Dean Owens^{Whisky Hearts}

It all started back in 2005 with an e-mail to guitarist Will Kimbrough in Nashville. I wanted to know if he would be up for working on an album with me and if he knew a good engineer/producer we could work with. Will said he would like to work with me and suggested a friend of his - Elijah Shaw or Lij as he’s known to friends. Some e-mails were exchanged with Lij and plans were made. The core band would be made up of Will on guitar, my old friend from The Mavericks Paul Deakin on drums, my longtime bass playing buddy Kev McGuire and keyboard player Jen Gunderman who I was aware of through her work with one of my all time favourite bands The Jayhawks. We would also be graced with guest appearances by the legendary pedal steel player Al Perkins, sax player Jeff Coffin of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, singer/songwriter Thad Cockrell and my other old friend from The Mavericks - Robert Reynolds.

We would record with Brian (Carter) Carter who had a studio made up of vintage analogue equipment in his old ranch house in the little town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee just outside Nashville.

It was a great place with a really nice relaxed vibe. We were all set up throughout the house and recorded in a very old fashioned way. This record was made pretty much in the same way they made records in the 70’s. We mostly cut everything live with just a few overdubs here and there. Most of the takes were maybe only the second or third time we’d played the song as a band so there’s a real freshness and spontaneity to them. They’re not perfect by any means, but then I’ve never been a big fan of perfection. As long as a mistake has authority I’m cool with it!

We worked hard. We were all commuting from Nashville which was about 30-40 minutes away. Some days we’d do the car-pool thing with Lij, Will and Jen. Kev and I were staying with Paul so we’d be up and out the house by about 8.30 am and then out to Murfreesboro. Pick some coffee and a sandwich on the way and get started as soon as we got to the studio where Carter would be waiting outside, cigarette and coffee in hand. We’d work right through till 6 or 7 o’clock. It was tornado season while we were recording and they were close by. Too close for comfort really. One hit a small town just a few miles away and if we stepped outside we could hear it howling. One day, the day Thad Cockrell came out to do some harmonies there was a big ice storm. I’ve never seen anything like it. The hailstones were the size of rocks. If you got hit with one of them it would do you some damage. I remember saying to Carter one night when we were leaving that if a storm hit “make sure you save the tapes”!

When it came to doing the mixes the way we’d check if it was right was by burning a cd off, then getting in Lij’s car and driving around Murfreesboro listening to it. It had to pass the road test! This is where I always imagined this record sounding at its best - in the car. My previous records are more for listening to at home, chilling out. This one’s for the road! In my mind anyway.

We worked right up until I had to catch the plane home. I remember mixing the last song, Man From Leith, giving it the car test then Carter taking me straight to the airport with all the mixes in my bag.

It was hard work, but worth it. I feel I made the record I wanted to make and hopefully one that people will want to hear. I decided to name the album after the song Whisky Hearts because Will and I were having a discussion one day in the studio about connections between the Scots and the Americans and realised that if there was one definite link between Scotland and Tennessee in particular it was Whisky or Whiskey as they like to spell it over there. So calling the album Whisky Hearts seemed fitting.

Here’s some background to the songs.

Years Ago – This song came about from watching far too much news and nature shows on cable. I started it around the time of the first Bush/Gore election then finished it around the time Blair and Bush joined forces to go to war with Iraq. It’s mainly to do with how quickly time flies and how we as humans neglect really important things thinking they’ve nothing really to do with us or those bad things are never going to happen to us.

I always heard saxophone being used on this track in a Clarence Clemons from Springsteen’s E Street Band style. Sax player Jeff Coffin completely nailed the vibe I wanted.

Beth On The Trampoline – I was on tour in England when I got the idea for this. I was staying with a promoter friend of mine James Windsor in Nottingham and was really missing my daughter Billie. James has a daughter Beth who is the same age as Billie and I was just watching her playing in the garden, jumping up and down on her trampoline thinking of Billie. I wrote this with both Billie and Beth in mind. I guess I’m trying to pass on some advice in this one. I remember as a kid my mum always saying to me “you’ll wish your life away”. Again there’s the theme of time flying by. I had the guitar riff in my head and when I asked Will Kimbrough to play it I asked if he could get a sound similar to the Isley Brothers Summer Breeze guitar sound. I wanted a nice lazy summer feel to this track. Will was practically playing the guitar part with the right sound back to me before my request had left my lips. That’s Will for you. He just gets it!

Nothing To Lose – This song deals with the need to just get away from it all. All the stuff that drags you down in life. I almost left this one off the album, but I wanted to have a good old fashioned rocker on the record. I do think that sometimes in life you have to take chances. Even when you’re unsure about things. I know I for one am always making excuses not to do stuff and sometimes you just have to say “damn it. What have I got to lose?”

Adrift – I actually wrote this song a few years back. It was originally called Driftwood, but then my fellow Scots Travis had a big hit with a song of the same name so I ditched my song! However it would keep creeping up on me now and then so I decided to re-write it and really liked the results. It’s about a homeless girl I used to see around Edinburgh some years back. I used to see her a lot and felt the need to write this about her. There seem to be more and more homeless people on the streets of my hometown these days.

