ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Spirit Ridge,” Dean Owens’ Celtic Americana Adds Italian Americana Flavor

Scottish singer songwriter Dean Owens lives up to his ‘Celtic Americana’ moniker having frequently collaborated across the Atlantic. Most notable are his partnerships with Will Kimbrough and Neilson Hubbard followed by his two most recent albums with Calexico in the American southwest. Perhaps ‘Celtic Italiana’ best describes Spirit Ridge, his new release made in Italy with Don Antonio, one of the country’s most renowned producers. In Spirit Ridge Owens connects distant location with emotions and ties close to home, with an emphasis on family.

Calexico’s John Convertino introduced Owens to Antonio. The Scot and Italian hit it off immediately, and after Owens visited Antonio’s 400 year old farmhouse studio in Emilia Romagna, Italy, they decided to make a record together. Owens returned with songs while Antonio gathered a group of talented local musicians, himself leading the core of what became The Stone Buffalo Band. Together, they set about creating Spirit Ridge. The lyrics are profound, often mournful and the sound is as rich and delicious as the meals that sustained them during recording.

The album opens with the deeply-spiritual “Eden Is Here”, intensely immersed in the natural beauty of the hills. Almost hymnal, Owens conveys space as the breeze blows gently through the verses and bars, “Eden is here, all around me,” he sings. The brief, instrumental “Spirito” is a fusillade of brass that leads into the gentler “My Beloved Hills.” Owens sings with longing for the peace that comes from just being in the hills, whether in Italy or Scotland. The relaxed contours of the arrangements are topped by a soaring trumpet that amplifies the sense of complete freedom and isolation, “closer to the sun.” Owens returns to the hills of home with “The Buzzard And The Crow,” the languid distortion of his vocals, sparse electric guitar, and Convertino’s marimba duck and dive with these adversaries in the sky.

Turning to people, “Sinner Of Sinners” tells a dark story, a particular specialty of Owens’. Laden with intimidation, the lines “I’m a liar and a thief/ I’ll take anything I want from you,” signal no happy ending. Owens is also a writer of disarming candor, as “Wall Of Death” testifies. Its pace conveys the anxiety of those, including him, who suffer from the “black dog.” “Spirit Of Us” is a touching song dedicated to Owens’ wife and daughter, a delicate stripped back love song reminiscent of his earlier albums. Owens closes the album with “Tame The Lion” about his great grandfather, a lion tamer. Here, Owens flexes his vocals from a controlled start to letting his feelings go completely, “ I feel him there with me under the stars/ Beside me all the time.” A minor jam session of electric guitars and horns plays the record out.

Spirit Ridge comes across as more complex than previous Owens albums with more musicians and layers of sound. But Antonio perfectly blends this more intricate approach with the Dean Owens trademarks of lyrical and vocal lucidity.

Spirit Ridge is out Feb. 14.