Oweda: a cadre of crowd-pleasing rockers
I’m getting old. I wear glasses to see things that are near, I wear different glasses to see things that are far, and if I don’t wear glasses, well, I don’t see so well at all. That’s my excuse, anyway.
When the email came in about the upcoming album from Chattanooga band Oweda, I thought, “Hey, scheduled for release on June 4th? Sweet! The timing is perfect for my upcoming feature!”
That’s why I was nonplussed (the actual definition, not the “people don’t know what it means and use it in to mean completely the opposite” one) when I re-read the email, dangerously close to my deadline, to discover that Oweda will begin recording the EP on June 4th.
Fortunately, the band has performed enough, and built the sort of reputation that means there is plenty of live footage, enabling us to have a look at the band in anticipation of their upcoming release, the first notes of which are being laid down even as I type.
Describing themselves simply as “rock and roll,” the five-piece band consists of Casey Sowder and Jerrett Dewayne Haynes swapping roles on bass and rhythm, Cody Hawkins as drummer, Sam Beneduct on lead guitar and Tyler Sorenson behind the mic as lead vocalist.
In an age of specialization, over compartmentalization, and the burning desire to set your band apart through niche descriptions more so than actual talent (pan-African bluegrass fusion metal might look fun on paper, but if you sound like a hot mess, you sound like a hot mess) the unassuming designation of “rock and roll” seems…Spartan.
It took about three songs for me to understand completely why the band chose that designation. Forthright about their members coming from a wide variety of musical genres, they clearly have an egalitarian approach to what makes it on stage.
The first tune I heard was a smokin’ blues tune, of a quality that leads you to believe, “Aha! Blues band.”
The next tune, recorded live at our beloved JJ’s Bohemia, tossed that right out the window with as fine a festival jam as I’ve heard so far this year. “Aha! Jam band!”
This was quickly followed by a slow rock ballad. “Aha! I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about! They pretty much play whatever they want!”
The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is they aren’t kidding about their multi-faceted backgrounds, nor are they shy about playing whatever the moment and the crowd calls for. From an entertainer’s point of view, this is an extremely valuable skill, and speaks both to their talents as individuals and their ability to bring it all together as a band.
It will be curious to see what they bring to their first recording. Multi-genre mastery can generally go one of two ways on a recording; it can be a syncretic masterpiece or it can be a confused identity train wreck.
From what I’ve seen of their live performances and adoring fans, I lean towards the former. You can make your own assessment during one of the live performances they have coming up in the next several weeks, June 28th at HiFi Clyde’s or July 13th at JJ’s.
You could also peruse (in the proper definitive sense) their ample live performances available online. Whatever the case, their debut release will be featured here in these pages as soon as it comes available, and all signs point towards a gem of a recording.