“Americana is by defined by authenticity.” - There is no one more authentically Americana than Richie Owens

Why Should You Book Richie Owens?

Nashville may be known around the world as Music City USA, but anyone who lives there knows the real roots of the music are not always found under the brightest lights.

If you want authentic, roots-driven Americana — the kind built from family, faith, fables, bloodlines, hardship, humor, and old mountain truth — you need to find the room where Richie Owens is playing.

Richie Owens did not come to Nashville chasing a version of country music. He was born into it.

A fifth-generation Appalachian musician, storyteller, producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Richie grew up surrounded by the sounds of East Tennessee, the Smoky Mountains, old-time gospel, early country, folk ballads, mountain blues, and the working-class stories that shaped American roots music. His family history runs deep through the same soil that gave the world Dolly Parton, Tennessee mountain music, and the lasting traditions of Appalachian song.

Richie has toured the world as a member of Dolly Parton’s band, performed on major international stages, produced and recorded with legendary artists, and worked across music, film, and storytelling for decades. But at the heart of what he does now is something more intimate, more personal, and more powerful: carrying the story of Appalachia forward.

Richie Owens featuring Bob Ocker and Joe Sharp

Richie’s current live presentation is an acoustic Appalachian trio featuring lifelong friends and roots musicians Bob Ocker and Joe Sharp.

Together, Richie Owens, Bob Ocker, and Joe Sharp create a stripped-down but deeply textured performance built around acoustic guitar, mandolin, upright bass, harmonica, harmony vocals, spoken-word storytelling, and songs rooted in the old traditions of the Southern mountains.

This is not a nostalgia act.

It is living history.

The show blends original songs, family stories, traditional Appalachian influences, mountain gospel, Depression-era spirit, folk-blues grit, and the personal bloodline connections that link the Smoky Mountains back to Wales, England, Ireland, Scotland, and the old-world ballad traditions that traveled across the Atlantic and took root in Appalachia.

Appalachia — Ballads, Bloodlines, and the Long Journey Home

The trio’s current work is built around Richie’s larger creative project, “Appalachia — Ballads, Bloodlines, and the Long Journey Home,” along with the companion film and music project “Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith, and Fables.”

This performance is designed for listening rooms, folk clubs, theaters, heritage centers, arts venues, roots festivals, Americana audiences, and intimate spaces where people still care about the story behind the song.

The music draws from the same deep well as Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Woody Guthrie, early Bob Dylan, old mountain gospel, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, and the raw storytelling edge of American folk tradition.

Richie does not simply sing about Appalachia.

He comes from it.

What Audiences Experience

A Richie Owens Appalachian trio performance gives audiences more than a concert. It gives them a journey.

The show moves through songs and stories of mountain families, old churches, coal roads, floods, faith, survival, humor, loss, redemption, and the long road between the British Isles and the Southern Appalachian mountains.

It is acoustic, personal, warm, historically grounded, and emotionally direct.

Audiences hear the music in the same spirit it was originally carried — close up, human, unvarnished, and alive.

Why Book This Show?

Book Richie Owens featuring Bob Ocker and Joe Sharp if you want an authentic Appalachian roots performance with real history behind it.

Book this trio if your audience values storytelling, musicianship, heritage, Americana, folk, old-time country, gospel, blues, and songs that feel lived-in rather than manufactured.

Book this show if you want something that connects both American and UK audiences through the shared traditions of family, faith, fables, ballads, bloodlines, and the long journey home.

Richie Owens has played major stages, toured internationally, produced award-winning music, worked with iconic artists, and lived the Nashville story from the inside.

But this Appalachian trio brings him back to the source.

Three musicians.
A handful of instruments.
Stories carried through generations.
Songs born from the mountains.
And a sound that reminds people where American roots music truly came from.

Richie Owens featuring Bob Ocker and Joe Sharp
Appalachia — Ballads, Bloodlines, and the Long Journey Home

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