Surely it's time for Dean Owens to be more widely recognised as one of the best singer-songwriters in Scotland.
Man From Leith, from his previous album Whisky Hearts, would enhance any Scottish songbook; here Valentine's Day In New York sets a high benchmark for words and tune in happy fusion (although, truth be told, each and every song on the Nashville-recorded Into The Sea is a worthy successor). Owens is fast becoming a master at crafting story-driven portraits through his lyrics - Dora, which tells of his grandmother in a travelling circus; Kids (1979), a poignant blue-collar ode to the fate of school friends - and when he slows down to a ballad pace (as on Evergreen and It Could Be Worse), I'd like to think that somewhere Ryan Adams is giving him an envious nod of approval. Not only that, but his voice is as good as his writing: strong, graced with a wonderful tone, heightened by a little crack in the veneer.
Alan Morrison
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article