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Sep 25, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Brenedan Blaney

Later this fall, folk singer/songwriter Garrett Owen is set to return with his third full-length album, Memoriam, out November 1st. The record follows after his 2016 self-titled debut and his 2020 album Quiet Lives and finds Owens touching on raw, contemplative folk arrangements bolstered by winding song structures and layered harmonies. Ahead of the album’s release, Owen has already shared a lead single, “Beautiful Stain,” and today he’s back with another new track, “Pony Express,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Pony Express” is a smokey, country-tinged effort, largely guided by the soft thrum of fingerpicked guitar lines and steady, insistent percussion. Knotty intricacies run underneath the track’s pastoral folk sheen, especially in the tangled guitar tones. In contrast, Owen is a simmering, crooning vocal presence, weaving winding melodies amongst the instrumentation. The resulting track feels shadowy and meditative, but it also sprawls outwards with the chorus, ascending atop swirling harmonies before falling back into a nocturnal groove as the track draws to a close.

Owen says of the track, “After a really awful break up last November, I took a road trip around the middle of the country to visit a few museums that interested me, including the Pony Express Museum in Missouri. Today, if you don’t receive a letter or package that someone sent you, the reasons probably don’t involve death. But back then, it probably meant a pony-express rider died and couldn’t finish the route—killed by enemies, or in a blizzard, or of thirst and starvation in a desert, or his horse tripped and somehow, he was impaled or broke his legs. I was really astounded by one story of a guy who started riding for the pony express when he was young, 13 or 14, and quit in his twenties to join the Union Army during the civil war. He survived all those years riding, only to be killed when his regiment was ambushed by Confederate Guerrilla fighters that were wearing Union Army uniforms. I’ve thought a lot about proximity to death over the last few years, and some of that comes out in this song.

Sonically, I was drawing influence from some of my favorite Alice In Chains songs, but I don’t think you’d be able to tell. Taylor Tatsch, who produced the album, is amazing at layering and stacking vocal harmonies. He sang the harmonies and did all that. I say something like ‘I want the chorus to sound like a totally different world. Big, pop, soaring. A very noticeable quiet to loud dynamic.’ He knows how to make it happen.

Check out the song below, along with Owen’s upcoming tour dates. Memoriam is out everywhere on November 1st.

Tour Dates:

Supporting David Ramirez:

Oct 7 | Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit Live

Oct 8 | San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar

Oct 9 | Costa Mesa, CA @ The Wayfarer

Oct 10 | Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge

Oct 12 | Folsom, CA @ Scarlet’s Saloon

Oct 13 | Novato, CA @ Hopmonk Tavern

Oct 15 | Portland, OR @ The Showdown

Oct 16 | Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern

Oct 18 | Park City, UT @ The Cabin

Oct 20 | Albuquerque, NM @ Revel Entertainment Center

Hometown album release celebration:

Dec 14 | Denton, Texas @ Dan’s SilverLeaf with Jackson & Levi Scribner