I discovered Owsley through a Ben Folds Five fan site, in a thread along the lines of “If you love Ben Folds, you’ll probably like this guy too.” Their sounds weren’t very similar (Owsley’s instrument of choice is the guitar, for one thing, while Folds has almost always recorded without one) but I did recognize a similar vibe and sensibility.
In their early days, Ben played drums in a band Owsley started called The Semantics, before leaving to form his trio. Several websites report that Ben wasn’t actually a member of The Semantics, though he did record with them… just semantics, I guess (my apologies for the weak joke).
Today’s song, ‘Sonny Boy,’ is the most Folds-esque tune on Owsley’s debut album, with its jaunty piano line and melodic bass line. I’ve read speculation that the song is actually about Folds, the guy who hit it big and left the rest of the band behind. But if Folds wasn’t actually in The Semantics, does that really fit?
A regular man about town
He’s got the world revolving around the music
And keeping his ear to the ground
He falls asleep behind his dark sunglasses
And whispers the words with a smile
D-I-double-G, I love ya, baby
I ain’t seen your face in awhile
She ain’t keeping score, he don’t owe her anything
But she ain’t gonna sit around
Waiting for the phone to ring
Sonny Boy, don’t take your toys away
Save them for a rainy day, yea, yea, yea
An IOU could break her heart in two
She thought you were the real McCoy, Sonny Boy
He’s got his servant and his own dumbwaiter
To answer the phone when you call
Sorry, Sonny’s underneath the weather
Try him back later next fall
The boss called him out to California
Let Hollywood make you a star
Now he’s on the Music Television
And driving a Cadillac car
Funny how fame and money does what it can
To bring about change in the boy
The clothes don’t make the man
It’s a game you just can’t win
Though it never will be the same again
Fair-weather friend
I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Sonny
He can’t get it off of his mind
He wants to laugh, but he don’t think it’s funny
A conscience can turn on a dime
When he was a boy, they taught him the Golden Rule
Take him for anything, but don’t take him for a fool
Meet Me In Montauk 
Now, hold on! You are doing a whole week of Owsley? Wow—way to lose the blog followers you brought in with the Glee theme weeks. I can just hear Kerrie saying to herself right now, “Geez, there must be some work I left undone while I was enjoying those Glee songs!”:)
And someplace in LA, Jackson Browne is just shaking his head in disbelief:)
Oh, but, as for the SOTD—this is a good one.
Just three days. Out of respect for the dead.