Owen Temple

01.18.2008 -- Review by: Don Zelazny

In reading a sheet describing the tunes that came with the CD I learned the personal nature of the tunes on the disc. I always find these insights helpful. The tunes feel more genuine to me when I know the story behind them. I think this is why we often gravitate to “singer-songwriters;” they have the talent to write and compose and perform their songs but the tunes come from personal experiences, from the heart and just seem more genuine. I just don’t get the same feeling listening to the latest Whitney Houston CD....

The CD opens with a great, lively tune “You Want to Wear That Ring” that was written after a friend of Owen’s actually asked him how it was to be married. One of the lines of the song sounds exactly like the kind of advice guys give to each other, “It feels good, except when it feels bad.” Guys are deep aren’t we? The next tune could wind up as a country classic along the lines of “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down.” It is called “Red Wine and Tequila” and it also based on a rather forgettable (intentionally or unintentionally) experience Owen had.

Like red wine and tequila we’re a bad combination
All we get together is a sick frustration
I’ve got some rough edges, you’re smooth and refined
We do well apart but we’re terrible combined
We shoulda known better, now it feels like hell
Red wine and tequila, baby, we don’t mix well

While the playing is enjoyable throughout the disc a highlight musically is the bluegrass tinged tune “On the Lonesome Road” with some great guitar. Owen often sat in with a local bluegrass band while living in Madison, “if their guitar player didn’t show up.” “I Just Can’t Quit Loving You” is another great, softer tune with some nice instrumental bits in it. He leans more toward country on “Rivers Run from Many Waters,” which has some nice fiddle. He says of this tune “A song I wrote after having a son and instantly sympathizing with and understanding my own parents and grandparents better.” Owen even shows his sense of humor on the tune “The Pluto Blues,” which he wrote after some committee of astronomers downgraded Pluto from a planet to a “large space rock.” He sings “..one day you’re a planet, the next day you’re a rock in space.” What a great way to say “count your blessings, you never know what tomorrow will bring,” or “don’t get too full of yourself, someone might just bring you down.”

The title track is a beautiful song about his move across country with his family. Major family decisions such as career change and moves are certainly stressful and often are a leap of faith, but it certainly helps to have the right attitude, as he does in this upbeat tune:

With a truck full of dreams and a handful of doubts
but we put fears away after we pulled out
‘cause there’s nothing we can’t do baby
no problem, no trials
2 lovers, 2 days and
two thousand miles

Over the course of many listenings I found myself enjoying this album more each time. I love Owen’s story and glad he had the guts to give the music business one more shot. Listening to his graduate thesis would probably have been much more boring anyhow!