It Comes Back To You

America's greatest living songwriter, Christopher Owens, does the obligatory KEXP video set.

America's Greatest Living Songwriter

Short and to the point, with just the right amount of Buck Owens.

Christopher Owens

Christopher Owens at The Earl, June 19, 2013

Christopher Owens, America's greatest living songwriter, has a new album, A New Testament, coming out next month.  Here's a single from the album, the Buck Owens-influenced, Bakersfield-sounding Nothing More Than Everything To Me.

Christopher Owens

Another new song by Christopher Owens, the greatest songwriter of his generation.  In this sad song about losing his little brother at the tender age of two, he sounds like a cross between Gram Parsons and War Is Over-era John Lennon, if either of them had been raised in the Children of God cult like Owens (and happened to have a gospel choir at their disposal).

Christopher Owens - It Comes Back To You

Christopher Owens, formerly of Girls, is quite possibly one of the best young songwriters recording these days, so it's exciting to learn that he'll soon be releasing a new album "made with dear friends."   He's shared a first song, It Comes Back to You, which masterfully uses swirling organ and gospel-like backing vocals to build to a joyous peak reminiscent of the Girls' masterpiece, Vomit, and then, once it's gotten your full attention, gently fades to its conclusion.   

 


Bravo, Christopher! We're looking forward to hearing more.

Christopher Owens at The Earl, Atlanta, June 19, 2013

Last night, Christopher Owens, formerly of the band Girls and currently America's greatest living songwriter, put on a remarkable solo show at the redoubtable Earl. 

The show was truly solo in every sense of the word.  Not only did Owens play unaccompanied, just him on the stage with a guitar and occasional harmonica, but there were no opening acts, just Owens alone for 90 minutes.  The event was billed as "An Evening With Christopher Owens" and the Earl's stage was as barren as I've ever seen it.  The drum riser was moved up to the front of the stage and there were no drum kits or amps anywhere to be seen, just Owens sitting on a chair behind a mike.  

For the uninitiated, Owens was formally the frontman for the fine band Girls, but after that endeavor broke up, he released a solo album titled Lysandre, followed by a stripped-down acoustic version of the same album, offered for free download from his web site. Last night's performance was of the stripped-down, acoustic versions of the material.

The evening was truly magical.  Despite the set's simplicity, Owens had the small audience spellbound and attentive throughout as he spun out his lovely and sensitive songs.  Up until the encore, there was almost no stage banter other than the occasional "thank you" for the rapturous applause.  Instead, he simply let the songs speak for themselves, even as the performer himself often seemed to hide behind the hair falling in his face. One got a strong sense that the shy and sensitive person on the stage was baring his soul through his carefully crafted songs.  He exuded a vulnerability that only strengthened the bond between the exposed performer and the protective audience.

Owens clearly has a mastery of pop conventions, and is able to suggest larger arrangements of the songs through just a few well timed notes, even to those who weren't familiar with the full treatments in the original Lysandre album.  Most notably, he managed to keep all of the songs from sounding alike over the 90 minutes of his set, despite the spare instrumentation.  He covered almost all of the Lysandre material and threw in plenty of Girls songs as well, including notable covers of Lust For Life and Hunny Bunny, although sadly no new version of the Girls masterpiece song Vomit. 

He closed his set with a cover of the old song Smile ("Smile though your heart is aching, Smile even though it's breaking, When there are clouds in the sky you'll get by if you smile").  Somehow, it seemed like the perfect song to wrap up his happy/sad set. 

It truly was a special evening, and a performance I'm not likely to forget anytime soon.

Christopher Owens Coming to The Earl

Hell, yeah!  Word Productions has announced that America's greatest living songwriter, Christopher Owens, will be playing at The Earl on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

Get your tickets now before this one sells out.  Also, and this is very cool, you can download a free, all-acoustic version of his album Lysandre at Christopher Owens' website.

As if you needed any more motivation, here's a little song you might remember from Owen's previous band, Girls:

Meanwhile, I just learned that Josh Rouse, America's greatest living songwriter, will be live-streaming his show in Nashville tonight (4-21-13) over here at 9:00 pm CST (click the "Listen Live" button and it will open a player for you).  The stream is courtesy of Nashville station Lightning 100 as a part of their Nashville Sunday Night series.