Dean Owens The Ridge Trilogy EPs 16th December 2024 Review
Dean Owens “The Ridge Trilogy EPs” are a taster for the forthcoming “Spirit Ridge” album and this 3CD collection set is, as always with any of Dean’s releases, a well-designed and packaged product that has obviously had a lot of thought given to it at every stage of its development.
This three CD combined package set, “Ghost Walking”, “Ridgeline” and “Sacri Cuori” was released on 29th November, and although each one is a stand-alone 4 track EP, together they are part of a larger picture of Dean’s current musical vision.
Dean has built his reputation on his live performances and also being a fine writer. Many of these songs have been very personal ones about close family, friends, growing up in Leith and his travels across Scotland – two iconic songs from this period include “The Man From Leith” and “Raining In Glasgow”. In recent years, this very local and very Scottish landscape has been expanded to encompass not only his love for country music but also the very landscape and sounds of the world that inspires these songs.
Frequent trips to Nashville to record his songs and work with some of the best musicians and studio people in the business have seen in recent years Dean collaborate with many people on his music, and in particular the band Calexico. Two critically acclaimed albums to date, “Sinner’s Shrine” and “El Tiradito (The Curse of Sinner’s Shrine)” have seen Dean Owens explore the landscapes of the south western US desert states in his music.
The music on these EPs has that same panoramic feel to it on many songs, and often they can feel a lot like a genuine Americana sound. Track one EP1 “My Beloved Hills” with that heavy twangy guitar sound so reminiscent of Duane Eddy could so easily be going in this direction, but the song is not. This time Dean Owens is not exploring the desert lands of the US, but the rich landscapes of Northern Italy and here is where that personal connection that he is so good at writing about starts to form. These are the homelands of one of Dean’s ancestors Ambrose Salvona (The Lion Tamer), and the title of the next song appropriately is “Tame The Lion”. Many other songs in this collection are inspired by friends that Dean has made in Italy.
The inspirational landscape may be different on these new songs, but still often is that feeling that you are in the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone movie (and I mean that as a compliment). Here are songs that evoke an image in your mind of a landscape that often makes you both filled with wonder and feeling very small at the same time in the midst of it all.
There is a wide variety of approaches to telling a story in song on this CD set and Vol 2 “Ridgeline” is perhaps the most varied of all here, and “Come With Me” is just a Dean Owens classic in the making. The last track on this CD, “The Buzzard & The Crow” gives you that sense of wonder that many of us will have experienced looking up at birds and wondering what it would be like to be soaring that high and that free.
The final third EP “Sacri Cuori” contains the very personal and celebratory “Spirit of Us” as its opening song and as if to bookend this with a far darker theme, Dean gives us the final song “A Divine Tragedy”.
These three EPs are Dean Owens making it clear to everyone just how much he has evolved as a songwriter and musician over the last few years, and they leave us all waiting for and wondering just what the forthcoming “Spirit Ridge” album has in store for us all.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This three CD combined package set, “Ghost Walking”, “Ridgeline” and “Sacri Cuori” was released on 29th November, and although each one is a stand-alone 4 track EP, together they are part of a larger picture of Dean’s current musical vision.
Dean has built his reputation on his live performances and also being a fine writer. Many of these songs have been very personal ones about close family, friends, growing up in Leith and his travels across Scotland – two iconic songs from this period include “The Man From Leith” and “Raining In Glasgow”. In recent years, this very local and very Scottish landscape has been expanded to encompass not only his love for country music but also the very landscape and sounds of the world that inspires these songs.
Frequent trips to Nashville to record his songs and work with some of the best musicians and studio people in the business have seen in recent years Dean collaborate with many people on his music, and in particular the band Calexico. Two critically acclaimed albums to date, “Sinner’s Shrine” and “El Tiradito (The Curse of Sinner’s Shrine)” have seen Dean Owens explore the landscapes of the south western US desert states in his music.
The music on these EPs has that same panoramic feel to it on many songs, and often they can feel a lot like a genuine Americana sound. Track one EP1 “My Beloved Hills” with that heavy twangy guitar sound so reminiscent of Duane Eddy could so easily be going in this direction, but the song is not. This time Dean Owens is not exploring the desert lands of the US, but the rich landscapes of Northern Italy and here is where that personal connection that he is so good at writing about starts to form. These are the homelands of one of Dean’s ancestors Ambrose Salvona (The Lion Tamer), and the title of the next song appropriately is “Tame The Lion”. Many other songs in this collection are inspired by friends that Dean has made in Italy.
The inspirational landscape may be different on these new songs, but still often is that feeling that you are in the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone movie (and I mean that as a compliment). Here are songs that evoke an image in your mind of a landscape that often makes you both filled with wonder and feeling very small at the same time in the midst of it all.
There is a wide variety of approaches to telling a story in song on this CD set and Vol 2 “Ridgeline” is perhaps the most varied of all here, and “Come With Me” is just a Dean Owens classic in the making. The last track on this CD, “The Buzzard & The Crow” gives you that sense of wonder that many of us will have experienced looking up at birds and wondering what it would be like to be soaring that high and that free.
The final third EP “Sacri Cuori” contains the very personal and celebratory “Spirit of Us” as its opening song and as if to bookend this with a far darker theme, Dean gives us the final song “A Divine Tragedy”.
These three EPs are Dean Owens making it clear to everyone just how much he has evolved as a songwriter and musician over the last few years, and they leave us all waiting for and wondering just what the forthcoming “Spirit Ridge” album has in store for us all.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com