“Down Owens Lane”

 

Musician Profile:

 

Bryan Owens… from Maryland, USA has been a performing musician for the past 14 years. His work with rock bands, jazz groups, vocal choirs, musical productions, folk groups, Irish musicians as well as a history of solo guitar performance, reflects his wide range of taste in music. Bryans main band in the U.S.A ‘The Madcap Laughs’ created a niche in the university music circuit with their blend of original funk/rock. They also released a CD.

As a student of the Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Bryan studied and received a degree in Music Industry Studies. Part of his training involved working with RCA records in Nashville, Tennessee, the main center for the Country and Western music business.

To fulfil a passion for ethnic folk/roots music, Bryan spent the next 2 years traveling and performing throughout Europe and Ireland. He arrived in New Zealand touring with an Irish fiddle player in 1998. Then ‘Down Owens Lane’ was formed including writing, performing and touring with Nina Lane and playing with the Nelson/Golden Bay ethnic folk/roots groups ‘Potha’, ‘Aardvark’ and ‘Podryan’. Since arriving in the USA Bryan has performed mostly in the NW with ‘Down Owens Lane’ and a authentic Bulgarian band called ‘Kafana Klub’.

 

Nina Lane… ‘What stops people in their tracks when Nina performs is her unique voice, a rare instrument with a deep glowing alto tone, like liquid honey’.

Nina’s musical genesis began on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand, a creative childhood surrounded by musicians, artists and writers. This inspired regular vocal training, beginning aged 14. Sixteen years as a professional musician has seen her touring New Zealand as a solo, singer songwriter guitarist, supporting the likes of Paul Ubana Jones a dynamic International Nigerian, English musician and New Zealand’s own singer songwriter, Mike Harding.

 Internationally Nina has surprised punters more accustomed to hackneyed Elvis covers in Singapore’s Hard Rock Café, drawn spontaneous crowds in India and Australia and teamed with an Israeli cellist, performing the streets, bars and cafes in Amsterdam, and Northern Europe.

In 1998 Nina teamed with instrumentalist Bryan Owens and the duo ‘Down Owens Lane’ was formed. With this grew a passion for Ethnic Folk music and the singing of songs in other languages. Lane’s debut CD released in 1999, features James Wilkinson on fretless bass.

 In 2001 Nina assisted Bert van Dijk (head of Performing Arts-UCOL, NZ) facilitate, write and teach the musical score to a cast of 80 people, for a large outdoor production, set in Golden Bay, NZ. Based on the Maori myth ‘Ngararahuarau’- the Taniwha of Wainui. Currently Nina performs and teaches singing one-on-one and group workshops covering vocal techniques, public performance and promotion, out of Portland, Oregon.

 

Dennis Godfrey…. Dennis stumbled into folk dancing nearly twenty-five years ago while looking to do some kind of body-movement activity. The melodies, rhythms and odd sounding instruments twisted his ear in many pleasant ways and he soon found himself learning the music. Dennis has performed Balkan music up and down the West coast for 20 years. His main instrument is a vertically played fiddle called a Gudulka. He also plays Tambura (long-necked lute) and Kaval (end-blown flute). He founded his present group, Kafana Klub, in Portland, Oregon which can be heard every Tuesday evening at ‘It's A Beautiful Pizza’ café. Dennis is the current program director and founder of ‘Balkanalia’ an annual weekend workshop of singing instruments and dance. For more info: balkanalia.com.