Scottish Singer Songwriter Wins Accolade in International Songwriting CompetitionScottish troubadour Dean Owens and US musician Will Kimbrough prove themselves a hot songwriting team as they pick up another accoladeOFFICIAL PRESS RELEASENEWS PROVIDED BY Scary Biscuits Promotions Scottish troubadour Dean Owens has been awarded an “Honorable Mention” by the International Songwriting Competition, for Love Prevails (co-written with Will Kimbrough). The Nashville based competition is open to songwriters worldwide, across a range of genres, with a panel of industry judges including Tom Waits, Adam Lambert and Rodney Crowell. Love Prevails is the second song from Dean’s highly praised Southern Wind album to be awarded, following on from the title track winning UK Song of the Year at the 2019 Americana Music Association (UK) Awards. Like Southern Wind, Love Prevails was co-written with his longstanding friend/collaborator Will Kimbrough, an award winning guitarist, producer and singer songwriter in his own right. Will’s own new album - I Like It Down Here - which includes co-writing, singing (and whistling) contributions by Dean, has been attracting fulsome praise and a swathe of 5 star reviews since its release on 19 April. Dean is currently on a 2 month tour in USA, performing a mix of shows, partnering up with Will Kimbrough, Wild Ponies, Buffalo Blood and The Two Tracks, with gigs taking him from Florida to Chicago, Virginia, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville and Indiana to South Dakota, Wyoming and California, and many points in between. It includes a return to Albino Skunk Music Festival in South Carolina, where he got a standing ovation and immediate invitation for a return visit when he performed last October. More standing ovations have followed, particularly at Louisville and Indiana’s Crossroads Acoustic Music Festival, where he also presented a Songwriting Workshop with The Mavericks original member Robert Reynolds. He is set to return to UK in June with a 2 week English tour, which sees him teaming up with UK Instrumentalist of the Year 2018 Tom Collison and celebrated guitarist Jim Maving to tour as Dean Owens and the Southerners, hitting London, Brighton, Bristol, Colchester, Wavendon, Crawley, Folkestone, Liverpool, Biddulph and Manchester, before returning to Scotland to play some solo shows and return to Fringe by the Sea Festival in North Berwick with his Celtabilly Allstars band (which sold out in 2018). Tour dates:
AboutOwens is widely hailed as one of UK’s finest troubadours (with fans including Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh and BBC’s Bob Harris). In September 2017 he became the first Scottish musician to officially showcase at the prestigious Americanafest in Nashville (supported by PRS Foundation/Creative Scotland and Saltire Society) and in 2018 he undertook his first US tour (also supported by Creative Scotland) which included a headline slot at the Levitt Shell in Memphis TN, the scene of Elvis Presley’s first paid gig. While never losing his own unique Scottish identity, Dean has had a longstanding love affair with the USA since his early days as the front man of Scotland’s original Americana band, the Felsons. He has recorded 4 of his 7 solo albums there, including Southern Wind (released Feb 2018) which received rave reviews, including 4 stars in Mojo Magazine. His music – hard to quantify in one genre - has been described as combining celtic and Americana into a unique blend of celtic spirit, country soul, with the enthusiasm of early rock’n’roll coupled with the sympathetic delivery of folk’s storytellers. 2019 has started well. In addition to the awards, February saw the release (on Eel Pie Records) of Buffalo Blood, Dean’s collaboration with 3 US musicians - Grammy nominated Neilson Hubbard (also the producer of Owens’ Southern Wind and Into the Sea albums), Joshua Britt and Audrey Spillman (“An Americana supergroup for 2019” Paul Sexton (BBC)). The project was recorded live on location in the New Mexico desert, with powerful songs about displacement, immigration and the power of music to connect – which has received glowing 5 star reviews. Buffalo Blood had its live premiere at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections..
Source Scary Biscuits Promotions
May 2, 2019 8:00am ET by Scary Biscuits Promotions |
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