Video: Bones Owens Shares LR Baggs Live Performances & Official 'Eighteen Wheeler' Video

Nashville troubadour Bones Owens recently announced the December 1 release of the Eighteen Wheeler EP with the release of the title track and today shares the official video.  Watch the live performance videos here.

The Keith Leman-directed video begins with Owens in a jail cell and flashes back to the events that led him there. "We were initially inspired by a Polaroid Keith took of Heath Ledger in 2002 and it set the tone, visually, for the project," says Bones.

"We sat down over breakfast one day to start writing the treatment, and began to pull inspiration from this film I really liked, ‘A Place Beyond The Pines.' Thinking about the film and how it's this beautiful love story with a tragic ending, it just felt closely tied to the heart of the song. Over time our treatment evolved and took on a life of its own, but in many ways, it's an homage to that film. We wanted to tell a story of the complexities of love when it's not easy and how far someone will go to try and make it right."

The contemplative, thousand-yard-stare of "Eighteen Wheeler" is a mesmerized celebration of the unstoppable nature of fated love, Owens' worldly timbre framed by haunting organ and chiming guitar.

Eighteen Wheeler finds Owens in an earnest place with his melody-driven Americana more cinematic and evocative than ever. The EP marks a significant, sophisticated sonic shift that hints at Owens' sophomore full-length, due in Summer 2024. 

You can get an early, stripped-down taste of tracks from Eighteen Wheeler courtesy of LR Baggs, who had Bones Owens by the studio for a solo acoustic performance session.  View the four-song performance HERE.

While a departure from the more raucous, made-for-the-stage stylings of his self-titled, debut LP, through lines of sincere storytelling, authentic Delta blues, and evocative lyricism still permeate Eighteen Wheeler. Echoes of Owens' early folk-driven EPs are clearly present and his many years as a working Nashville musician linger, yet this decidedly delicate and vulnerable six-song record is his most heartfelt and distinctive to date.

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Owens