New Mexico Magazine, the state magazine for New Mexico

Music Pick of the Month

Rebecca Owen, Rebecca Owen

Genre: Country Rock

Luck seems to be on Rebecca Owen’s side—she moved to Albuquerque from her home state of Louisiana just 10 days before Hurricane Katrina hit. But while her roots remain in the
Mississippi Delta, the Land of Enchantment has stolen her heart.

For her first full-length CD, Owen traveled from Albuquerque to record at Johnny Mulhair’s studio, in Clovis—yep, the same studio where country star LeAnn Rimes cut her hit CD, Blue. Mulhair has worked his magic again, this time capturing Owen’s three-octave range on this rockin’ country CD.

While many of the songs are covers, Owen puts her distinctive stamp on every one of them. With spirited piano playing by Paul Goad, the entire album has a Louisiana honky-tonk roadhouse feel, and particularly in her bluesy, rockin’ rendition of Lucinda Williams’s “I Lost It.”

Owen also skillfully vamps up Rodney Crowell’s “I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This” with Mulhair’s drivin’ guitar, to make this favorite seem brand-new. On “Sidewinder,” by Kris Russell and Robert Charles Burns, she really rocks and wails as she sings about falling in love with a snake of a guy “with a devil heart, but a kiss that can drive me wild.” My favorite is a slower-paced ballad, “Tenderly.”

Owen’s sensuous vocals shine throughout the record, which also includes a poignant rendition of Hank Williams’s “My Heart Would Know,” and her dramatic vocal on “World Without You.”

Owen performs around the state with her band, Open Road; they’ll close out the upcoming Harvest Wine Festival in Las Cruces on Labor Day weekend. To order Rebecca Owen, visit
www.cdbaby.com/cd/rebeccaowen.

-- Emily Drabanski