Dean Owens – Spirit Ridge

 

Dean Owens - Spirit Ridge

Dean Owens – Spirit Ridge
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital
Label: Continental Song City – Continental Record Services
Release: 2025

Release date: February 14, 2025

2024 has been a landmark year for award winning Scottish musician Dean Owens with standing ovations and sold out tours including Cambridge Folk Festival, Netherlands, UK and USA. 2025 is shaping up to be even better with the highly anticipated release of his twelfth album ‘Spirit Ridge,’ recorded at Crinale Studio, a 400 year old farmhouse in the hills in Emilia Romagna, Italy – the land of Dean’s lion tamer great great grandfather – with renowned Italian producer Don Antonio.

‘Spirit Ridge’ will be launched at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections on 2 Feb, with upcoming tour dates including the prestigious Port Fairy Festival in Australia, plus UK, US and The Netherlands.

Spirit Ridge is the follow up to Dean’s critically acclaimed collaborations with US Latin rock icons Calexico which resulted in 2 remarkable albums – ‘Sinner’s Shrine’ (2022) and ‘El Tiradito’ (The Curse of Sinner’s Shrine) (2023) – which dramatically evoked the wide panoramic landscapes of the south western US desert states.

The twelve songs on ‘Spirit Ridge’ are a musical and lyrical development, both monumental and deeply personal, rooted in a liminal hinterland which connects the lush Italian hills, the US desert states and post industrial Scotland. The spirit of the lion tamer is rarely far away!

Preceded by 3 well received “taster” EPs (‘The Ridge Trilogy’) released July-Dec 2024, the full ‘Spirit Ridge’ album is now ready to launch into the world in all its guitar driven, brass infused glory! A magical mix of Dean’s trademark melancholy and unforgettable melodies, a masterpiece of concise songwriting about family and connections to places, with a nod to spirit animals. Vocally he has never sounded better.

Website: https://www.deanowens.com/about

Tracks:
01. Eden Is Here (3:10)
02. Spirito (1:14)
03. My Beloved Hills (5:12)
04. Light This World (4:15)
05. The Buzzard And The Crow (4:21)
06. Burn It All (3:35)
07. Face The Storm (The Buffalo) (4:48)
08. Sinner Of Sinners (3:01)
09. Wall Of Death (4:10)
10. A Divine Tragedy (4:51)
11. Spirit Of Us (4:33)
12. Tame The Lion (5:45)

Musicians:
Dean Owens – lead vocals, nylon string guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
The Stone Buffalo Band:
Don Antonio – guitars, lap steel, mellotron, piano
Luca Giovacchini – guitars, dobro
Piero Perelli – drums and percussion
Danilo Gallo – double bass, bass

with:
Nicola Peruch – piano, organ, keyboards
Vanni Crociani – horns arrangements
Francesco Bucci – trombone
Michele Vignali – baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone
Plus very special guests:
John Convertino – second drummer on Light This World and Spirit Of Us, marimba on The Buzzard & The Crow and vibraphone on Spirit Of Us.
Martin Wenk – trumpet on My Beloved Hills and Light This World
Tom Hagerman – strings and string arrangements
Kirsten Adamson – backing vocals
Christopher Stout – fiddle on Sinner of Sinners
Nuala Kennedy – flute on The Buzzard & The Crow and Sinner of Sinners