50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - The Droma Tapes

Seven weeks into this series and man of Leith Dean Owens becomes the first artist to have appeared twice following him featuring in week two as the lead singer of the Felsons
Described by Irvine Welsh as Scotland's most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter


The Droma Tapes from 2001 is his first album as a solo artist and was recorded when he and the other artists who contribute to the album (Kevin Maguire,Marianne Campbell and Gary Martin)
 retreated to  a studio in an isolated cottage at Loch Droma in the Scottish Highlands . .
I actually won my signed copy in a Radio Scotland competition , one of two such albums acquired in this manner, the other being A Happy Pocket by The Trashcan Sinatras.
It has a wee bit of a folk and Celtic feel about it given the use of strings but he remains on the Americana shelves as opposed to the folk section chez CC.


I've decided not to feature the song New Mexico as it has featured here twice before once as part of George's epic State of the Union Series and once as a series of it's own New Mexican Monday a follow up to a series I did back in 2013 called Mexican Monday


Dean is an artist I've seen on numerous occasions both with the Felsons and in his own right, from his appearance at Hopeton House where he was rightly excited to besharing a stage with the likes of Little Feat, Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris to a pub in Glasgow in front of less that 20 paying punters.


I've got the first three of his records listed here but The Droma Tapes is the one I  have listened to most often and the one I keep coming back to.
He is still doing the rounds, Indeed one of my pals saw him recently and gave some positive feedback despite not recognising many of his newer tunes.


You should make a point of catching him if he pops up anywhere near you


Dean Owens - Strangers Again

Dean Owens - Anything