A London landmark, The Betsey Trotwood
pub has been extending a warm welcome for well over a century. The Betsey has
also built a deserved reputation as a music venue, nothing fancy, a couple of
tables and chairs pushed back to create a space for a few guitars and keyboard.
The amplification has to go up on a shelf among all the quirky artefacts that
give this wonderful place so much character. This convivial atmosphere was the
ideal venue for Scottish singer/songwriter Dean Owens and his Southerners who
are ace guitarist Jim Maving and keys and bass player (at the same time) Tom
Collison.
Described as ‘Celtic spirit, Country
soul’ Owens has made seven solo albums, collaborated with some top US musicians
and has been on the road constantly. Owens ties the roots of the Old World with
those of the New. He tells captivating stories that draw on his own experience
and emotions frequently dipping into the history of both sides of the Atlantic.
A modest man, none of this features in
his intro. Referring to the gloomy evening outside Owens promised a bunch of
melancholy songs before descending into his really miserable collection. Though
true to his word for much of his first set there was no rush for the door.
Given the venue, ‘When the Whisky’s
Not Enough’ was an apt opener. Standing with closed eyes, Owens wrung every
drop of emotion about lost love with a hopelessness reminiscent of Townes Van
Zandt. His two amigos were seated on either side; Maving’s sparing slide licks
and Collison’s delicate keyboard chords just added to the sentiment.
Slightly less melancholic but still
sad, ‘Elvis Was My Brother’ told of a boy whose childhood was so lonely his dad’s
record collection were his only friends. These first two songs came from Owens’
most recent album, Southern Wind as did’Anything Helps’ about a homeless
guy he saw standing by a freeway holding up a sign saying just that. Owens
evoked the sheer despair of having nowhere to live, Maving’s picking and lonely
whistle replaced a convivial London pub with a desolate US freeway.
Closer to home Owens has written much
about his family some of which featured tonight. ‘Man From Leith’ painted a
vivid and loving picture of his father; dock worker, soldier and boxer. If
sometimes unsure of who he is Owens is comforted that ‘somewhere over my
shoulder is the man from Leith’. ‘Dora’ goes back to his grandmother who grew
up in a travelling circus. Her dad was a lion tamer and by coincidence,
prompted by this very song, the audience contained someone else who could claim
a predecessor in the same line of business. When his mum felt left out Owens
wrote ‘Mother’ where to an almost reggae beat, “you see the best in everyone,
you made us a happy home”. ‘Up on The Hill’ is where Dean and his dog go to
contemplate. By now the pace had picked up and Maving’s slide cut like the
Edinburgh wind on that hillside.
Through his storytelling Owens creates
a bond with his audience, something he strengthens with his chat between songs.
He combines a wry sense of humour with his passion for social justice. Owens is
on the side of the underdog and he doesn’t mince his words. Nowhere was this
more forceful than in ‘Reservations’ from Buffalo Blood, his
collaboration with Neilson Hubbard, Audrey Spillman and Joshua Britt. From
their travels on the Cherokee Trail of Tears they made an album and film about
displacement and the power of the human spirit. This song alone conveyed the
brutal treatment meted out to the native Americans, for more take a look at www.buffaloblood.com.
Equally powerful were ‘Southern Wind’ which
won Owens ‘UK Song of the Year’ at this year’s Americana Music Association-UK
awards, and ‘Last Song’. They may have been three but with some fine harmonica
from Owens, together the Southerners tore it up.
Owens paid tribute to his big
influences. ‘The Night Johnny Cash Played San Quentin’ took the tempo up a few gears. Maving and
Collison are so versatile that they may have been the Southerners but for this
song it was ‘Dean Owens And The Trotwood Two’, right down to the boom chicka
boom. To close, Dean Owens and The Southerners tipped their collective hat to
Ronnie Lane with ‘Annie’. “God Bless Us All”.
Perhaps because country music has always had such a strong following in Scotland it never went out of fashion. Many of Scotland’s finest artists have stamped their mark by blending country roots with their own traditions. Dean Owens is right up there with his own distillation of ‘Celtic spirit, Country soul’. Sassenachs Jim Maving and Tom Collison showed their class in their ability to intensify that mix with their own styles and skills. The result was much the strongest intoxicant on offer in The Betsey Trotwood last Sunday.
Lyndon Bolton