Dean Owens taking his new supergroup to Celtic Connections

Buffalo Blood will give a world premiere live performance along with Leith’s own Dean Owens at Celtic Connections this Friday.

An international collaboration of three US musicians, Buffalo Blood – Grammy nominee Neilson Hubbard, Joshua Britt and Audrey Spillman – and UK musician Dean Owens, with sound engineer/photographer Jim DeMain, have all worked together previously on various projects.

Collectively they were inspired to decamp from their cosy studio spaces in Nashville TN and Leith (Scotland), following the Trail of Tears over 1300 miles to spend 2 weeks living and recording way out in the desert, to create the music – songs of displacement, immigration, refugees and the power of the human spirit – for Buffalo Blood.

The album Buffalo Blood was born in the heart of the New Mexico desert, recorded on location at the stunning La Plaza Blanca, Echo Canyon, and around Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu (the setting for much of the TV series Breaking Bad).

The songs and music of Buffalo Blood are the musicians’ response to the area where it was recorded: of living and working with the heat and dust, spectacular beauty of the canyons and red rocks and thinking about the people, especially the Native Americans, who lived there before.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L_Oh0DanjM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&w=696&h=392]

The music draws on a wide range of influences, including Scottish and Southern states folk roots and Americana, resulting in a recording which includes chants and a whistling instrumental.

The musicians are all established, and highly respected in their field. Neilson Hubbard and Joshua Britt (collectively known as Neighborhoods Apart Productions) have won awards for their music video work, and have most recently collaborated with John Prine and Jason Isbell, as well as being talented musicians in their own right. Their recent work as The Orphan Brigade takes a similar starting point to Buffalo Blood, in transporting musicians to evocative locations and recording (as audio and video) what transpires.

Dean Owens, Joshua Britt, Audrey Spillman and Neilson Hubbard are Buffalo Blood. The sounds of the wind, birds and animals appear on the recordings, all of which were made live, outdoors.

Much travelled Scottish troubadour Dean Owens is recognised as one of the country’s finest singer songwriters. In 2017 he became the first Scottish musician to officially showcase at Nashville’s Americanafest. The title song from his recent highly acclaimed Southern Wind album (his 7th solo release, produced by Neilson) – is shortlisted for UK Song of the Year Award at the Americana Music Awards UK next week.

Buffalo Blood is released on Eel Pie Records on 15 February 2019, as a double album.

The world premiere live performance of Buffalo Blood (including location film footage), and album launch, is at Celtic Connections, Glasgow – the UK’s premier roots music festival – on 25 January.

£1 from the sale of each vinyl copy will be donated to the charity Redhawk Native American Arts Council.