Often I’ll reach back for some forgotten artist as a Song of the Day candidate with absolutely no idea what he’s up to now.
A quick Google search reveals that the pop singer I listened to back in college went on to produce one more album before opening up a coffee house in a small Midwestern town.
Or maybe she’s been toiling away at a musical career, worshiped by a small but passionate fan base, with seven underheard albums and hundreds of live shows under her belt.
In the case of Will Owsley (who performed as Owsley), the news isn’t so good. Owsley died in an apparent suicide in April 2010, leaving behind his wife and two sons from a previous marriage.
It was bizarre to read that news, especially because I’ve been meaning to feature one of his songs for a long time, longer than 5 months. So it occurred to me that at one point earlier this year I might have blogged about an Owsley song while he was very much alive, and now he’s just gone.
I even flirted with the strange idea that he killed himself because he couldn’t stand being forgotten, and had he stumbled upon that hypothetical post he might have reconsidered taking his life. I killed Owsley!
As a tribute to a fine singer-songwriter who died way too soon (he was 44), I’m going to dedicate the rest of this week to songs from Owsley’s excellent debut album.
To see some old friends that I used to know
It was strange to see what all had changed
But just like me my hometown had to grow
On lazy Sunday afternoons
We used to drive around the neighborhood
But as I look around I see
That nothing really looks the way it should
There’s a parking lot where the church used to be
And the old town drunk changed his ways
Still my mind goes wandering down memory lane
Looking ’round for the good old days
My high-school sweetheart’s married off
With two kids and another on the way
And my coach I hardly recognized
His thick black hair has slowly turned to grey
All the debutantes and the homecoming queen
Have taken kids on to raise
Still my mind goes wandering down memory lane
Looking ’round for the good old days
When I find myself romancing now
Of the way that it used to be
I can’t help thinking someday
That it’s coming back to me
But I’ve never been the kind
To see the forest for the trees
Looking back on yesterday
Never was my favorite thing to do
But that’s OK it’s just as well
It’s seems as though there’s less to hold on to
There’s a parking lot where the church used to be
And the old town drunk changed his ways
Still my mind goes wandering down memory lane
Looking ’round for the good old days
Meet Me In Montauk 
Well, this is about as depressing a post as I can imagine. Suicide is horrible enough-but leaving behind a wife and two kids—that’s just selfish and awful!
I assume his mental issues involved far more than a loss of popularity that, let’s face it, he really never achieved to any real degree in the first place. Perhaps reading your SOTD a year ago may have helped him, but he may well have just thought, like much of the country reading your blog, “he featured me, ME, but hasn’t yet featured Jackson Browne?” 🙂
Anyway, Owsley is another one of those relatively obscure artists I know only through your IPod collection, but I really do like his sound. If there is WiFi in the afterlife, hopefully he is enjoying the posthumous tribute.
I can’t even describe how this song as well as the rest of the (every song is great) album is inspiring my writing. I love this guy and first saw the album cover in an issue of Mix magazine. There was praise for the recording quality and the eventual take over of mixing or mastering (i forget which) that had been done to it. It was so highly praised that I had to go buy it. Oh my what a treasure of incredibly crafted songs and EVERY SINGLE SONG IS GOOD. Yes, I just yelled that. 🙂
If you haven’t heard the album in its entirety you should. Then his second record while not as sonically sophisticated as the first has every song being killer. When a friend of me railed about how selfish and foolish he was for killing himself (and I agree, although feel sorry because I’m sure no one without a disorder does this) I started searching for more info, and what did I find The Semantics. My goodness another collection of simply ridiculously killer songs written by Owsley and another new hero of mine Millard Powers. This record – Powerbill just simply ripped my head off. I couldn’t believe how good this stuff was and of course Zak Starkey on the drums just glued this thing together. These songs are all some of the best stuff I’ve heard since the Beatles.
Anyway was looking for song analysis on Owsley stuff when I found this blog and had to post. I’ll check this blog regularly now.