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Ginny Owens
For the past
eight years, fans worldwide have heard Ginny Owens sing of a
love without condition and a willingness to walk through the
valley. They’ve listened to her cries for something more and her
confessions of wrestling with what it means to be beautiful. But
never has anyone heard her soul laid bare quite like this.
With her October
2005 studio album, Ginny Owens invites listeners to come along
on her own journey, to step inside her life, and to become a
fellow traveler on the Long Way Home.
“I feel older,”
Owens admits. “I feel like there’s certain things I’ve come to
understand that I didn’t understand even two years ago. And one
of those things is that I’m never going to be completely
comfortable in my own skin. I’m never going to be completely
comfortable as an artist. And that’s OK. I think I’m finding
comfort in the fact that I’m always going to be slightly
uncomfortable.
“None of us ever
completely fit where we are. But when you’re more comfortable
with the uncomfortable, it causes you to let your guard down and
let people in. You just don’t worry so much about what people
think of you. Over the last few years I feel like I’ve learned
to be more myself, and my new record is a result of that growth
in some ways. It’s about being sad, and then picking myself up
again. It’s just maybe more raw, more soulful, more emotional
and maybe less resistant to those emotions.”
With three
commercially and critically acclaimed CDs to her credit—not to
mention eight Dove nominations, multiple high-profile tours,
four Top 5 radio singles and mainstream credibility from
appearances on national TV, Lilith Fair and the Sundance Film
Festival—Owens knew anticipation was great for her next
collection of new material. What’s more, 2005 was booked solid
with tour dates, a live CD and DVD release, newly initiated
songwriting conferences she was leading and the launch of her
own non-profit ministry, the Fingerprint Initiative
http://www.fingerprintinitiative.org It didn’t leave a lot
of time for planning out Album No. 4.
And that was just
fine by Ginny. For her newest recording, she knew it was
important to try a different approach, to find an open space to
create without the pressure of too many outside voices or the
time for her own perfectionism to kick into gear.
“I had a groove
going, and I just didn’t think too hard about it. I didn’t want
to let anyone break it. I didn’t want the powers that be in
management or A&R to help me overanalyze too much, which I often
do. There was more of a sense of my own focus on the music
because nobody was looking over my shoulder.”
No one could keep
watch because no one could keep up. Owens, serving as a
co-producer for the first time, spent her summer and spring
traveling to locations far and wide to find just the right
atmosphere for her bubbling creative juices. First she trekked
to the West Coast with long-time friend and mentor Monroe Jones
for a session in L.A., and later experimented with label
mate/producer Will Hunt on four songs in the live music capital
of Austin, Texas. Owens then bonded with Vince Emmett in her
hometown of Nashville to cut the final tracks. A month later,
she finalized the disc in New York City with mix-master
extraordinaire Ben Wisch.
“Every record I
feel like has been a good representation of where I was at that
moment. But I think with this record, I’ve felt more musically
engaged and more freedom. I know who my audience is now, so I’m
going to make songs that I think will communicate effectively to
them and songs that I also really enjoy.”
The results are
10 tracks that boldly skip along the lines of commercial pop and
introspective, intelligent songwriting, all wrapped with an
element of the R&B/blues flavor on which Ginny grew up in her
native Mississippi. In the end, it’s a hybrid of many of the
styles she personally loves, from Sarah McLachlan to India Arie
to Norah Jones to Switchfoot.
In terms of
themes, Don Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz and a sermon series on
Proverbs by Pastor Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in
Manhattan were two major points of inspiration for Long Way Home
as ideas about seeking wisdom and community rise to the surface
on several tracks. The album’s title cut, for example, was
inspired by Owens’ time away from home, living on the road most
of last year.
“I was studying
about and trying to grasp our need for community. We really
cannot exist without it. But community’s challenging for me. I
could literally spend most nights just entertaining myself
somehow. Part of writing that song was stating my own need for
community… But it’s also my awareness of broken hearts. I just
look at the news, and I’m stunned that everything’s so dark!
What are we really doing to change it? It started me thinking
about how we as Christians impact culture and about what I can
do for others.”
The first single
from Long Way Home, “Fellow Traveler,” takes the notion of
impact one step further.
“I love that idea
that sharing the gospel is just one beggar telling another
beggar where to find bread. That’s where ‘Fellow Traveler’ came
from. What do I have that I wish other people had? What is it
about being a Christian that’s different than anything else you
could be? The thing is you don’t earn it, it’s unconditional.
All I can really say to anybody who doesn’t believe in Jesus is
‘This is who I am, this is what I know. You don’t have to accept
it, but let me tell you why it’s changed my life.’”
Her notions of
evangelism spread beyond speaking words of faith—Ginny Owens is
convinced that Christians must be doers of God’s words as well,
finding opportunities to serve in meaningful, tangible ways. Her
non-profit foundation, Fingerprint, is currently partnering with
organizations like Compassion International, International
Justice Mission and Habitat for Humanity to do just that.
“The mantra of
Fingerprint is bringing hope to the world one touch at a time.
God has been so good to me. He’s touched my life with blessings,
with friends. How cool would it be if I was so compelled by
those things that I wanted to go out and reflect those touches
in the way that I loved others? If I were to bear witness to who
He is by serving other people? We’re reflections of the image of
God as we take care of our communities. God calls us to do that
over and over again.”
Blind since the
age of 2, Owens often gets questions about her life without
sight and how she writes such insightful words about a world
she’s never physically seen. Years ago, she first had the idea
to try to communicate the pictures in her head. The result is
“Wonderful Wonder,” a song both intensely personal and
vulnerable while at the same time universally applicable.
But when I long
to know what I don’t see/You give me the courage to believe/…I
can hardly wait until the time/When You will turn my darkness
into light/And I finally find my way to Heaven’s door/Where I
won’t need my faith anymore
“Sometimes I
write things that I can’t even really get my brain around,”
Owens says. “‘’Wonderful Wonder’ is like that in the sense that
it’ll be a song that I will have to get a handle on emotionally
before I sing it. If I think about that whole idea of the first
thing I ever see will be Jesus, it’s a little much for me. But
yet, I wanted to paint that idea in a song, and I wanted to
parallel that with the idea that we all wish we could see life
through His eyes.”
It’s another
uncomfortable moment for the artist, but one she’s proud to
share. Ginny Owens is delivering a career album in the busiest
season of her life, finding freedom and inspiration in her work
and service.
“I’m getting to
experience a lot of realized dreams in my life right now. The
past few years have been the most stressful time in my career
because of the amount of work I’ve brought on myself. But I’ve
also figured out how to really find myself in what I do. I feel
like I’m sort of crafting my place in the world, like I’m in my
element. I feel like the pieces are working together, and I’m
inspired by all the things I get to do. Whether teaching and
serving in non-musical ways or encouraging people with my music…
all of those things are what’s making me tick right now.”
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