REBECCA OWEN

STEP ASIDE, NASHVILLE! SOME OF THE HOTTEST NEW SOUNDS IN COUNTRY MUSIC ARE COMING FROM WAY OUT WEST IN NEW MEXICO WITH THE EMERGENCE OF THE ALBUQUERQUE BASED VOCAL POWERHOUSE'S SELF-TITLED INDIE DEBUT, WHICH WAS PRODUCED BY JOHNNY MULHAIR (LEANN RIMES)

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The New Orleans Area Native, Currently Performing Regularly at New Mexico's Premiere Honky Tonk Cowboy's And Other Local Hotspots,
Has Received Airplay On KSFR In Santa Fe—Where She Does Regular Gigs For Charity—And Has Been Featured on The Australian Based Internet Station 101 FM

As fate would have it, rising country singer Rebecca Owen moved from her suburban New Orleans hometown of Slidell, Louisiana out to Albuquerque, New Mexico just ten days before Hurricane Katrina. Completely in line with the powerful romantic themes on the twelve tracks of her self titled, independently released debut CD, she did it not because she had a crystal ball but for love—her husband Jon is doing a medical residency there.

Since then, Owen's been turning up the heat out West, stirring up a storm of her own on the growing country music scene in her beloved adopted home state. A strikingly charismatic interpreter of heartfelt and rockin' originals and beloved cover songs, the singer—whose album was produced by New Mexico native and Country Music Association nominee Johnny Mulhair, who helmed LeAnn Rimes' first two CDs--recently hosted her record release party for Rebecca Owen at Cowboy's Club in Albuquerque, the largest honky tonk in the state where she is a regular performer.

Owen, who once played the House of Blues sponsored Country & Blues Fest outside of New Orleans, is a regular presence on the fair circuit, with two consecutive appearances at the New Mexico State Fair. Last year, she opened for singer Jack Ingram at the fair's rodeo event—performing on the same stage as Emerson Drive —and in 2006, she opened for Little Big Town.

Owen's 2008 club dates include stops at Pecos Flavors Winery in Roswell, the Harvest Wine Festival in Las Cruces and the Santa Fe County Fair. She's well known in the artist friendly town of Santa Fe, where she and her band have done numerous shows to raise money for the city's rape crisis center and Silver Bullet Productions, a company that goes into rural areas to teach kids about filmmaking via impromptu documentaries of their daily lives.

Her status as a regional sensation secured by an hour long, live on air performance of songs from her debut on KSFR in Santa Fe, Owen also has a growing worldwide audience thanks to the many hits on her myspace page ( www.myspace.com/rebeccaowencountry ), where her high kickin' track “Sidewinder” has earned over 2000 plays, and her success on the Australian based website www.101fm.asn.au , where she has earned an overwhelming response and was a featured artist earlier this year.

Aside from enjoying the incredible climate and the friendly, small town community feel of Albuquerque, Owen felt immediately that it was the best place possible to stand out as a country music performer. Shortly after arriving in town, she joined the local chapter of Nashville's songwriter's association and got the word out that she wanted to start a band. A local DJ not only helped her hook up with some local musicians who eventually became part of her working ensemble, he also helped promote her music and secure her first gigs.

“People have really taken notice a lot more here and they're great about supporting new artists,” says Rebecca, who moved to Nashville for a spell in college and worked for a year as a talent scout and booking agent for “Louisiana Jukebox,” a local music show in New Orleans. “In Albuquerque, it's less about what ‘the new thing' is than it is about people really just enjoying themselves. There's an appreciation of music here that's much more pure than any other place I've been.”

“I'm very much committed to putting on a wildly entertaining show,” she adds, “bringing out a lot of energy and connecting to every single person in the audience. And I choose the songs I sing because they have great stories that everyday people can connect to. That's what got me into music in the first place, my desire to communicate emotions to people. I'm currently growing as a songwriter myself, but I was lucky in the process of choosing material for my debut that I got in contact with great writers like my friend Kris Russell from Denver, who wrote ‘Sidewinder,' which I call the ultimate bad boyfriend song. I knew it could rock!

“A great song,” she adds, “should really pop out like that and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. That's a sure tell-tale sign. It should also tell a story that comes across in an easy to understand way that everyone can totally relate to.”

The twelve tracks on Rebecca Owen create a fascinating mix of songs both legendary and soon-to-be known. Her version of Hank Williams, Sr.'s “My Heart Would Know” is not only an homage to the country music legend but also to the era he represents that brought country to mainstream appreciation. Owen also enjoyed the challenge of covering one of her favorite artists, Lucinda Williams, with a highly percussive, bluesy twist on “I Lost It,” a song that tells the story of not being able to go back after someone has taken your heart. Another memorable song many country fans will be familiar with is Rodney Crowell's “I Ain't Living Long Like This.”

One of Owen's favorite songs on her debut is pop songwriter Oliver Lieber's emotion-charged power ballad “World Without You,” about what she calls “the desperate feeling of loving someone so completely that the thought of not having them in your world is devastating.” She has a funny story attached to Sherrie Austin's “Tenderly.” When Owen first heard it back in high school, she thought it would be a good song to sing at a senior talent show. She didn't realize the song was about one-night stands, and the teachers and administrators at her Catholic school were none too pleased!

As Owen evolves from the ranks of successful indie artist to a force to be reckoned with on the national country music scene, it's clear that fans will be responding to more than simply her dynamic applications of an amazing three octave vocal range; it's the way she gets inside the songs, and the emotional intimacy she brings to every note that makes her stand out from every other young country singer out there.

“When I've opened for national recording artists, I've been so spurred on by the excitement in the room,” she says. “I want to be where they are. I'm enjoying everything about this process…recording, live performances, promoting the album. I truly live and breathe for what I'm doing and I couldn't imagine my life without music. Nothing tops the excitement of a live performance, where the whole big world becomes so small and intimate. You look at the news these days, and there's so much about disasters, pain and horrible despair. It makes you feel so small in a huge world. But when I perform, I'm able to bring hope and love to people in a way that, like faith itself, takes me outside myself and helps me believe in something better and greater, in other people and life's beautiful possibilities.”