Music
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Beccy Owen is a singer and composer based in Newcastle with three self-released albums under her extremely busy belt. Here we have two of these albums from Beccy at once, as she a new signing to the Woodwork rosta. Beccy is a formidable and open-hearted musician, arming herself with an arsenal of eccentric, literate and heartfelt pop songs that lead her into battle against fat-cat-pop-mediocrity. Her piano-led tunes develop and flourish am idst beautiful harmonies and unexpected mood changes. Described by the NME as a “delinquent Carole King,” Beccy also brings to mind the delicacy of Sarah McLachlan and the drama and vocal intensity of Kate Bush.
Key tracks from across both albums include ‘In Your Company’ which builds and drops with beautiful harmonies and strings, and the upbeat ‘Anchor’ with prominent accordion line and vocal acrobatics. Kate Rusby provides gorgeous guest vocals on the rousing ‘Lullaby’ and finally ‘Summersong’ is an upbeat love song with a wonderful uplifting chorus. - Woodwork
Beccy Owen is a singer and composer based in Newcastle with three self-released albums under her extremely busy belt. Here we have two of these albums from Beccy at once, as she a new signing to the Woodwork rosta. Beccy is a formidable and open-hearted musician, arming herself with an arsenal of eccentric, literate and heartfelt pop songs that lead her into battle against fat-cat-pop-mediocrity. Her piano-led tunes develop and flourish am idst beautiful harmonies and unexpected mood changes. Described by the NME as a “delinquent Carole King,” Beccy also brings to mind the delicacy of Sarah McLachlan and the drama and vocal intensity of Kate Bush.
Key tracks from across both albums include ‘In Your Company’ which builds and drops with beautiful harmonies and strings, and the upbeat ‘Anchor’ with prominent accordion line and vocal acrobatics. Kate Rusby provides gorgeous guest vocals on the rousing ‘Lullaby’ and finally ‘Summersong’ is an upbeat love song with a wonderful uplifting chorus. - Woodwork
’Down With Gravity’ is Beccy Owen's third CD and a masterful musical festival it is too. Blessed with one of the sweetest, almost classical voices, Beccy writes and sings about love, life and and the oddly abstract, in a compelling way. From the opening joyful lines of ‘In Your Company’ to the haunting beauty of ‘The Deeps’, ‘Down with Gravity’ is an album of maturity and thoughtfulness. ‘Lullaby’ a duet with Kate Rusby is simply gorgeous! Allow yourself a few moments to drift into a dream where Beccy is your all nurturing universal mother...Oh go on!
One of my very favourite things about Beccy's songs is that they are so poetic that you need to/want to listen over and over to reinterpret what they may mean - different things at different times.
My favourite track right now has to be ‘Stalemate’ featuring the wonderful Richard Dawson. Telling the tale of a not entirely satisfactory relationship, the two vocals dance around each other, throwing cynical lyrics in each others' paths. It's delicious!
Beccy has a considerable and loyal following in the North East - it would be wonderful to see this album gain a wider audience. She's a talented girl and she deserves it. - The New Review
’Down With Gravity’ is Beccy Owen's third CD and a masterful musical festival it is too. Blessed with one of the sweetest, almost classical voices, Beccy writes and sings about love, life and and the oddly abstract, in a compelling way. From the opening joyful lines of ‘In Your Company’ to the haunting beauty of ‘The Deeps’, ‘Down with Gravity’ is an album of maturity and thoughtfulness. ‘Lullaby’ a duet with Kate Rusby is simply gorgeous! Allow yourself a few moments to drift into a dream where Beccy is your all nurturing universal mother...Oh go on!
One of my very favourite things about Beccy's songs is that they are so poetic that you need to/want to listen over and over to reinterpret what they may mean - different things at different times.
My favourite track right now has to be ‘Stalemate’ featuring the wonderful Richard Dawson. Telling the tale of a not entirely satisfactory relationship, the two vocals dance around each other, throwing cynical lyrics in each others' paths. It's delicious!
Beccy has a considerable and loyal following in the North East - it would be wonderful to see this album gain a wider audience. She's a talented girl and she deserves it. - The New Review
I have my escape routes planned and ready to go whenever a friend tries to slip on a British folk album, writes Gem Andrews, but North-East based musician and songwriter Beccy Owen’s latest contribution ‘Down with Gravity’ is a gripping collection to be reckoned with. In a word, it’s delicious.
