Texas-born troubadour Owen Temple has spent decades mining the landscapes of America—its geography and heart—for songs that resonate with both the open road and the intimate details of everyday life. Known for his blend of folk sensibility and honky-tonk punch, Temple’s music captures the rugged beauty of small towns, family ties, and moments of quiet revelation. From his breakout General Store album in the late ’90s, through critically acclaimed releases like Dollars and Dimes, to 2023’s Rings on a Tree, Temple has built a catalog of deeply reflective music that speaks to a wide audience.
Temple’s latest album, Rings on a Tree, is a concept piece that dives into themes of intergenerational connection and the legacies we inherit and pass on. Featuring collaborations with songwriters like Walt Wilkins, Kelley Mickwee, Hal Ketchum, and Gordy Quist, this album underscores Temple’s knack for storytelling, blending historical and philosophical reflections into melodies both haunting and warm. Critics have hailed the record as “a heartfelt examination of life’s unbroken line” and praise his ability to bring depth to the seemingly simple moments we all share.
Temple’s audiences can expect songs that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant, with lyrical wisdom and down-to-earth charm.
The Collection Investigates His Family History and The History of Humankind with His Usual Blend of Humor and Honesty.
Owen Temple’s new record, Rings on A Tree, is a concept album – an examination of family history and the way every interaction we have reverberates for generations.
“It’s clear that our lives are a distillation and expansion of the lives that have come before us,” Temple said. “Every life, every interaction of matter and energy that happens, reverberates through the universe in an ever-expanding field. Waves of behavior that cause other waves of behavior, not just in one life, but in all our lives.
“During the Covid lockdown, I wasn’t writing much on my own, but when a friend – most frequently Walt Wilkins – would call and say, ‘Let’s go to a park and write a song,’ I’d always go. These meetups.
Temple organized the songs into three five song sets: Big Bang, Pantheon and Tree of Life.
Part 1
Big Bang is about beginnings, investigating the consciousness we all share. Before any stories are made, there is I AM, my ancestors and yours, the beginning of knowledge, the awareness of being a finite, mortal human. The perspectives on ‘Days,’ ‘Watch It Shine,’ and ‘Beautiful Accidents’ are all perspectives of squinting to see where we first appear on the historical map of space and time. ‘Always Becoming’ acknowledges the forward motion and the constants of change, growth, and evolution.
Part 2
Pantheon contains songs about connecting with our ancestors and our lineage. ‘Fork in the Road’ is about the path not taken and the continual choice of our next steps. ‘Can’t Stop Won’t Stop’ and ‘Virginia and Hazel’ are songs about great-grandparents and the concerns and experiences they had when they were young people that then had
consequences for us, their descendants, in our lifetimes. ‘Are We There Yet’ is about the intergenerational car trips in all of our lives – the older people in front, the younger people in the back, wondering where we’re going. ‘Churches and Cantinas’ is anthropological, studying the impulse toward redemption that those two institutions (represented by two people in the story) seek each in their own way.
Part 3
Tree of Life presents the connection to nature that is the core of our lineage. ‘Wild Seeds’ and ‘Rings on a Tree’ are about the struggle to survive and thrive that we share in common with all life; ‘Gentle James’ is about an ancestor who was a farmer and the people he influenced, despite being a shy man, uncomfortable with others. ‘More Like September’ is a love song both to fall and to a love that abides between extremes. ‘Twenty Years’ ties everything up with a fantasy of meeting with your future self to receive some spiritual guidance.”
Temple enlisted the help of producer Gordy Quist to bring the songs to life. “Gordy’s been a songwriting collaborator for a long time. He took over The Finishing School, the revered studio of George Reiff (Band of Heathens, Ray Wylie Hubbard). I love his sonic aesthetic. We took the time to pause, after we played it through for the musicians in the studio, and ask, ‘Is there anything we can do to make it more interesting?’ He approached the arranging in a way that was both comfortable and challenging.”
Temple and Quist played guitar and Temple’s long time rhythm section – Josh Flowers on bass and drummer Rick Richards – laid down the foundation. Other players included Trevor Nealon from Band of Heathens on organ and piano, Geoff Queen on pedal steel, Dobro and guitar and invited guests adding vocal harmonies and fiddle.
The album opens with “The Song of Us,” a mid-tempo country tune, celebrating a world that’s changing fast, but fundamentally stays the same. Baritone guitar and pedal steel bubble beneath Temple’s vocal, as he delivers a mellow benediction uniting earth and the cosmos through the breath of a single human. “If Thich Naht Hahn and Frank Sinatra wrote a song together, would it sound like this?”
Owen Temple takes on the job of Texas troubadour with grave intent… One has to admire Temple’s focus on his craft, which he continues to burnish in smart and tuneful ways.”
Jim Caligiuri, Austin Chronicle
Temple’s songs are sophisticated and enlightening… He writes with a folksinger’s eye, observing intimate, interior details of every day life, and painting big, mythological sketches…”
Eli Messinger, Hyperbolium
Temple [earns] a seat at the table next to the best Texas/Americana troubadours of his generation. He’s always had a great voice for the medium, but it’s never sounded better than it does here: as rich, warm and comforting as Don Williams and as dry, worn and wizened as Townes Van Zandt… B..
Richard Skanse, Lone Star Music Magazine
Owen Temple takes on the job of Texas troubadour with grave intent… One has to admire Temple’s focus on his craft, which he continues to burnish in smart and tuneful ways.”
Jim Caligiuri, Austin Chronicle
“Owen Temple sings the truth. In the narrative folk tradition, the Austin-based singer-songwriter pens tunes that tell stories in plain-spoken yet persuasive fashion. His characters could be real, and many times they are. But there’s no doubt that Temple is nourishing his muse with the realities of life around him… Musically, Temple keeps to his spacious merger of bluegrass, blues and folk.”
Mario Tarradell, Dallas Morning News
“It’s clear that our lives are a distillation and expansion of the lives that have come before us,” – Owen Temple
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