photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/ShaneOwensCountry/photos/
photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/ShaneOwensCountry/photos/
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Today we continue our week long focus on some of the up-and-coming names in Nashville that you may not be to familiar with right now, but they are artists we are thinking you might be getting to know a lot better in 2017. Today we turn our attention to an artist who first came to the attention of Nashville in 2005, and who has survived the ups and downs of the music industry and though he's been knocked down a few times, he has never been counted out.

Shane Owens has seen his country music dream dream built up and burnt to the ground almost as quick. Owens had built a following across the southeast, opening shows for dozens of name acts, with Nashville slowly catching on to the unknown from Geneva, AL. Several record companies approached him, offering to produce singles, but none would commit to an album, and Owens declined. The opportunity to make that album was finally offered in 2005, resulting in the debut-album Let's Get It On. The lead single, "Bottom of the Fifth" became a hit on the Texas music charts, and had broken on the national chart when his label closed, 3 months after the album's release.

photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/ShaneOwensCountry/photos/
photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/ShaneOwensCountry/photos/
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Owens did what he could to keep his name and his music out there, and in 2009 producer James Stroud, who had worked with Chris Young and Clint Black, took the singer under his wing and got to work on a second album. And, if Owens was left battered and bruised by his first Nashville experience, the experience of his second album should have been the knock-out blow. The album was completed and delivered to the label, who folded soon after receiving the project; the singer was staggered.

photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/ShaneOwensCountry/photos/
photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/ShaneOwensCountry/photos/
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One good point came out of the second experience: Owens maintained ownership of the songs he had written for the second album. Staggered, it took Owens 6 more years before Stroud was able to lure him back into the studio. Owens signed with Ameritone records in 2015 and he went back to work with Stroud, taking several songs from the ill-fated 2009 project, combining them with some new songs, co-written with Ed Seay.

The finished project was released late in 2015, and the result perfect portrait of a country music traditionalist. The second single from the album Where I'm Comin' From is in our spotlight today. Shane Owens and "All The Beer In Alabama" is today's Catch of the Day, new music you haven't heard, but you'll want to hear it again.

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