The Road To The Sky

Gwil Owen is a singer-songwriter who has released eight albums under his own name as well as two albums as the leader of The Thieves and two singles on the Diesel Only label, along with numerous appearances on compilations. His songs have been covered by dozens of artists including Keith Richards & Levon Helm, Irma Thomas, Little Feat, Todd Snider, Sonny Burgess, Tony Price and Jack Ingram. Gwil also has collaborated with a number of other artists over the years including the late David Olney, Kevin Gordon, Will Kimbrough, and Allison Moorer.

He is a noted visual collage artist whose work has been shown at numerous venues around his adopted hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.

Gwil Owen - The Road To the Sky (self-produced)

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Gwil Owen is one of the many talented outsiders looking in on Nashville's mainstream music biz, a DIY lifer making music on his own terms. The Road To the Sky is Owen's follow-up to 2020's excellentFlying Dream, and it follows a similar vein with touches of rock, country, and Little Feat-styled funk. Owen is accompanied here by talented friends like multi-instrumentalist Joe McMahan, keyboardist Tony Crow, and bassist Dave Jacques, and it shows in the grooves. "When the Songwriter's Gone" displays a few Springsteen-esque flourishes within its loping backroads vibe and gorgeous guitarplay while "Ghost Town" rocks with brilliant poetic imagery. "Change" relies on minimal instrumentation and Owen's gritty, twangy vocals (think Delbert McClinton) and the haunting, bluesy "Murder" reminds of Tom Waits. Owen uses a pre-recorded guitar coda from his late friend David Olney to fittingly punctuate the beautiful ballad "She Does It All With Her Eyes." Owen is a gifted story-teller and a charismatic lyricist with an ear for melody and the ability to create deceptively-complex and lush soundscapes. An adventuresome, old-school tunesmith in the vein of Olney or Guy Clark, Owen is an artist worth your time to discover.