Cutting his musical teeth in the Presbyterian Church of his small home town in Texas, he was later introduced to songwriting at the Kerrville Folk Festival. A demo recording he made as a student at UT grabbed Lloyd Maines’ attention who went on to produce Temple’s first 3 CDs.

His influences read like a who’s who in Texas music and his accomplishments include taking first place in the B.W. Stevenson songwriting competition in 2007 and a finalist in Kerrville’s New Folk Competition that same year. 2009’s Dollars and Dimes was voted #1 Americana record on the Euro Americana chart just this last July.

Most the show was from Mountain Home and Owen wound his songs around and through some of Texas’ favorite traditions and also some of the hard times. I listened to songs like Small Town or Medicine Man and found myself seeing the plains and dusty towns of early Texas and the dreams and struggles of the early Texans.

The title song Mountain Home is a story of a man that’s served his time and all he wants is to go back to his home in the hill country of Texas. The song seems to blend much of Temple’s country and bluegrass roots into an up-tempo tale of this single moment in this man’s life.

Old Sam is an audience participation song about gritty old Sam Houston and how his statue in Huntsville isn’t big enough. Don’t worry, your part isn’t hard and even a voice like mine which sounds little better than a train wreck can sing it. Prince of Peace talks of the inner spirit and the soul of Texas. One Day Closer to Rain is about an optimistic Texas farmer’s determination to tough it out through a bad drought.

In all the songs and all the stories told there was one central theme that struck me and that was pride. Owen is obviously proud to be a Texan and loves to tell the stories of Texans. So when you get the chance to see him, sit back, have a beer and listen to a Texan talk about Texas.