Dean Owens (from Sinners Shrine

Dean Owens (from Sinners Shrine available on Eel Pie Records) (by Lee Zimmerman)

After the series of EPs that went into his Desert Trilogy outlay, Dean Owens comes full circle with Sinner’s Shrine, an album that borrows several of the trilogy’s songs and, in turn, transports him to the American Southwest where he recorded the album with the like-minded members of Arizona’s own native sons Calexico. The results are what one might expect given the input of drummer John Conventino and bassist Joey Burns, but with the mournful brass shared on “New Mexico” and the somber sentiment of “The Hopeless Ghosts” — a song Owens claims was inspired by Townes Van Zandt — he sounds as if he’s been ensconced in those high desert environs his entire life.
 
Not surprisingly, the melodic strains of Calexico’s latest album, El Mirador, spill over here, particularly in the slow sobering strains of “Compañera” and the high desert melancholia of “Here Comes Paul Newman” and “The Barbed Wire’s Still Weeping”, the latter two sounding like they were plucked from the soundtrack of a Sergio Leone western. Owens then proceeds south of the border with “La Lomita” and “Land of the Hummingbird”, each of which plod along at an easy tropical pace. Mexicali horns underscore the former while Gaby Moreno’s harmonies, sung in Spanish, add to the breezy ambiance of the latter. In either case, it’s easy to imagine a pair of dancers taking up a tango in response to their seductive saunter.
 
The rest of the album takes the same tact, from the loping Latin rhythm of “We Need Us” to the romantic sway of “Summer in Your Eyes”. Suffice it to say that if the ultimate definition of a troubadour/folk minstrel is the ability to reflect the culture in which or she is out to emulate, then Owens fits the role precisely. Ambition and intent led to a cultural crossover, and, in the end, Owens accomplished it with his credence intact. (By Lee Zimmerman)
 
For more information and purchase options, please visit the Dean Owens website