Down with Gravity was released in late October of last year on Owen’s own label – Fairy Snuff Records – and was created during a hiatus between albums and live shows spanning the last four years. It features refined versions of the delectable Anchor, which you may recall from the artist’s debut, ‘The Sweetest Tales from the Bitterest Edge’.
Anchor, the albums second track, kicks off with Kate Bush style percussion followed by Owen’s virtuoso piano and vocals, which cannot help but drag you by ear to the stereo. It tells the story of that old songwriter favourite, unrequited and non-committal love, yet through truly skilled song writing, Owen manages to evade all of the usual pitfalls and clichés. Leaving for something fresh, painfully original and frankly, gorgeous.
The album itself features somewhat of a ‘best of’ of North-East England talent. Lullaby, featuring harmony vocals from folk A-lister Kate Rusby but also fiddling, drumming, strumming and harmonising away in the depths of each track is Peter Tickell, Richard Dawson, Nev Clay, Danny Ward and Rachel McShane to name but a few.
Stalemate, a song telling a tale of doomed passion, features a duet with the sweet gravel voiced Richard Dawson, and is everything that can be so right about a good old-fashioned duet. Dawson and Owen’s vocals darkly fuse to draw reflections of Nick Cave and Kylie Minogues Where the Wild Roses Grow or Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell’s Deus Ibi Est.
In Drowning Minnow, an almost classic jazz ballad, Owen quite rightly demands her listener’s full attention. Her vocals here are intimate and soothing yet strong and seductive, bringing to mind Nina Simone’s Don’t Smoke in Bed.
There is something truly irresistible about a female singer-songwriter like Beccy Owen who treads the D.I.Y route to making and releasing music, especially when its this good.
To those who believe the North-East of England to be a cultural wasteland, devoid of any artistic flare, incentive or creativity (BBC 2’s Newsnight Review panel beware!) I metaphorically wave Owen’s fine new album under your nose and beat it about your cheeky chops. Hurrah!
Review by Gem Andrews - Lesbilicious
I have my escape routes planned and ready to go whenever a friend tries to slip on a British folk album, writes Gem Andrews, but North-East based musician and songwriter Beccy Owen’s latest contribution ‘Down with Gravity’ is a gripping collection to be reckoned with. In a word, it’s delicious.
Down with Gravity was released in late October of last year on Owen’s own label – Fairy Snuff Records – and was created during a hiatus between albums and live shows spanning the last four years. It features refined versions of the delectable Anchor, which you may recall from the artist’s debut, ‘The Sweetest Tales from the Bitterest Edge’.
Anchor, the albums second track, kicks off with Kate Bush style percussion followed by Owen’s virtuoso piano and vocals, which cannot help but drag you by ear to the stereo. It tells the story of that old songwriter favourite, unrequited and non-committal love, yet through truly skilled song writing, Owen manages to evade all of the usual pitfalls and clichés. Leaving for something fresh, painfully original and frankly, gorgeous.
The album itself features somewhat of a ‘best of’ of North-East England talent. Lullaby, featuring harmony vocals from folk A-lister Kate Rusby but also fiddling, drumming, strumming and harmonising away in the depths of each track is Peter Tickell, Richard Dawson, Nev Clay, Danny Ward and Rachel McShane to name but a few.
Stalemate, a song telling a tale of doomed passion, features a duet with the sweet gravel voiced Richard Dawson, and is everything that can be so right about a good old-fashioned duet. Dawson and Owen’s vocals darkly fuse to draw reflections of Nick Cave and Kylie Minogues Where the Wild Roses Grow or Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell’s Deus Ibi Est.
In Drowning Minnow, an almost classic jazz ballad, Owen quite rightly demands her listener’s full attention. Her vocals here are intimate and soothing yet strong and seductive, bringing to mind Nina Simone’s Don’t Smoke in Bed.
There is something truly irresistible about a female singer-songwriter like Beccy Owen who treads the D.I.Y route to making and releasing music, especially when its this good.
To those who believe the North-East of England to be a cultural wasteland, devoid of any artistic flare, incentive or creativity (BBC 2’s Newsnight Review panel beware!) I metaphorically wave Owen’s fine new album under your nose and beat it about your cheeky chops. Hurrah!
