William Graham Owens – 50th Reunion Essay

William Graham Owens

Date of Death: 21-Jun-2013

College: Timothy Dwight

(This memorial by Daniel Seiver appeared in the November/December 2013 Class Notes. The 1969 Class Website contains more remembrances.)

Your scribe wrote this column while listening to Bill Owens’s “Round and Round” track on his Wildflower Bouquet CD with Missile Records. Here is his music life story from the website https://www.musicpage.com/billowens:

“Singer-songwriter and guitarist for over 59 years, I have signed a record contract with Missile Records, and have just released ‘Round And Round,’ the new single from my first album, Wildflower Bouquet, which I recorded at Merit Studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and by age 12 was playing for pay in bands and folk trios all around Buckhead and north Atlanta. I was in the Atlanta Boys Choir, and at 14 appeared with my trio on WSB-TV’s Today in Georgia.

“I graduated from Yale in 1970, then returned to Atlanta to start my music career in earnest. I headlined in Bermuda at the Cock & Feather Pub two summers running, at Banks & Shane’s in north Atlanta, at Callaway Gardens, the Great Southeast Music Hall, the Atlanta High Museum as artist in residence, Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head, Sea Palms on Saint Simons Island, and The Cloister on Sea Island.

“Television station WETV Channel 30 in Atlanta tapped me in 1975 to star in two half-hour performance broadcasts, Bill Owens and Bill Owens and Friends. In 1980 I worked as creative director for Taylor-Owens Advertising in Atlanta, where I created, wrote, performed, and voiced a hit radio campaign for Stihl Chainsaws (featuring “Sonny & Bubba”), which saw Stihl’s market share in Georgia rise from 8 percent to 46 percent in a span of six months.

“Currently a solo performer and lead guitarist for St. Simons’ popular band, The Stringrays, I was half the wildly popular duo Ziggy Mahoney, which wowed southeastern and coastal audiences for over 20 years. I have appeared on television, in clubs, and on concert stages for most of my adult life, opening for Jerry Clower, Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass, and the Kingston Trio, among others.”

(From the Atlanta Journal Constitution): Bill passed away peacefully on June 21, 2013, at home, with his family. Bill will be remembered for his music, his wit and intelligence, his passion for knowledge and good causes, his complete inability to get anywhere on time, and his devotion to his wife Elizabeth. I recommend going to his website and listening to his song.

From Rusty Park: We are all unique. My freshman roommate Bill Owens was especially so. He spent hours teaching me how to play the guitar, and actually succeeded to some extent. Bill made country music an important part of my life, teaching me the songs of Mother Maybelle Carter, long before her future son-in-law Johnny Cash became famous.

After Yale, time and change did their thing. We lost touch. More than three decades later, a colleague and his wife vacationed in Georgia on St. Simons Island. In the evening they went to hear music at a place called Ziggy’s where a conversation struck up with one of the singers, who happened to be Bill. Somehow it came out that they all shared a mutual friend, Rusty Park, then living between Geneva and Boston. Bill tracked me down and sent a CD of his songs, bringing us together again. Bill was a great friend and is much missed.