Owens' Devout, Skilled Warbling Neglects Secular Sensibilities

Two Stars

The proliferation of young female sirens on the airwaves today, from Michelle Branch to Jewel, leaves little room for generic competitors to break through.

But Nashville-based songstress Ginny Owens has one foot in the door: when Lilith Fair came to town in 1999, she was selected from 300 local musical groups to represent the area by performing in the show.

The 26-year-old also possesses another characteristic that distinguishes her from the rest of the crowd: she has been completely blind since age 2.

It was around that age when she first developed her musical talents by harmonizing her voice to the piano by singing "Jesus Loves Me." She released her first album, Without Condition, 22 years later.

Her second album, Something More, shows that the Christian/inspirational artist has the potential for great things but is limiting herself with her monolithic artistic focus.

True to her history, the album's high points come from her vocal chemistry with her background instruments.

Owens has an excellent voice -- somewhat like a combination of Natalie Merchant and Bjork with a pinch of sugar tossed in for flavor.

She has a good range with a voice well suited for either upbeat or ballad-type songs, but the best tracks are those where her accompaniments let her voice shine.

Sadly, this doesn't always happen. "With Me," the album's second track, has a weird synthetic syncopation that completely overshadows everything else. It's puzzling why they chose to include such an alien, '80s sound with this song.

Thankfully, this is the only occurrence of the bizarre backup. Quiet violins, piano and more natural-sounding instruments suit her voice much better.

On "True Story," easily the best track on the album, the background guitars nicely match the lilts of her voice. And in the quietest song, Owens' voice on "Be Still, My Soul" sounds eerily like she's singing a choir solo in a cavernous church.

Perhaps that was the point. Owens' subject matter solely revolves around self-discovery through Christianity, to the point of exasperation.

It's obvious that she is extremely devout, but there are several points where her lyrics seem more didactic than enlightening or inspirational.

She turned to singing only after her first desired career as a teacher fell through because her potential employers couldn't see past her blindness. Perhaps she chose music as her way to educate the public.

Her voice is versatile enough for some more challenging subject matter, but it seems like she's stuck in a rut with her lyrics and left to impersonating more popular top 40 artists.

For all of her distinguishing characteristics, Ginny Owens is remarkably generic. Almost everything sounds like a cutesy, overplayed Sixpence None the Richer radio single, and nothing more.

In a charming one-minute album opener titled "Prelude," Owens sings "One day I decided I'd aspire to higher ambition/ So I set out on a mission to change the world."

Reaching that goal seems unlikely. Owens' first album in 1999 ripped up the Christian music charts, but unless she decides to diversify her music and her lyrics, that's where she'll stay.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.