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Owen Temple

Presented by Dosey Doe Coffee House at Dosey Doe Coffee House

September 4, 2010

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Dosey Doe Coffee House presents Owen Temple.

Owen Temple is a rambler with the heart of a road warrior, the soul of a poet and a gregarious spirit that’s as big as the blue open sky of his native Texas. He’s country to the bone, but he’s as comfortable in a coffee house as he is in a honky tonk. Temple has a finely honed lyrical sense, a wry sense of humor, and a knack for blending strong melodies with ingenious wordplay. “I’m a singer/songwriter with a love of traditional music,” he says proudly. “There’s more beauty in the lives and exploits of ordinary Texans than we’re ever going to be able to record, all the eccentric failures and successes of the human condition. My songs are an attempt to capture some of those tall tales for the next generation. If you’re looking for help with your relationship, ask Dr. Phil. If you want a little slice of Texas history, I’m your man.”

Temple has written his share of love songs, but he’s built his reputation with tunes that tell the stories of ordinary folks living their extraordinary lives. His last album, Dollars and Dimes, was full of sharply etched sketches of citizens trying to come to terms with the current economic downturn. It was produced by Gabe Rhodes, who also plays in Temple’s band. It became a #1 album on the European Americana charts and earned critical raves for its uncompromising vision of the American dream’s darker side. On Mountain Home, Temple narrows his focus to hone in on the small towns of his home state and the colorful characters that he’s known all his life.

Temple and producer Gabe Rhodes give the music on the record the feel of an on stage performance. The album was recorded in the studio Rhodes built himself. “The basic tracks were cut live with me, Gabe, drummer Rick Richards and Charlie Sexton on bass,” Temple says. “There were minimal overdubs and we didn’t use any isolation chambers. In a time of robot digital records, Mountain Home is full of organic sounds.” Temple’s warm baritone imbues the pictures he paints with a sincerity that makes his songs come alive and he praises Rhodes for his ability to capture the emotion of the songs.

“Mountain Home is about the somewhat bizarre occurrences that take place in the small towns of Texas,” Temple explains. “I grew up in the small town of Mountain Home, where people thought big cities were scary. While writing these songs, I realized small towns can be dangerous too, sometimes even more dangerous than a lot of big cities. Texas is a microcosm of the whole US and, by focusing on the small incidents, you can get to some of the larger truths.”

The songs explore the lives of the bandits, cowboys, drifters, politicians, artists and ne’er do wells that have contributed to the colorful history of Southwest Texas including Sam Houston himself who appears in the song “Old Sam.” The tune rides a stomping Waylon Jennings beat and nods to Jimmy Dean’s “Big Bad John,” as it weaves together fact and fiction to salute one of the founders of Texas mythology. Rhodes plays banjo and Temple’s vocal is full of wry humor. “Medicine Man” is a blues that blends a B-Movie version of a Native drumbeat into its rhythm. It tells the story of Cabeza de Vaca, a conquistador who walked alone from Texas to Mexico City. He survived by convincing the Indians he was a holy man.

Tommy Spurlock’s pedal steel and Rhodes’ baritone guitar add a pure country feel to “Small Town,” a talking blues that captures the claustrophobia one feels in a community where everyone knows your business. “Danger and Good Times” comes at the same subject from the viewpoint of the town’s outsiders and oddballs. It brings to mind Hank Williams’ work as Luke the Drifter with its measured tempo and Temple’s wry delivery. “Desdemona” is a moody eulogy to an oil rush boomtown that’s gone bust. Temple’s aching vocal and Spurlock’s lonesome steel give the song a wrenching quality.

The title track is a bluesy shuffle with a bluegrass feel that tells the story of a jailbird returning home after a 20-year stretch in the pen. Rhodes turns in a stinging acoustic guitar solo to compliment the tune’s understated drama. “The song’s based on a local family that picked up hitchhikers on I-10 and put them to work on their ranch in the mid 80s,” Temple says. “They kept them prisoner and played ‘Jailhouse Rock’ over the loudspeakers while they made them work the fields.”

The songs on Mountain Home are like short stories set to music, vignettes of real life captured by Temple’s keen insight and imbued with a sense of time and place that makes you feel the hot dusty sun and the cold chill of the unforgiving night. It captures the feel of the desperate dreamers who want to believe in their latest scheme, even as they feel reality breathing down their neck.

Owen Temple grew up in a small town and did his first singing in the Presbyterian Church. He first became aware of the craft of songwriting at the Kerrville Folk Festival when he was young. “I saw Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen. My eyes were opened to the power of one person with an acoustic guitar telling stories.”

In high school, Jerry Jeff Walker provided an antidote to the slick country music on the radio. “It was great to be a teenager and have an alternative music that was all my own, Temple recalls. Walker’s records introduced him to Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Chuck Pyle, Michael Martin Murphy and other great Austin songwriters.

Temple started performing as a folk singer in high school and got serious about songwriting while attending the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997, he sent a demo to Lloyd Maines (Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Dixie Chicks) who produced General Store, Temple’s first album. He followed up with Passing Through, another effort produced by Maines. Both were regional best sellers. Temple maintained his grades while touring Texas playing college bars, honky tonks and folk clubs, both solo and with a full band.

After a few years in Madison attending the University of Wisconsin to study psychology, Temple returned to Texas, reconnected with Lloyd Maines and cut Two Thousand Miles. The Americana movement was starting to build momentum and Temple’s potent singing, superior songwriting skills and charismatic stage presence made him a force on the emerging roots music scene. The album jumped into the Lone Star Music Top 10 and he extended his touring to include the Midwest and east coast as well as Texas. In 2007, he won the B. W. Stevenson Songwriting Competition sponsored by Poor David’s Club in Dallas and became a finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk competition.

Temple met multi-instrumentalist and producer Gabe Rhodes in 2006. Rhodes became part of Temple’s touring band and produced Dollars and Dimes in 2009. Rhodes returned to produce Mountain Home and will be touring with Temple to support the album. “My plan is to play intimate rooms with Gabe as a duo and take the band on the road in the Southwest and Europe,” Temple says. “I consider myself a singer/songwriter out of the folk tradition, but we make music you can dance to, which confuses some people. What we try to do is to serve the song and express the emotion of the lyric. I remember how strongly I was affected by the story songs I heard when I was young. I hope to bring some of that inspiration to my listeners.”