically dark and the instrumentation darker with slow twangy guitar and ghostly keyboards -“The world is full of sin / Pain and suffering / Come let me in / To your soul”.  ‘The Buzzard and the Crow‘ explores birdlife around the Scottish borders, and is a demo recorded in Scotland in anticipation of a full band version on the new album.

The final volume is “Sacri Cuori” (a nod to Don Antonio’s band?) which kicks off with ‘Spirit of Us’, a lovely slow and restrained love song written for his wife and anticipated daughter – “Don’t be haunted by the ghost of what’s gonna come / Why don’t we make the most of what we have now, what we have now / The spirit of us will never die”. ‘True of You’ is another slow, but spirit-lifting song with strings and horns in the background leading to a glorious violin/guitar face off towards the end before Owens’ howling fade out. There’s an upbeat turn with the short but dramatic ‘El Minuto‘, an instrumental with muffled and wordless vocals, that lasts almost exactly a minute, followed by a  longer instrumental ‘The Gloaming’, a quite lovely tune highlighting Owens’ whistling prowess on top of a strummed acoustic guitar, with overtones of ‘The Good, the Bad and Ugly’. Finally there is a trademark Owens masterpiece (another demo for the album) with just acoustic guitar, harmonica, and piano, the beautiful but depressing ‘A Divine Tragedy‘, prompted by the divorce of some dear friends, and underlining the numb feelings that often surround such events – “Pour some wine / Share it with me / What a divine tragedy / Who’s wrong and who’s right / I’m no longer sure / Just don’t have the fight / Anymore”  The background vocals of Kirsten Adamson are haunting.

Congratulations should go to Don Antonio, who produced the EPs (and the album to follow) with Owens and to his marvellous band who constantly and impeccably create a sonic landscape that encapsulates Owens’ musical vision and lyrics. It’s not long to wait for the album, but in the meantime take a listen to these thirteen tracks  –  your appetite will be well-whetted. It’s brilliant in all respects.

9/10
9/10

About FredArnold 85 Articles
Lifelong fan of predominantly US (and Canadian) country roots music. Previously an avid concert-goer before wives, kids and dogs got in the way- and although I still try to get to several, my preference for small independent venues often means standing, and that ain't too good for my ancient bones!! Still, a healthy and catholic music collection helps ease the pain
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments