Shane Owens & 231 South
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Shane Owens & 231 South

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"Introducing Shane Owens"

By Gary Voorhies

A native of tiny Samson, Ala., the first musical influence for Shane Owens was his grandmother, who played piano and sang to him.
"I dedicated my album to her," he said. "She passed away a year before last. She was probably the biggest inspiration to me. I know we got on her nerves, but she'd play if we asked her to play. She'd play all night long."
He started singing early on, and at 6 was part of the church choir. An outgoing youngster, Owens was not shy about being in front of a crowd and welcomed opportunities to sing at nursing homes and charity events.
He became an accomplished athlete. As the quarterback he broke his passing arm during his senior year of high school football, but still earned a spot as a walk-on at Jacksonville State University. When he realized the injury would hamper his football skills, he bought a guitar. He took some lessons and joined Young Country, a band that won the Jimmy Dean Country Showdown state competition in 1995 and 1997.
After Young Country broke up, Owens joined Borderline, whose members morphed into the house band at the club, Cowboys. The club owner recognized Owens talent and encouraged him to go to Nashville, where indie label Rust Records signed him.
Kevin Wayne Waldrop, who co-wrote seven of the 10 songs on Let's Get On With It with Owens, produced the album, which was released on Aug. 23. Influenced by Country legends including Earl Thomas Conley, Vern Gosdin, George Jones and Keith Whitley, Owens made an album that honors his heroes. Owens and Waldrop wrote the debut single, "Bottom of the Fifth."
IN HIS OWN WORDS:
Who is your musical hero? "Keith Whitley."
What CD is on your stereo right now? "Mine!"
What book is on your nightstand right now? "Crimson Nation: The Shaping of the South's Most Dominant Football Team, written by Eli Gold."
What do you sing in the shower? "'I'll Fly Away,' written by Albert E. Brumley. It was my Grandma's favorite song."
What is your pet peeve? "I'm a neat freak. Everything must be clean."
What actor would portray you in a biopic about your life? "Luke Perry."
What moment in your life would you relive if you could? "My first child being born."
What song do you wish you had written? "'He Stopped Loving Her Today,' written by Bobby Braddock and Claude Putnam and recorded by George Jones."
What word or phrase do you find yourself saying over and over again? "Let's get on it!"
Do you have a lucky charm? "A rusty old pocketknife that my granddaddy gave me when I was 6."
Which mode of transportation do you prefer - planes, trains or automobiles? "Automobiles."
Who is your dream duet partner? "Reba McEntire."
When they look back on your life in 50 years, what do you hope people say about you? "He was a very classy guy and a great Country artist."
- CMA Close Up New Service


"SHANE OWENS- Let's Get On It"

Guide Rating -
The Bottom Line
If you like country albums with a little kick to it, then you'll like 'Let's Get On It.' It has the fun uptempo songs as well as all-out ballads so you are sure to find something that fits your country music taste buds.

Pros
"Redneck"
"Onto Something Baby"
"Party On The River"

Cons
None.

Description
Shane Owens' debut album.
Contains the single "Bottom of the Fifth."

Shane wrote or co-wrote most of the songs.

Guide Review - Shane Owens - Let's Get On It

Shane Owen's debut album is full of energetic and traditional sounding country songs. What I like about the ten tracks is that you can tell, as you listen, how Shane puts a lot of effort into his music. He wants to make things work and its no wonder his album sold out so fast the day it was released.
"Redneck" is about a woman with frizzy, white trash, blonde hair and how he loves the fact she does whatever she wants whenever the mood strikes her. "Onto Something Baby" is pretty traditional sounding. Shane sings about a "living dream" who makes him feel good when they kiss. "The future's looking sunny, we're right on the money, we're onto something honey." Walking back into one of your old stompin' grounds can be an eye-opening experience, especially if it was an old honky tonk bar that turned into a hip-hop karaoke joint. At least in "Ray Ray's" there's one place the city folk haven't found.

"Big Mother Trucker" is about a woman who drives a big rig. "Look out sucker she's on your behind, she's gonna roll all over you." "Bottom of the Fifth" has a bit of a baseball analogy to go with a dose of barroom heartbreak. The next song, "Party On The River," is energetic and would be great to hear on the radio. "Fast" can be a good thing, or a bad thing in the last song. Shane says that he likes to take things slow and spend as much time as possible working on a relationship. "So baby, baby, baby, not so fast" he sings in the song's chorus
- About.com


"Fishin' and Singin'"

PRESS ARTICLE MetroSpirit Augusta, GA 6-6-07
Issue #18.45 :: 06/06/2007 - 06/12/2007
Fishin' and singin'

BY ERIKA BOLIN

AUGUSTA, GA. - Shane Owens is genuine country folk and he's proud of his deep backwoodsy roots. His Marlboro Man good looks match his radio-friendly country music. But his Montana trail-worn look is legit.

And so is his music. Owens said he grew up listening to The Grand Ole Opry show. "I always loved Keith Whitley and the old-type country music that I don't think there's enough of going on today. I have brought that back into my music."

But he said it was his grandma, Edna, who was his biggest influence. "She really made me who I am. And oddly enough, I actually didn't write my first song until after she passed. It was just one of those things that came over me."

He started as a little cowpoke. "I sung in church a lot. My grandma was a Baptist church pianist there. All the people on my daddy James T.'s side are musically influenced."

He adds, "My sister Michelle sings, but just in church. And my mom, Sherie, sings along to the radio."

Owens said he was on a cell phone calling from a river right outside the Alabama-Georgia border. "My friend called me up and said, 'Let's go fishing.' I'm sitting here right now, trying to catch guppies."

Owens' Southern accent was so heavy the sentence he just said had to be checked. Sure enough, he spoke slower and the words "bream" and "bass" came through.

He described the scene: "There's probably a hundred folks out here with us. Whatever will bite, we'll catch, except snakes."

Almost whispering now, probably so as his fishing pals didn't hear, he said, "I am definitely afraid of snakes," and beginning to laugh loud, yet nervously. "Don't let that redneck country-boy stuff fool you. I see them and I shoot them!"

Owens said he loves to perform. "I play a little guitar and not so great. Really, I'm one of these guys that's jumping on the table and singing to the crowd."

Then honest, like God's listening, Owens admits an accidental performing faux pas. "I did jump on a chair recently, and it busted right through! I got up real fast so no one would notice. But they saw and got a good laugh out of it!"

Owens, who sells out shows today, said he has crooned at plenty of those two-bits-of-silver-and-a-beer-paying gigs. "Those days gave me plenty of life to write about. And I think if you get in this solely for the money, you're going to have trouble.

"And, unless you have a record company standing beside you like a George Strait, it's hard to make the big bucks.

Nowadays, everybody's listens to a new song, and they want a new one the next month."

Owens is now a success. But he said there is a downside to his rising musical career. "We're gone performing almost all week. And not getting to see my little boy play baseball last year was the hardest thing."

The upside has been meeting and performing with a musical hero. "I got to open a few shows for George Jones. And with him being of amazing status, it was just unbelievable for us."

Owens' next CD, which is still untitled, will be out in October.

He said, "It's coming along great. With the first album, I didn't have this much freedom. It was their dime and their time.

"I'm not saying I had to do stuff that was against my will. I mean, I can do more of what I want and I have a great band."

Many of the pending albums' songs are those originals that suddenly needed to be told after the passing of Owens' grandmother.


- MetroSpirit Augusta


Discography

Singles- "Bottom Of The Fifth", "19", "Redneck"

Album- "Let's Get On It"; available on Amazon.com

Streaming tracks at www.myspace.com/shaneowens

Photos

Bio

***FOR CURRENT TOUR DATES PLEASE VIST www.myspace.com/shaneowens***

At the young age of five, Shane Owens' parents gave him a set of drums, and at age six he started singing in the church choir. The choir had members of all ages, but the youngsters powerful voice drew most of the attention, especially on his favorite hymns, like I'll Fly Away.

While Owens was still quite young, his father, who was also a singer, and his mother separated. Owens and his older twin sister, who were born exactly one minute apart, stayed with his mother, who never missed the Saturday night broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry out of Nashville.

Country music was always playing in the Owens household. Artists like Don Williams, Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggs were often heard, while George Jones and Vern Gosdin became particularly influential in Owens' work.

During high school, sports and other school activities took up most of his time, but after graduation in 1990, Owens found a guitar teacher, the highly acclaimed Shelly Commander, and put his focus back on music. Commander immediately recognized Owens' talent and put him to work playing in Commander's band on the weekends. The band line-up changed three of four times, but Owens always remained a member.

He won the Jimmy Dean Country Showdown State Competition in Alabama two years in a row in 1995 and 1996 and made it as far as the national semi-finals. He first went out on his own in 1996, when he and his backup band played the Civic Center in Ozark, Alabama with Conferderate Rail Road. Not long after, Owens married. He and Lisa are now the proud parents of two boys, ages three and eight and he still calls Alabama his home.

Owens, now 35, never stopped performing. He has shared the stage with many of Country's top artists, including Hank Williams Jr., Lori Morgan, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Kenny Chesney, Pam Tillis, Ronnie Milsap, Billy Dean, Keith Urban, Exile and dozens of others, while touring all over the South. The tracks on Owens' Rust Records CD are the best he has done thus far. He wrote seven of the 13 tunes himself, while the remaining tracks were written by his various music industry friends.