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Dalannah and Owen: Been Around Awhile

By C. Michael Bailey
October 24, 2015
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Track review of "Inner City Blues"

It takes a lot of creative momentum to drive a bass/vocals duet for an entire collection of songs. It takes a lot of guts also. The duo Dalannah and Owen take a running stab at it...and mostly succeed. Been Around Awhile collects eleven originals and time-tested covers in the small space of their chosen performance format. Included here are interesting covers of Robert Johnson's "Come on in My Kitchen" and Eddie "Son" House's "Walkin' Blues." The sonic room is starkly furnished, allowing for vocalist Dalannah Bowen's full and expressive voice to fill the corners of songs, while bassist Owen Veber explores the nether regions of the electric six-string bass.

It is on a more contemporary cover that the pair destroys genre designations. Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" provides the two a durable vehicle with which to demonstrate that the blues are never very far away from the center of things. Over Veber's most impressionistic playing, Bowen reaches deep for the Gaye's tired and angry message. Bowen does not sing this as a "soul" song, she reaches to the bottom of the gutbucket and pulls out the authentic item...as real as Louis Armstrong and as pungent as delta dirt.

Personnel

Dalannah and Owen

Dalannah Bowen: vocals; Owen Veber: six-string bass.

Album information

Title: Been Around Awhile | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Self Produced

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