Reviews
Artist:Dean Owens Album: Sinner's Shrine
Label: Eel Pie
Tracks: 11
Website: https://www.deanowens.com/
While the tireless Dean Owens tempted and enthralled us with The Desert Trilogy of EPs last year Sinner's Shrine gloriously builds on them and we are blessed with an album that is adventurous, atmospheric, thoughtful and downright exceptional.
The relentless heat and dust, calm and danger, beauty and unpredictability of the desert is a potent lure that Scotsman Owens cannot ignore, so the album is deliciously bestowed with huge emotions, ghostly characters and sand-blasted story-telling that feels both widescreen yet intimate.
Recorded at WaveLab Studio in Tucson in January 2020, with Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino adding muscle and spice, the eleven tracks here register instantly. The album is underpinned by Owens' roots heritage and embellished by hearty twists of Mariachi horns forcing their way in or Ennio Morricone-inspired whistling on Here Comes Paul Newman, for example.
These musical statements are a joy and Owens' unabashed pleasure in yielding them adroitly in his songs proves his love of the desert states of America will never be dimmed.
Arizona is the robust, unhurried, windswept opener with Owens pleading: "Nobody, but you can save me now / I'm just trying to find a way out / I'm counting on you, don't let me down / Arizona" while third track, New Mexico is flowing with gentle muted horns allowing Owens to declare: "I'd love to go back to New Mexico / And see the sunflowers bloom once again."
Set between them, with Grant Lee-Phillips riding side-saddle on vocals, is The Hopeless Ghosts, well-nigh perfect country/roots that strays deftly into low-key but punchy Mariachi territory while Campanera is daubed with a refined and low-key Latin lushness.
Legends, like cacti, coyote and snakes, are in no short supply in searing desert conditions and the striking La Lomita - little hill in Spanish - is a tale that focuses on a church sitting on the US/ Mexico border , which has offered sanctuary to desperate migrants over many, many years. It was a mission threatened with the bulldozer to make way for Trump's obscene wall.
In The Land Of The Humming Bird - which also features on the Sand And Blood EP from 2021- swoons and dips and the terrific We Need Us has brass as well as a chunky rhythm section pushing everyone on and on with great gusto that hints at a party-like mood.
After The Rain quenches us and neatly brings this intrepid and intoxicating album to the most satisfactory of closes. Owens' rich, comforting vocals sound like he's taking a deep breath, reflecting on the desert and all its obvious attractions as well as those hidden away, yet to be discovered. It's hard not to think of John Ford movies and Spaghetti Westerns as Owens leads us through Sinner's Shrine, an album that glows and uplifts in equal measure.
Owens has boldly crossed the border with his music blown by a desert wind into a clear and invigorating space we can all take time savour.
Mike Ritchie
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The Fatea Showcase Sessions are a series of downloads featuring acts that we've really enjoyed and think that more people should get the chance to hear.
Pirate is the current session and features 16 fantastic artists check out the website to find out more about them and download your copy
www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk for all the artist information.