Dean Owens & The Sinners Soundhouse Traverse Theatre Edinburgh 18th December 2023 Review
PHOTO CREDIT DOUGLAS ROBERTSON
Dean Owens and The Sinners at Soundhouse/Traverse Theatre Edinburgh tonight saw this annual Christmas show sold out as usual.
There is always something a little bit special about any Dean Owens performance as his connection to his audience is always both an instant and an honest one and there is more that feeling of sitting down with an old friend for a drink, a chat, and a few songs rather than an organised event.
This has been a busy last two years for Dean Owens with, as well as his many live performances, the release of three studio albums, “Sinners Shrine” (Feb 2022), “El Tiradito” (The Curse of Sinner’s Shrine)(May 2023) and “Pictures” (Nov 2023).
The opening set of songs came mostly from the last three albums and evoked very much that atmosphere of vast empty desert spaces and a hot sun overhead as you head towards the border and Mexico way. This was Dean very much in the soundtrack of classic spaghetti westerns and you half expected Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef to be hiding somewhere behind the stage. Creating this sound was his band the Sinners - Craig Ross – electric guitar, backing vocals, Adam McMillan - double bass, Philip Cardwell & Chuck Dearness (aka The Meerkat Horns!) - trumpets. Here that unusual line up of guitars, double bass and two trumpets really worked and I think that Ennio Morricone might have raised a little smile or two if he had heard this music tonight.
There are some fine songs on these three albums including tonight’s two opening songs “Companera” and “Arizona” from “Sinners Shrine”. From the latest album, “Pictures”, “Staring at the Lid” and “Great Song” were full of that often dark humour and joy of life that Dean often manages to infuse into his work, and he and the band were able to capture a lot of that studio production sound live on stage tonight.
The second set still kept a flavour of the last three albums but featured more older classic songs that were obviously firm favourites with this audience including “I Was There the Night Johnny Cash Played San Quentin” and “Raining in Glasgow”. There was a very emotional performance from Dean on what I consider to be two of his finest songs ever, “The Man From Leith” and “After the Rain” aka “Shine Like The Road”. It is this emotion and this honesty that Dean never hides from his audience that is a large part of making him such a good songwriter and live performer.
There was a little bit of sadness too tonight as this show is the last of the regular Monday night events at Traverse by Soundhouse Organisation as they will be concentrating on other events in 2024, including organising the Tradfest and still promoting some 45 shows throughout the year with this and other events. The Traverse Theatre will be showcasing some music events directly too. A big thank you has to go to Douglas and Jane-Anne and everyone at Soundhouse for their huge contributions to keeping music live in Scotland for many years and for their continuing work in the years to come.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There is always something a little bit special about any Dean Owens performance as his connection to his audience is always both an instant and an honest one and there is more that feeling of sitting down with an old friend for a drink, a chat, and a few songs rather than an organised event.
This has been a busy last two years for Dean Owens with, as well as his many live performances, the release of three studio albums, “Sinners Shrine” (Feb 2022), “El Tiradito” (The Curse of Sinner’s Shrine)(May 2023) and “Pictures” (Nov 2023).
The opening set of songs came mostly from the last three albums and evoked very much that atmosphere of vast empty desert spaces and a hot sun overhead as you head towards the border and Mexico way. This was Dean very much in the soundtrack of classic spaghetti westerns and you half expected Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef to be hiding somewhere behind the stage. Creating this sound was his band the Sinners - Craig Ross – electric guitar, backing vocals, Adam McMillan - double bass, Philip Cardwell & Chuck Dearness (aka The Meerkat Horns!) - trumpets. Here that unusual line up of guitars, double bass and two trumpets really worked and I think that Ennio Morricone might have raised a little smile or two if he had heard this music tonight.
There are some fine songs on these three albums including tonight’s two opening songs “Companera” and “Arizona” from “Sinners Shrine”. From the latest album, “Pictures”, “Staring at the Lid” and “Great Song” were full of that often dark humour and joy of life that Dean often manages to infuse into his work, and he and the band were able to capture a lot of that studio production sound live on stage tonight.
The second set still kept a flavour of the last three albums but featured more older classic songs that were obviously firm favourites with this audience including “I Was There the Night Johnny Cash Played San Quentin” and “Raining in Glasgow”. There was a very emotional performance from Dean on what I consider to be two of his finest songs ever, “The Man From Leith” and “After the Rain” aka “Shine Like The Road”. It is this emotion and this honesty that Dean never hides from his audience that is a large part of making him such a good songwriter and live performer.
There was a little bit of sadness too tonight as this show is the last of the regular Monday night events at Traverse by Soundhouse Organisation as they will be concentrating on other events in 2024, including organising the Tradfest and still promoting some 45 shows throughout the year with this and other events. The Traverse Theatre will be showcasing some music events directly too. A big thank you has to go to Douglas and Jane-Anne and everyone at Soundhouse for their huge contributions to keeping music live in Scotland for many years and for their continuing work in the years to come.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com