By Monk
There’s a saying that if life hands you lemons then you squeeze every ounce of juice out of them and make the tastiest drink you can… with this, his latest album, Missouri songsmith Bones Owens squeezes every ounce of raw passion out of his commitment to crafting quality blue-collar rock ‘n’ roll songs – and then spits the pips straight in your face, as he flips you the bird, turns on his cowboy-booted heel, mounts his Harley and roars off into the sunset, leaving you lying, palpitating, in his dust…
Having previously collaborated with the likes of Bon Jovi, Carrie Underwood, Yelawolf and Jelly Roll, Owens – who penned most of the original ideas for this album while on a solo tour of the American midwest, with just his guitar and the aforesaid hog for company – has returned to his country rock roots with this heartfelt and impassioned declaration of self-determination and resilience.
Opening with the bitter-sweet title track, with Owens brazenly declaring “you can’t break a broken heart” as he embarks on his journey of self-rediscovery, ‘Love…’ bumps and grinds its way through the likes of ‘Devil Gonna Getcha’, ‘For Keep’ and ‘Get It On’ with the determination of a road-weary cowboy extracting every ounce of pleasure from the 50 dollar whore he picked up in the motel bar: he knows it’s a fruitless (sic) task but he knows he has to make the best of a bad job and move on down that dusty highway to the next motel…
‘Love…’ is a revelatory, indeed confessional album. One which exposes the artist at his most vulnerable, but also his most confident. A statement of defiance, of the belief that no matter what shit life chucks at you on the road through life, you have the strength to wipe it off your visor and keep on with that journey. It may be a journey with no map, but Caleb Owens certainly has plotted his course to the next pit stop on the highway, and provided us all with a sassy and cool-as-fuck soundtrack to accompany the trip.
- ‘Love Out Of Lemons‘ is out now.
- Bones Owens supports Blackberry Smoke in September:
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