Dean Owens^{Whisky Hearts}

Posted on January 25, 2007

“I do think this record has elements on it of everything I’ve done and what I’m about: it’s all in there this time, which is partly why I’m so happy with it,” Owens agrees. “I’d wanted to record in America for a long time, and getting all these amazing musicians to come and play on the album – well, that was just a dream come true.”

Several of the artists featured on Whisky Hearts have worked with Owens on previous projects, including pedal steel legend and former Gram Parsons cohort Al Perkins, guitar ace Will Kimbrough (Americana Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year 2004), Mavericks drummer Paul Deakin and his bassist bandmate Robert Reynolds, as well as Owens’s longtime sidekick from home, Kevin McGuire, also on bass. It was through this network of connections that the remaining guests came on board, among them Flecktones saxophonist Jeff Coffin, ex-Jayhawk Jen Gunderman on keyboards, and singer-songwriter Thad Cockrell, plus producer Elijah (“Lij”) Shaw.

“That was partly why I wanted to do the album in Nashville – I’d always met really interesting people when I’d been there, and it seems to be somewhere that a lot of good opportunities happen,” Owens explains. “And that’s very much what the recording was like – all these people just kept turning up at the studio and doing something really magical. The other main reason for recording in the States was that on the last two albums I’d worked with a lot of great Scottish musicians, so I wanted to give these songs a different twist.”

Posted on January 25, 2007

While many of the tracks on My Town - as the title suggests – related to aspects of life in his geographical birthplace, its successor represents a kind of artistic homecoming for Owens, formerly the frontman with much-loved Scottish country-rockers the Felsons, and a lifelong devotee of American music. Nowadays, he’s also the proud owner of a vintage Airstream trailer, which he keeps in California’s Joshua Tree country, and where several of the new songs were written, during sojourns there in 2005 and 2006.

At the same time, paradoxically, Whisky Hearts is the least country-sounding of all Owens’ records, roaming instead from the gutsy, Springsteen-esque opener, “Years Ago” to the smooth, slinky soul-pop of “Beth on the Trampoline”; from echoes of U2 on the dark, edgy “Leaving to Remain”, to the Beatles-style poignancy of “May”. Towards the end of the set, Owens’ thoughts turn once more towards Scotland, with the gorgeous, achingly wistful “Raining in Glasgow”, the bittersweet waltz-time balladry of the title track, and the closing “Man From Leith”, a movingly understated tribute to his father.

“I think another difference, in terms of the writing, is that the songs on the two previous records were all more or less about me, whereas with this one it’s less personal, more character-based,” Owens says. “I’ve drawn more on observations of other people’s lives – “May”, for instance, is about an old lady who lives up the road from me: I see her TV glowing through her curtains at night, and that started me imagining what her life might be like. It comes back to me again with “Man From Leith”, thinking about the whole father-son thing, and my sense of where I’m from – but even there, I’m writing about my Dad.”

Despite the depth and weight of its subject matter, though, Whisky Hearts is a winningly upfront and approachable album, replete with hummable hooks and deftly layered arrangements, centred around the burnished colours, masterly phrasing and vibrant timbres of Owens’ singing. “I was definitely trying to put it out there more,” he says. “I see The Droma Tapes and My Town as being quite reserved albums, music you’d listen to in the house, whereas this time I wanted something you’d put on in the car. That became the acid test when we were recording – we’d drive around listening to the rough mixes, and if a track didn’t sound right in the car, it got binned.”

Posted on January 25, 2007

Owens’ chosen studio for Whisky Hearts was a converted ranch house in Murfreesboro, just outside Nashville, owned by engineer Brian Carter, who shares the singer’s passion for vintage recording equipment. “It was by far the best experience I’ve ever had in the studio,” Owens enthuses. “I’d always dreamed of recording the way they did back in the 70s, and that’s basically what happened – we just took over the whole place, set up different people in different rooms, and did the whole thing pretty much live, with just a few overdubs. It’s also a totally analogue record, all recorded onto tape – I just love the warm, organic sound you get from all those valves and tubes.”

The resulting thirteen tracks were originally written and honed in the course of Owens’ wide-ranging travels since the release of My Town, including his first tour of Australia in late 2004, and support slots with Scottish supergroup Capercaillie earlier that year. Other recent career highlights include a string of UK dates in 2005 with the Felsons – still ongoing as an occasional project – while February 2006 saw Owens returning to the renowned South by Southwest festival in Texas, after his debut there in 2002.

The release of Whisky Hearts also marks the launch of new independent label Vermillion Road Records, and will be followed by an extensive live schedule.