Chuck Owston

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Chuck Owston - vocals, guitars (acoustic, electric and resonator), mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin, keyboards, pennywhistle. Chuck has been playing roots music since 1959 in a variety of configurations from rockabilly to apocalyptic folk. Since 1986 he has been involved in the English/Celtic folk rock music he first discovered in the late 60's by groups like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. He wrote the song "Dirge" after reading Greil Marcus' description of singer Richard Thompson as a minstrel during the Black Plague, following the death cart singing dirges. In both 1992 and 2001 Chuck played in the UK at a variety of venues (busking on Cropredy Bridge) and at the Braesnose Pub in the village of Cropredy, Oxfordshire during the Cropredy Festival.
In 1991 he formed the Celtic band Carnival of Souls with Bob Hartman and Brian Lowery, leaving in 1993 to pursue gothic folk rock in the band Revelations in Black. In the fall 1994 he formed A Company of Knaves, a folk rock band that lasted a year to the day. This band also performed a darker variety of Celtic music, with murder ballads and grim Medieval legendry. In 1996 Chuck was the Associate Editor of PORTHOLE, the Fairport Convention/Folk Rock magazine. This slick publication, however, only lasted 2 issues.
Chuck also performed as Owl Stone the Minstrel at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival for 6 years.
During the late 1990's and early 2000's he played in the bands Hypnos, Briar Rose, and Scarlet, as well as many solo gigs. He was also instrumental in the Celtic Harvest Coffeehouse programs as the Bryn Mawr Church.
Currently he is working solo and with a variety of other Celtic/world musicians in a loose aggregation called Bonfire Night. In the current (May 2008) incarnation of the band, Chuck is joined by Jim Orr on vocals, Jason D. Russell on drums, John Kerr on bass, and Dean Krimm. The band is occasionally joined by Chuck's son, Chris Owston, on guitar. The music is heavy Rock with Dark Ages themes.
In the Autumn of 2006, Chuck released two CDs, the first being "The Dead of October," which featured mostly original songs of the supernatural. The one interpretation was a version of the 60's psychedelic song, "White Bird," which featured the late Jamie "Wanda" Ricker (Lydia Lithium) on harmony vocals. She was also featured in the cover photo, based on the Jean Rollin film "The Fascination." The other CD was a retrospective called "Cavalier of the Road," which featured some of Chuck's original and traditional songs from 1988 to 2002, done in an acoustic style. Chuck is continuing to record material for a new CD release in 2007.
The first Bonfire Night electric CD EP "Johnny Scarecrow" was released in December of 2007. Plans are underway for a new transitional CD for 2008 called "The Nine Runes" with Nordic folkloric themes. Recently the band has gone into the studio to begin work on "Blood & Thunder," their forthcoming (around December) CD. This will feature the heavy Dark Ages rock sound with Viking themes.
In the recent edition of the Belgian magazine Memories of Crazy Neighbors, the editors writes, "His music is some of the best folkrock I've ever heard. I would say that his most recent music is like a bridge between the folk of the original Fairpoort Convention, Pentangle Shirely Collins and the recent work of bands like Verdandi and Fire & Ice."
"For over 40 years, he has been the rock n roll gypsy, the traveler in shadow, and, as this collection proves, the Tunesmith." -- liner notes from the CD "Traveler In Shadow," released 2001.
Here is a video for "Johnny Scarecrow", an original song written by Chuck. Also appearing in the video are two members of Chuck's Bonfire Night project, Josh Loughrey on guitar and Lisa Pelky on Fiddle. This was filmed in January 2006.Make sure you disable the audio sound clips so you can hear the music on this video!..