Owen Ray

Owen Ray first slung a guitar over his shoulder at the age of seven. He was captivated by the raw emotion emanating from his parents’ stereo: a diverse harmony that included everything from the philosophical revolt of The Clash to the swashbuckling storytelling of The Pogues and the epic poetry of Springsteen.  

Over the next decade, this captivation became a roaring passion for performing. When he was ten Owen joined the School of Rock music performance program in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota. His School of Rock tenure included hundreds of shows in his local Twin Cities, as well as dozens more at venues from Nashville to New York City. He’s left boot prints on stages at Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago, The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, Graceland, and The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, to name a few.  

Eventually, Owen was taking the stage with bands of his own, including Defuser--a spirited six-piece ska-rock band. He also plays with the rollicking Irish punk band St. George’s Folly, and he's performed regularly with Nate Beck and The Manchester Social Club.  

At 17 Owen’s music assumed more of an Americana feel. Pulling from influences like Frank Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Fallon, and Joe Strummer, as well as his lifelong love of rockabilly and golden age rock n’ roll, Owen’s music blends the urgency of punk rock with the stark thematics of American roots music. His debut EP, "My Old Rotten Bones," teems with imagery and motifs that are both vintage and timeless as it paints the epic adolescent struggles of maturation and the youthful yearning for freedom and significance.

For his most recent single, Owen went back to Nate Beck and Social Club Records, this time to explore the punk edge of his music. The result was "In Case You're Ever Alone," a soaring bar-rock anthem of freedom, growing up, learning to move on.