Review by Gem Andrews - Lesbilicious
Third album in for Beccy Owen and she’s showing no signs of being anything less than amazing. Her stock in trade is raw emotion and she conveys plenty of it through her soulful voice, her exemplary piano playing and her lyrics which detail those moments in life which require a song written about them in order for them to make any kind of sense. Quality stuff. RM - The Crack Magazine
Third album in for Beccy Owen and she’s showing no signs of being anything less than amazing. Her stock in trade is raw emotion and she conveys plenty of it through her soulful voice, her exemplary piano playing and her lyrics which detail those moments in life which require a song written about them in order for them to make any kind of sense. Quality stuff. RM - The Crack Magazine
Discography
Imago (album) 2013
Drink (EP) 2013 http://beccyowen.bandcamp.com/
Down With Gravity (available digitally on bandcamp) 2008
The Singer Kicks (available digitally on bandcamp) 2004
The Sweetest of Tales from the Bitterest Edge (album) 2001 (available digitally on bandcamp)
Angel Fire (EP) 2001 (out of print)
Too Late For Logic by Sharks Took The Rest (2013)
(http://www.sharkstooktherest.com/)
Photos
Bio
BECCY OWEN ?IMAGO
New Album & UK House Tour
Download LP • CD & Vinyl • Release Date: 9th December 2013
I used to begin my press releases with a lofty sentence like ‘acclaimed DIY singer/songwriter Beccy Owen releases her fourth solo album IMAGO this December to widespread anticipation...’ The third-person narrative seemed to bring propriety and gravitas. Sometimes I’d even quote myself, like a proper dickhead. This time around I’d rather cut through the artifice and write as if I am actually myself, because it turns out I am.
It’s been five years since my last album (Down With Gravity, 2008) and in that time I’ve been busy writing and releasing a debut LP with my band Sharks Took The Rest, as well as making new theatre across the North of England, including the award-winning piece Lands of Glass (Unfolding Theatre).
On top of that I had a car crash, a nervous breakdown (triggered by the disintegration of an abusive relationship), moved to Yorkshire and started leading two community choirs and other music-related activities for my bread and butter. All of this kept me away from solo duties for a while. As it turns out all of this also gave me an abundance of things to write about. ??Thematically, IMAGO is principally about the angsty relationship bit. The record comprises twelve miniature portraits, which map the evolution of a doomed love affair, from its sanguine beginnings (You Keep Flooding In) to the sidling need for change (Imago), the calm before the storm (Beached), the separation (Suitcases) until the point where it's over and you're still trying to pick up all the shattered pieces (You Can’t Afford To Feel It) and learn the lessons (Dead Language.)
The album’s subject matter travels in a perceptible arc from the firestorm of early passion to the starkness of disconnection. The title track (pronounced ‘Ih Mar Go’) refers to the final stage of an insect’s growth during its metamorphosis; the bit where it gets its wings.
During last year’s mental illness I went underground for a while and it felt like being inside a cocoon. When I emerged I replaced the prozac with a ‘song-a-day’ challenge, and although some of IMAGO was already written, the record was finished through this daily process of song-writing. For me this is part break-up album, part coming-of-age album.
Some stories are best told simply. IMAGO’s minimal recordings, engineered by Jonathan Bidgood (Mackenzie//Bidgood) and Alex Ross (The Suggestibles), were largely fueled by whisky, stew and heartache. Together we’ve produced a musical document that is as exposing and emotionally charged as you could expect from an collection that was recorded over a 24 hour period using a ‘one-take’ live approach for each song. There’s strength in vulnerability, and I like to believe that IMAGO’s unapologetic aesthetic is a little panacea to the recent deluge of overly-compressed, dynamically-impoverished pop records.
In the last few months I’ve crowdfunded to raise enough to get IMAGO released on CD and Vinyl as well as digitally. People have given over £3k in less than a month. Rewards for donors have included IMAGO baby bibs, mugs, high-vis vests, personalised poems, original artwork and ‘a cover version of your choice’. People’s enthusiasm and support has amazed and moved me.
In December 2013/January 2014 I’ll be going on a small solo tour playing the album on real pianos in people’s homes and in small venues across the UK. I’m afraid to say that I got a driving ban for speeding, so I’m going to be relying on public transport for the foreseeable future (it’s hard to get a stage piano on your back); I've got a contrite heart and my folding bike all polished and ready to go.
I’ve been putting out my music for over a decade, and people seem to like it. After I released my second album (The Singer Kicks, 2005) the NME said I was a, ‘delinquent Carole King’. After the third one, Music Week said it was like ‘listening to Nina Simone skinning up the wings of crushed butterflies’. I’m not sure I fully understand the last one, but I’ve been touting them both around forever. It’d be good if you could take a listen and review/feature my music - maybe even spawn some new priceless gambits to use. Ultimately, I’d just be chuffed if you listened. ??Feel free to get in touch by emailing fairysnuff@gmail.com or calling me on 07747614283
Thanks
Beccy
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