AUK award-winning Scots songwriter Dean Owens teams up with Italy’s Don Antonio and finds they actually have a lot in common as they record in a 400 hundred-year-old farmhouse and enjoy some wine along the way.
February 14th sees the much-anticipated release of “Spirit Ridge”, Dean Owens’ official follow-up to his widely acclaimed “Sinner’s Shrine” album. Following on from his collaboration in Tucson with Calexico for that album, this time around Owens decamped to Italy, to the Emilia-Romagna district to join forces with the renowned Italian producer, musician and film-maker Antonio Gramentieri, AKA Don Antonio, formerly of Italian band Sacri Cuori and well known for his recent collaboration with Alejandro Escovedo, the pair having been introduced by their mutual friend John Convertino of Calexico.
The album was recorded at Crinale, a 400 year old farmhouse which has been converted into Don Antonio’s studio, with some of the songs inspired by …