Leaving To Remain – I was in a pretty dark place when I wrote this. It’s a song about escape. Be it from life, oneself or prison walls. It’s about someone who is really on the edge. At the point of breakdown. In danger of crossing the line.

I took the line “I wouldn’t remember me either” from one of my favourite films, American Beauty. It’s something Kevin Spacey’s character says to another guy at a party when he’s introduced to the guy for the umpteenth time and the guy doesn’t remember him.

I love Will’s manic guitar playing on this one.

Miss You CA – I wrote this one gloomy day while sitting in front of a computer screen and getting an overwhelming desire to be out in California. Realising I wasn’t going to be going back there soon a song was born. It’s a simple little road song really with a slight nod to the Mammas and Pappas. I was so thrilled to get Al Perkins to play pedal steel on this. He really brings that little piece of the American West Coast vibe to the track. We all sat in the control room while Al recorded his part on this one with big smiles on our faces. It’s got rather a long fade out on the record due to the fact that Al played some tasty stuff right up until the end of the recording. We didn’t want to fade any of his licks out.

May – I used to have to walk past this old lady’s house in my neighbourhood everyday. In the evening you could always see her sitting in the darkness of her living room in the glow of the TV. I was going past her house one night when the chorus for this song came to me. I gave her the name May and made up this little story about what her life might have been like. Being old and on your own must be a terrible thing.

I like the little bit in the solo where Paul Deakin is playing on the rim of his snare to make it sound like somebody tap dancing. I wanted the real thing, but sadly none of us could tap dance!!

Just Another Sunday – I’ve always felt Sundays can be a little bit depressing. There was a great Scottish television play I remember seeing when I was a kid. A lot of it was filmed around the part of Edinburgh where I grew up and it starred a young Billy Connolly. It was called Just Another Saturday. I stole the title from that.

I love Kev’s bass line on this one.

Sand In My Shoes – I wrote this on the way home from our old Airstream trailer we have out in the desert in Joshua Tree, California. When talking to my dear old friend out there Michelle Delacy about why I couldn’t figure out why I had such a fascination for the desert coming from Scotland she told me it was because I had sand in my shoes! I love it out there among the hummingbirds. It’s another really simple song. The version that’s on the record is probably only the second time me and the guys had played it together. It’s very rough around the edges, but captures a really nice spirit. It was the first day in the studio and the only day Robert Reynolds was playing bass. We were all smiling and chilled out after we’d cut this and proceeded to finish off a few Sierra Nevada pale ales! Listen out for the hummingbird at the end.

This one’s for my good friend Bob Delacy who recently passed away after a long battle with illness.

Hallelujah – I guess you’d need to ask Robert Reynolds about this one as he wrote it. We had done a tour together with my band The Felsons. Robert was our special guest and when he played this song The Felsons would back him. I thought it would be nice to have a go at it. It’s the first time I’ve done a cover of someone else’s song on a record. Robert tells me he wants to record a couple of mine now. I’ll hold him to that!

Raining In Glasgow – I thought I’d started writing this while I was on tour in Australia a couple of years back, but recently came across an old journal from a tour I did with Al Perkins and Kevin Montgomery a few years back where I mentioned starting to write a song called Raining In Glasgow. So I reckon I had the title back then, but didn’t work on the song till I was touring Australia. Anyway it’s obviously a song about missing home. Even though I come from Edinburgh most of my best musical experiences have taken place in Glasgow and I like the people there. Edinburgh’s good to look at, but Glasgow’s good to touch.

Writing about being in the south of England which is where the idea of the song started went from there to the south of Australia where most of the lyrics where penned. It all ended with me singing this in The South of the US in Tennessee! Its funny how songs start and how they finish.

Whisky Hearts – I had a dream I was in the studio with Fairport Convention. Sandy Denny was singing and Richard Thompson was on guitar. When I woke up I could remember the melody and that the hook line in the song was the words Whisky Hearts. I figured out the chords to the melody, but couldn’t figure out what the Whisky Heart lyric meant until one night in my local bar I got talking to an old guy who was pouring out his heart talking about his life and his wife while he knocked back the whisky. That’s when the lyrics came to me. In a way I consider this a co-write with Richard Thompson! As long as he doesn’t want any royalties!!

Man From Leith – I used to have an old picture of me and my dad on a pinboard. In the picture I’m looking over my dad’s shoulder. I was looking at it one day when I started thinking about how in life really my dad is always looking over my shoulder, keeping an eye on me. I just sat down with a pen and paper and started writing about my dad’s life and our relationship and had the Man From Leith refrain going round in my head. I wrote a lot more verses than I ended up using. It’s a long song, but one I’m really happy I was able to write. Its tricky writing and then performing something so personal. Thankfully my dad likes it.

I wasn’t going to record this for this album, but Kev and other musicians told me I should and I’m glad I took Kev’s advice as I think it worked out well.

When I heard the track coming back at me through the speakers in the studio it was a special moment. Then again the whole recording of this record was a very special time for me.

To be in Tennessee recording my songs with all these amazing musicians and working with great engineers and co producers Lij Shaw and Brian Carter was an absolute thrill. Not bad for a man from Leith!