DEAN OWENS - Southern Wind

We’ll kick off the CD reviews this time around, with our own home grown talents.
DEAN OWENS is one of Scotland’s most established Country/Americana singer songwriters. He was part of the iconic group, The Felsons, before breaking out in his own career. Although his focus has primarily been on his own material, he has paid his dues having released albums inspired by both Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.
His latest album, “Southern Wind” (At The Helm Records) was recorded in Nashville, featuring fellow Americana singer songwriter Will Kimbrough, amongst others, in the line up.
The title track is a trademark Owens ballad, with some impressive harmonies from The Worry Sisters and Kira Small. “Louisville Lip”, is Dean’s song for his sporting hero Muhammed Ali. It’s a very delicate song, and a wonderful tribute.
I quite liked “When The Whisky’s Not Enough”, a simple ballad that worked really well, as does “Anything Helps”, and “Famous Last Words”.
But there are a number of upbeat numbers too. The catchy “The Last Song”, which, quite inappropriately opens the album, is just one of a number of co-writes with Kimbrough, and is inspired by Ronnie Lane and The Waterboys. Dean calls it his “pub rock song for the end of the night!”
Another upbeat number is “No Way Around It”, which has quite a soulful feel to it. Again Kira Small’s big voice adds to the harmonies. Then there’s almost a reggae feel to “Mother”.
Stand out track for me has to be “Elvis Was My Brother”, inspired by a friend, who felt more in tune with an old Elvis tape than the rest of his family.
Dean covers a lot of ground on this album, but every track is very much his own. He is labelled “celtic spirit, Country soul”.  It’s a sound that serves him well.