In the Spring of 2020, Tennessee’s native son, Richie Owens & his band, The Farm Bureau released the aptly titled album Reconstruction.  It was at once a work of brilliant originality that held true to folk, rock and country traditions. Albums like this have passed by critics and audiences before. Think Gene Clark’s No Other or The Dillards’ Wheatstraw Suite. Reconstruction dropped during the peak beginning of the pandemic when the world shut down in fear and frustrated despair.  Like so many important artists of the day whose creative works were lost in the shuffle   This seminal work was overlooked.

However, over the last five years, much has changed. But for Richie Owens & the Farm Bureau, a musical miracle happened.  In 2025 America is in a national political pandemic that has challenged the fundamental values and Constitutional foundations of our country.   Enter Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau’s overlooked album, Reconstruction.

Today, Reconstruction, a commercially viable album, has emerged with a new prophetic dimension.  In the context of today’s America, it is an artistic, landmark bullseye. Each song is like a battle-cry to rebuild our basic sense of unity (not uniformity), our freedom (including diversity) and a sense of who we are even through our fears, anger and disillusionment.  Giving the album a close listen today is reminiscent of the kind of hard-found patriotism and love for humanity found on Springsteen’s Nebraska.  It is all cloaked in songs that are engaging, insightful and soul-deep. It is like a dispatch from five years ago that reads, ‘yes, things can get worse, but listen to this. Through the change and the pain of loss, there is hope through music.’ 

The album, when released, was a clear original musical homage to the decades that came before. It was also a wake-up call to so much of what caused American restlessness in the first place, a sense of not being heard. The songs are cloaked in stories lost love, disillusionment, refugees, the disenfranchised and the joy of hope found in the heart of the individuals who make up our great nation. That means us….you and me.  The love & hope at the center of these songs is found in hearts of the people.

The musical influences Owens and his band draw from include his father, Louis Owens, a fine singer-songwriter and brother and career guide to Dolly Parton in her early days. He helped provide Owens  with the rich soil of country music. This can be experienced on Dolly Parton and family’s phenomenal 2024 release, Smoky Mountain DNA.

Owens’ musical vocabulary grew with the times. These can be heard in a uniquely original way echoed on Reconstruction.  The album becomes a stylistic stew where the psychedelic Beatle days along with the grunge of Neil Young, the imagination of Tom Petty and the lyrical edge of Springsteen & Dylan can be tasted.  This yet-to-be discovered album  stands alongside great rock iconic recordings of time’s past  The album’s style is not a fusion of styles as much as it is a transfusion of passion and innovation into the veins of Rock & Roll and American culture at-large.

As Richie has said on social media about this album, “Reconstruction is me, laid bare. It’s a reckoning with everything I’ve lived through, everything I’ve lost, and everything I still believe music can be. I didn’t set out to chase the past—but the sounds that raised me, the ones that shaped my soul—Lennon, Petty, Bowie, and the roots of East Tennessee—they all came calling. These songs came out like ghosts knocking on the door, and I let ’em in. Every track’s got a little blood in it, a little dirt under the nails. It’s not some retro trip—it’s me rebuilding what matters, piece by piece, note by note, after the storms.”

While every track on Reconstruction contributes to the entirety of its vision, a few keys songs include, “Grin & Bear It,” which highlight the plight of those who live in quiet desperation with apologies to Henry David Thoreau.  It’s an attitude many have been shaken by as our very ground of being quakes with the need for justice and a renewed sense of compassion.

Essential and central to this collection is “Welcome to America” with the tag line on the chorus that declares, “land of dismay.”  As Richie tells it:

But this isn’t just about what’s happening at the border. It’s about the soul of America. Today, the state of immigration in this country feels like a storm caught between compassion and contention. Policies shift like desert sands, sometimes shielding, sometimes exposing, but always leaving scars. Families are torn apart. Refugees knock on doors only to be turned away. And yet, the dreams keep coming—dreams of sanctuary, opportunity, and belonging.“Welcome to America” is a song for them.” –Richie Owens

“Trying” aptly tells the story of his support for his wife when was diagnosed with stage-four cancer and his determination to give his all to her as they moved through this crisis. It’s a song the displays how love grows through seasons of pain and potential loss.

“Who Knows” describes the certainty of faith in one’s heart during uncertain times.  It could easily be a song for a child, a friend or a nation during troubled times.  As Owens describes it, “Ultimately, it’s about empowerment and self-trust. I wrote it as a reminder, not just for others but for myself too, to stop second-guessing and believe in what you feel inside. At the end of the day, your heart knows the answer—you just have to trust it.

The final song, ”Stay My Memories” came from the passing of Owen’s father’s passing from complications of Alzheimer’s in 2014, is a strong reminder of the things that ultimately matter as our lives are reconstructed.  It is a personal testament to the love of son to father and anguish that goes with the departure of those we love.

The wonder of art in general and music specifically is how it transcends time, politics, division and even disease and death.  The miracle of Reconstruction, this album that has penetrated and woven through time with the loss, gain, lessons, insights of one artist’s universal and singular experience, is that it emerges five years after release with clarity, relevance and a fulfillment of It’s prophetic words that were etched in the heart of the American landscape. https://www.richieowens.com/