There’s something about Owen Temple’s music that feels like Texas.
Born in Kerrville in 1976, Temple grew up digging into his father’s country record collection and soaking up the music of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen and James McMurtry. Those influences eventually found their way into his own songwriting — plainspoken, thoughtful songs about people, places, family, hard times and the little moments that can say a whole lot.
After college, Owen took the safe route and became a financial analyst. It lasted about 14 months.
Then he quit.
The pull of music was stronger than the security of a good desk job, and thankfully for Texas music fans, he followed it.
Working with producer and pedal steel great Lloyd Maines, Temple released General Store in 1997 and Passing Through in 1999. From there came Right Here and Now, Two Thousand Miles, Dollars and Dimes, Mountain Home and Stories They Tell.
Dollars and Dimes was especially ambitious — a concept album exploring different regions of North America during hard times. Mountain Home turned its attention toward small Texas towns and the colorful characters who inhabit them.
Temple has also earned serious recognition as a songwriter, including winning the 2007 B.W. Stevenson Songwriting Competition and twice becoming a Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk finalist.
His 2023 album Rings on a Tree explored generations, family and the connections between them, with co-writers including Walt Wilkins and the late Hal Ketchum. In 2025, he followed with Weathered and Live in Austin.
And Owen isn’t just a songwriter. He’s also a visual artist, creating drawings and watercolors, and he co-authored Songfarmer: Writing More and Better Songs with Gordy Quist of The Band Of Heathens.
In 2026, he’s taking that artistic side even further, releasing a series of singles accompanied by his own original watercolor artwork.
Nearly three decades into his career, Owen Temple continues to do what great Texas songwriters do best — tell honest stories about ordinary people in a way that makes them feel extraordinary.
