Ikey Owens

self-titled

scum stats: there's a lot of variants here, salsa verde, orange habanero, purple haze and, surprisingly, an exclusive specific for Third Man on yellow vinyl.

In short, for nearly ten years Third Man put a lot of time and money and effort into trying to release this album. The verbiage shared with its release, finally accomplished by Unit E Records, dances around the specifics. Since they don't mention those exact details, I find no reason to air them here. But find me in person, get me on a roll, bend my ear, flatter me even and I'll be sure to tell you all the insight.

Regardless, Ikey Owens, he of many musical endeavors and best known to me as keyboardist magnificent for Jack White solo, had this album in the can when he passed away ten years ago. And we were happy, proud even, to take up the yoke to bring it to the masses. We put a 7" single in the limited edition version of our "The Magic Of We" book. We worked. Hard.

Alas, the challenges were insurmountable. So it's a tad bittersweet to see this thing come out and not have been the engine behind it. I think this would've bothered me way more ten years ago. So if this journey has helped give me anything, it is perspective.

As for the sounds...I don't smoke weed, but I imagine someone who does could very much zone out to this one. Lots of space. Lots of extended songs. Explorations. Ain't nothing wrong with that.