Local folk-rock icon, Chuck Owston, releases discs for knights and knaves among us
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Chuck Owston -- "Some people don't believe that I exist."
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At the age of 68 -- one year older than Mick Jagger -- Chuck Owston should scientifically not be rocking as hard as he is.
But Mr. Owston has played music in various genres over the decades, starting with rockabilly and the folk revival, through psychedelia and blues, and finally into Celtic and English folk-rock and the goth scene. He also has a band called Bonfire Night that's somewhat metal in orientation.
"It's more like a heavy version of British folk -- we sing with natural voices and not like Cookie Monster," he says. "[The band] has a Dark Ages theme -- our time frame is the fall of the Roman Empire through the First Crusade."
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Where: Borders Books & Music, Monroeville.
Admission: Free; 412-374-9772.
Bonfire Night might be a musical version of the Society of Creative Anachronism, but there are limits to its reenactment. "The songs are historically correct. Sometimes we dress up in the garb, but not unless it's a big concert. When you walk into [South Side venue] Excuses dressed like a barbarian, people don't get it."
Where Bonfire leaves off, Mr. Owston's group All Who Wander (the title is from "Lord of the Rings") takes up "psychedelic folk from the 1060s to the 1960s" ranging from songs of the Napoleonic Wars to "White Bird" by '60s band It's a Beautiful Day to "Burford Stomp" by '80s UK folk-punkers The Levellers. "It's about [17th-century anti-royalist Oliver] Cromwell betraying his supporters. They wanted the great estates to be broken up as he had promised, and as politicians often do, he reneged on his promise, then had them imprisoned and shot."
As a historical figure in the Pittsburgh music scene, Mr. Owston also has a grasp of personal genealogy, with his brother, Jim, tracing their family's roots back to Scandinavia and Northern Russia before A.D. 800.
First Published October 28, 2010 12:00 am
