Bones Owens visits SideTracks Music Hall Huntsville, AL

Bones Owens makes a Thunderous return to the Huntsville music scene.

My advice for concert goers has always been, don’t skip the opening act. In the case of Bones Owens, I should have taken my own advice or at least expanded that just a bit. Don’t skip the opening band and pay attention. It turns out that I had seen Bones in August 2021 opening for Whiskey Myers. I was aware they were playing, but I would guess the excitement of seeing Whiskey Myers again distracted my attention to what Bones was about.

Skip ahead to July 2022. I go to see Bones Owens headline a show at my local stomping grounds Side Tracks Music Hall. I spoke with the band before the performance and asked Bones how he would explain his style of music. “I mean it’s rock and roll at its core.” “There’s bits of like Blues and I mean; classic rock is really what it’s sort of steeped in.” says Bones Owens.

For the sake of the music fan in me, I was considering this my first time. I was here to see them play, so pay attention this time. I also asked Bones what he would tell a first-time attendee to expect from the show. Bones told me, “So headlining a show like tonight, it’s more of a full scope of every little bit of everything that I’ve done.” “Like the rock thing, but also some songs from previous records that I’ve made that are, you know, a little more mellow and you know the kind of songwriter-based stuff as well.” “Our set is like a mix of almost every song off the most recent record, as well as a handful of songs from previous EP’s.” “Even a small solo set.” Ok, now you have my attention!

When I saw Bones in 2021, the band was a duo. A guitarist and a drummer in the style of The Black Keys or The White Stripes. That is not to make a comparison in styles. Bones has his own unique style of Rock ‘n Roll. Bones Owens is now a power trio with Bones Owens on Guitar, Doy Gardner on Drums and the addition of Sonny Remlinger on bass and keyboards.

From the first few notes of the opening song “Lightning Strike”, also the opening song of the new record, I knew I had made a mistake by not paying closer attention the first time. The second song, “Ain’t Nobody”, also on the new record, made it clear that tonight would be a good night for some great music!

The set continued onward with “Come My Way”, “Good Day”, “Keep On Running” all of which are on the new record. Remember Bones telling us that tonight would be a good mix of the new music? Well, he wasn’t kidding. Also, in the set from the first record were “Keep It Close”, “White Lines”, “Country Man” & “Tell Me”. The set would include 9 out of the 12 songs from his recent release.

The set also included songs from his previously released EP’s as well as a few new unreleased songs. What a great mix of songs for a set! From a fan standpoint, it doesn’t get much better than that! But wait, there’s more! Doy and Sonny left the stage, and we got a few songs solo with just Bones himself. This indeed was a nice mix of great songs to make up a setlist. I would tend to guess that a playlist from a seasoned fan wouldn’t be better than this set!

After that killer set, I spoke with long time fan Noah Galanti. Noah has been following Bones for approximately 13 years. He tells me about previous bands through the years that Bones has played with and in support roles. It seems Bones has a very diverse musical background which always makes for good music. I asked Noah what Bones Owens music meant to him. “I mean, it’s just good rock and roll music. I really like it.” Noah continues. “Yeah, like all my friends that like riding in my car with me, they know The Becoming and they know Caleb’s music.” The Becoming is a former band of Bones and Caleb Owens is his given name.

In my talks with Bones prior to the show, I asked him about the name Bones. It’s not exactly a ‘normal’ name. Whatever a normal name is. “My grandpa called me that as a kid and then, then this thing went away. No one called me that for a long time.” “Then the Nickname came back around.” “We used to do a weekly residency like a jam thing at a bar in Nashville and this guy named Billy Falcon, me and a handful of other Nashville songwriter types” “And so he would in a thick New York accent announce me and sort of mumbling sometimes too. He kind of mumbled, maybe too much, and Caleb Owens, the Caleb O whatever running the end of my first name into my last name, and someone thought that he said Bones, uh, a friend of the group thought he said bones. That guy started calling me bones and then everyone started calling me that.” I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard of someone getting the same nickname in two different periods in their life.

So, take my advice. Never skip the opening band and pay attention to that band. You might just miss out on something good. My next little piece of advice is if Bones Owens is in your radius of concert travel, go see him. Buy the ticket, take the ride whether he is an opener and especially if he is headlining. This band is well worth the price of that ticket. While you’re there pick up the new recording. It’s available on CD and vinyl. It’s been in my car on play non-stop since the show.

For more on Bones Owens visit https://www.bonesowens.com/

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