Long before Nashville, there was a stack of old cassette tapes in a Manitoba home. Ollee Owens and her brother would dig through them looking for music that spoke to them, and they found it in the Delta blues. Years later, those discoveries have led the Calgary singer and songwriter to the most ambitious music of her life. Her soulful new single “Common Ground” is out now, the first taste of her third album, ‘From Now On,’ arriving February 26, 2027.
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At a time when political, ideological, racial, and religious divides are pulling families, communities, and nations apart, “Common Ground” speaks straight into the space between us. Owens wrote it with Phil Hughley, whose credits include CeCe Winans, TajMo, and The War and Treaty, along with Kornelius Colyn. The song asks listeners to face the fear, greed and exclusion that have been allowed to take root, and to recognize that none of us stands entirely outside the problem.
For ‘From Now On,’ Owens teamed up with one of Canada’s most celebrated roots musicians. Toronto-born producer and guitarist Colin Linden is a Grammy winner and nine-time JUNO Award winner. He co-founded Blackie and the Rodeo Kings with Tom Wilson and Stephen Fearing, and he spent years as Bruce Cockburn’s guitarist and co-producer. He has also worked with Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, and The Band, and served as music director for the TV series Nashville.
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He’s a big believer in her too. “Ollee Owens is the voice of empathy,” Linden says. “Blues, soul, music of the spirit all emanates from her with joy and compassion. Her music is a balm for the troubled, the restless, the hopeful and the seekers in this world. Dig deep and take comfort.”
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Owens travelled to Nashville to record the album’s 10 songs live in the studio over just four days. Linden played guitar alongside bassist Johnny Dymond, drummer George Receli and keyboardist Mike Hicks, and the sessions favoured instinct and chemistry over polish. That spirit mirrors the album’s message: these are songs about connection, collaboration and staying honest as we move forward, even when the road ahead isn’t clear.
Some very special guests joined her. The album opens with a reimagined take on Rev. Dan Smith’s “Just Keep Going On,” lifted by gospel harmonies from The McCrary Sisters. Americana great Buddy Miller adds baritone guitar to “I See You Coming,” and Grammy honoured songwriter Tommy Sims joins Owens for a duet on the title track. She also pays tribute to Julie Miller, a longtime inspiration, with a cover of “Broken Things.”
“The blues has always been at the heart of my music, but it isn’t the only sound that shaped me,” Owens says. “I grew up surrounded by music that moved across genre lines, and with this album, I wanted to give all of those influences room to breathe. Colin understood where those threads connected. He helped me bring them together in a way that remains deeply rooted in the blues while revealing more of who I am as an artist.”
Those threads go back to her childhood home on the Canadian prairie. Her mother loved Elvis and the Beatles, and her father played outlaw country and gospel. Growing up in a small Manitoba farming community, Owens became the go-to singer for local weddings, funerals and fairs. She wrote her first songs at eight and picked up the guitar at 12, then stepped away from music for years to raise her three daughters before coming back in 2022 with ‘Cannot Be Unheard.’
Her comeback has been remarkable. Her 2024 album ‘Nowhere to Hide’ won the 2025 Canadian Blues Music Award for Emerging Blues Artist or Group of the Year. It spent more than 35 weeks in the Roots Music Report’s Canadian Top 10, including five weeks at #1, and her video for “Shivers and Butterflies” drew nearly 800,000 views in a single month. She has shared festival stages with Matt Andersen and Dawn Tyler Watson and become a fixture across Western Canada, including the Calgary Blues Festival, the Camrose Blues Festival and the Nanaimo Blues Festival.
“We all want to know what’s around the bend, but life doesn’t usually give us that kind of certainty,” Owens says. “That’s really the heart of this album for me. From Now On doesn’t mean everything suddenly gets easier. It means we stop waiting for easy before we start living again. We let ourselves be loved, we make room to grow, and we keep taking the next step — together.”
That hope echoes across the record. Her cover of Tom Waits’ “Come On Up To The House” plays like a benediction, an open invitation to rest and lean on the people around you. “Lines of Your Love,” with its percussive pulse and searing electric guitar, explores the balance between loving yourself and loving others. “Boyish Man” holds space for women waiting on partners to grow up, “Up and Away” traces the path from trauma to healing and “No Place” celebrates a battle-tested love that grows stronger every year.
It’s an album about resilience, recovery, community and momentum, and a love letter to the music that has carried her all her life. The girl who once dug through cassette tapes on a prairie farm is now using music to help other people find their own way, and she’s inviting everyone to meet her on common ground.
‘From Now On’ Track Listing:
“Just Keep Going On”
“Up And Away”
“Common Ground”
“I See You Coming”
“Broken Things”
“No Place”
“From Now On”
“Lines Of Your Love”
“Boyish Man”
“Come On Up To The House”
