{"id":5396,"date":"2025-09-23T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/bones-owens-collects-everything-but-dust\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:00:00","slug":"bones-owens-collects-everything-but-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/bones-owens-collects-everything-but-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"Bones Owens Collects Everything but Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/lead0U3A3057.jpg\" width=\"\" height=\"\" alt='Bones Owens. (Credit: Ryan \"Spidey\" Smith)'><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMy mom owned an antique store when I was a kid, so I think I just got into collecting old stuff from a young age,\u201d says Caleb \u201cBones\u201d Owens. \u201cI love collecting a lot of things, whether it be guitars, motorcycles, or records.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lately, Owens has been getting a lot of mileage out of those collections. He played all the guitars, and most of the other instruments, on his third full-length solo album <em>Best Western<\/em>, out September 19. He\u2019ll be DJing old rock and soul 45s at the release party in Nashville, where he lives. And when he goes on the road this fall, he\u2019ll probably be riding a Harley to and from shows, as he\u2019s often done on tours of the past few years. \u201cI try to intersperse as much riding as possible on tour,\u201d he says. \u201cThe rest of the equipment and everything, the other guys are traveling with that in another vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/4-non-blondes-reunion-new-lp\/\">4 Non Blondes Extend Reunion, Plot New LP<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/october-london-is-reviving-death-rows-original-multigenre-vision\/\">October London Is Reviving Death Row\u2019s Original Multigenre Vision<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/09\/why-we-need-oasis-right-now\/\">WHY WE NEED OASIS RIGHT NOW<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I connect with Owens on Zoom late one morning, though, he\u2019s enjoying some brief downtime on the Lake of the Ozarks, a couple of hours from where he grew up in Missouri. \u201cI\u2019m just kickin\u2019 back for a couple days, seein\u2019 some family, then getting back to the grind,\u201d he says. \u201cI just got to go out and go on a nice little ride here around the lake on one of my bikes this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones-Guthrie-29.jpg\" alt=\"Bones Owens. (Credit: Daniel Chaney)\" class=\"wp-image-473015\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones-Guthrie-29.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones-Guthrie-29-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones-Guthrie-29-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones-Guthrie-29-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones-Guthrie-29-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Daniel Chaney)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For <em>Best Western<\/em>, Owens returned to longtime producer Paul Moak\u2019s Nashville studio, the Smoakstack. Moak, however, was out on tour as a member of the legendary band Heart. So Owens was left to his own devices to self-produce <em>Best Western<\/em> with the help of engineers and drummer Julian Dorio. \u201c[Paul] popped in the studio for a day or two when he was home from the road, I think he played a little bit of keys on some stuff, and he played bass guitar on one song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Best Western<\/em> sounds like a love letter to the electric guitar, full of greasy riffs and gleaming leads captured vividly on tape. \u201cThe guitars get more love and attention than maybe than just about any other aspect of the record. It\u2019s gotta be right,\u201d Owens says. \u201cI experimented with some different amplifiers this time around, too. I brought in a big wall of loud British vintage amplifiers, but I also brought in a couple little Fender \u201850s and \u201860s combo amps that we can just crank all the way up. I think that soup of guitars does something, it just works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Owens\u2019s proudly old-fashioned fusion of rock, country, and Americana makes him a perfect fit for one of Nashville\u2019s most progressive labels, Thirty Tigers. \u201cSome of the acts that have been on the label like Sturgill Simpson, or Jason Isbell or Charlie Crockett, all these guys have been pretty successful but I feel like they\u2019ve also kinda done things their own way, and I respect that,\u201d Owens says. \u201cIt\u2019s an artist-friendly label. You maintain ownership of your master recordings for instance, that\u2019s huge. And they offer you the support to make the album and get it out there and distribute and all that, but it\u2019s very non-invasive as far as a label is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/BONES_0U3A3180-copy.jpg\" alt='(Credit: Ryan \"Spidey\" Smith)' class=\"wp-image-473114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/BONES_0U3A3180-copy.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/BONES_0U3A3180-copy-340x227.jpg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/BONES_0U3A3180-copy-240x160.jpg 240w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/BONES_0U3A3180-copy-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/BONES_0U3A3180-copy-498x332.jpg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">(Credit: Ryan \u201cSpidey\u201d Smith)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is one more overtly modern touch on <em>Best Western<\/em>: a guest verse by Alabama rapper Yelawolf on the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/logP8sO_9p0?si=K7y1-6RzYyvZzibW\" target=\"_blank\">title track<\/a>. That collaboration feels organic in the context of the album, though, the result of a long friendship. \u201cWe actually met through a mutual friend of ours, Bam Margera from Jackass,\u201d Owens remembers. They first wrote a song together for Yelawolf\u2019s 2014 Shady Records album <em>Love Story<\/em>, and then Owens worked on nearly every track on the 2017 follow-up <em>Trial By Fire<\/em>, and regularly backed Yelawolf onstage. \u201cI toured with him all over the world for a few years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the last few years, mixing hip-hop and country music together has become a big business, and the pop charts are full of rap\/country fusions by artists like Shaboozey and Jelly Roll. Owens, who worked with Jelly Roll on the 2017 track \u201cLong Long Time\u201d with Struggle Jennings, doesn\u2019t necessarily see himself as part of that zeitgeist, but he acknowledges that his work with Yelawolf a decade ago was in some ways an early harbinger of a growing wave. \u201cSome of the stuff that we were doing together was on the front end of it. But ultimately, I kind of feel like what we do was a little bit more gritty than the versions that have made it to mainstream at this point,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe people still aren\u2019t ready for a more trailer park version of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones_Yelawolf_creditRyanSmith.jpeg\" alt=\"Yelawolf and Bones Owens. (Credit: Ryan Smith)\" class=\"wp-image-473016\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones_Yelawolf_creditRyanSmith.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones_Yelawolf_creditRyanSmith-340x272.jpeg 340w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones_Yelawolf_creditRyanSmith-768x614.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2025\/09\/Bones_Yelawolf_creditRyanSmith-498x398.jpeg 498w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Yelawolf and Bones Owens. (Credit: Ryan Smith)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Earlier this year, Owens marked 20 years since he dropped out of college and moved to Nashville after signing a publishing deal. \u201cI dropped out of school with like 15 credit hours left, I think, and moved to Nashville, never looked back,\u201d he says. At the time, he was playing in a band, The Becoming, that released one album on the Christian indie label Tooth &amp; Nail Records in 2008. <em>Best Western<\/em> doesn\u2019t sound anything like The Becoming, but there is a vestige of his roots in that scene: Matt Thiessen of Reliant K contributed backing vocals to a few tracks and co-wrote \u201cCome Down to It.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Right now, though, Owens is happy to carve out a niche as a throwback singer-songwriter who makes records with tube amplifiers and an old Solid State Logic mixing desk. \u201cI don\u2019t really make a habit of listening to a lot of new music. And I think my influences are still just classic rock stuff, Rolling Stones and CCR, and some blues guys, y\u2019know, R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of analog components that are involved in every aspect of the records that I\u2019m making. We like to try to do it the hard way as much as possible, and the old way as much as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cMy mom owned an antique store when I was a kid, so I think I just got into collecting old stuff from a young age,\u201d says Caleb \u201cBones\u201d Owens. \u201cI&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3855,31,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bone-owens","category-features","category-pushly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}