Owen Beverly

I grew up in Mississippi, it sounds more rustic than it was. If I said lived in a white suburban neighborhood we might loose traction, so for the sake of this bio I grew up in a snake infested swamp. The water moccasins were so plentiful, we kicked them off the front porch like pine cones. I learned to play the guitar and joined a blues quartet called Lou's Blues. I was a sixteen year old boy in a band of middle aged black guys, they dubbed me "White Lightnin". Late at night in the empty juke joints of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and the Mississippi gulf coast I drank whiskey from mason jars and cut my teeth on the music of the delta. I went to college in Charleston, South Carolina and studied Music Theory and Composition. The musical theorems I found to be true included: 1. Roy Orbison was the greatest composer of all time and 2. The term 20th century classical music was an oxymoron. I decided to get my degree in three years so I could get back on the road. 2003 was an exciting time and fun was had by all. I went on tour with John Mayor and Howie Day, my debut record "The Drunk Lover EP" was featured on HBO's Entourage. I threw TV's out of hotel windows and ran from the police. Richard Branson of Virgin fame flew me to New York on my 21st birthday where I danced on a table in the hotel lobby dressed only in running shorts. I was 30 pounds under weight and on top of the world. Then before I knew it it was 2005 and the music business tanked. Things got weird, I moved back to Jackson and grew increasingly nervous of nuclear fallout. Hurricane Hurricane Katrina Hit the gulf and things got post apocalyptic. I was put on medication and started painting houses for a living. I discovered that in fact Towns Van Zant was the greatest composer of all time. I wandered around north Mississippi searching for the ghosts of Robert Johnson and William Faulkner, and couldn't even find myself. They put me on Lithium, and I decided I wanted to do a mainstream country album which is strange because I hate mainstream country music. Needless to say It flopped so I got off the Lithium and went back to self medicating. In 2008 I returned to Charleston to reunited with my college friend and fellow jaded musician Joel Hamilton. We started a band called InLaws and began touring the Americana circuit. We teamed up with old pals Cary Ann Hearst, Michael Trent, and Saddler Vaden to start Shrimp Records. The winds of change blew once more and brought me to Brooklyn, New York where I currently reside. I spend my days co­writing with emerging artists, touring the globe as guitarist for Danish group Oh Land, and making French Camp and solo albums (three in the past three years). I miss the south with endearment deeper than the sea, though I feel at peace floating on the surface, drifting aimlessly and writing my memoirs. Who knows what the future will bring when the past has been so prolific. http://www.owenbeverly.com http://www.twitter.com/owenbeverly http://www.instagram.com/owenbeverly