Meet Eddie Owen | Owner of Eddie Owen Presents at The Red Clay Music Foundry

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eddie Owen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eddie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
This was pretty easy for me. The new owner of the business I founded in 1992, fired me in 2012. The city of Duluth owned a building in their downtown. They had a great plan for revitalizing the downtown, and saw the many potential merits of a partnership with music and the arts to help anchor and drive the plan.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Living in the same area your whole life can ingrain a keen perspective on the local music scene. Born and raised in the Atlanta area, Eddie Owen’s introduction to music was more typical. Church choirs, school chorus and theater performances planted the seeds of musical passion in Eddie. After he met the late Harry Chapin, Eddie turned to playing guitar and writing songs, most of which were performed in his living room. “To be truthful, I was a very poor guitarist and very poor songwriter”, Eddie muses. “That ended up giving me a greater appreciation for those who were not so poor at it.” While attending Georgia State University, Eddie paid his tuition by tending bar at various local watering holes. One of the clubs was the Trackside Tavern, a new joint in the near southeast suburb of Decatur that had opened in 1980. “I had a free hand at Trackside to do what I could to generate alcohol sales. When I decided to start doing live music there, I originally only did it on weeknights because I didn’t want to interfere with the weekend business. I just went to the bars that all these musicians and bands were playing at and introduced myself, and that’s how we started getting our bands there.” Booking the Trackside gave Eddie a crash course in the burgeoning local scene, as their stage was prowled by mostly acoustic music veterans like Caroline Aiken, Dede Vogt, Kodac Harrison and newcomers such as Kristen Hall, Mark Reynolds, Kristian Bush and Andrew Hyra, Shawn Mullins, Matthew Kahler, Gerard McHugh, and of course the Indigo Girls. Because of the caliber of the acts performing there, it wasn’t long before live music became a fixture at the Trackside. There weren’t many places featuring acoustic music at the time. With these acts, it became a groundswell for this acoustic music community that was always there, but had not been real organized and didn’t have a place to hang their shingles. Eddie previously worked at a Decatur restaurant called Conversations that had an unused area on the second floor which was formerly a part of Belk Department Store. Eddie and Conversation’s owner Brad Glenn dreamed of what they could do with that empty space. “It was time to realize what I always wanted to do. It was a case of saving some pennies, getting some friends to throw in some money, and getting a bank loan or two. We started formulating the plan in October of 1991. It took a few months….then the dream happened.” In May of 1992, Eddie’s Attic opened with a triple bill of Catbird Seat, Right As Rain, and Uncle Green. The opening was a smash and soon music lovers across metro Atlanta began trekking to Decatur to experience this latest entry in the club scene. Response from local press was strong and the venue was featured several times on Turner South Television later that year. Word of mouth was the most valuable tool to promote the new venue. And Eddie feels it is still a very important aspect. “It’s funny, but every now and then, we do an impromptu and casual survey of Why the hell are you here? ‘The predominate answer in the twelve categories they could choose from was word of mouth, plus they knew the artists and had been to our website or theirs, even more predominate than advertising.” The buzz kept growing, and over the years, Eddie’s played host to some of the hottest acts to come out of the area including John Mayer, The Indigo Girls, Shawn Mullins, India Arie, Angie Aparo, Sugarland, and Michelle Malone, as well as national touring acts like Sheryl Crowe, Ani DiFranco and Dave Wilcox. Eddie’s Attic became known as “the small intimate listening room in the southeast”, “the place to catch established songwriters as well as the next group of stars”. Along with his many ownership duties, Eddie was hands on with the band bookings as well. Then in 2002, he decided to sell the club to Todd Van Sickle, husband of popular local musician Jennifer Nettles. “I had three babies in the house and I had to refocus a bit on the family thing, and also refocus a bit on who I was and where my energy was going. The vehicle that allowed me to do that was not being at Eddie’s for awhile.” After three and a half years of complete severance from Eddie’s, Todd sold the club to Bob Ephlin, who Eddie knew for years as a supporter of the club and the local music scene. “After I failed in trying to talk (Bob) out of buying it, I had no choice but to go back in there and take over booking again”, Eddie muses. “On an emotional level, we were partners with this, although Bob was the sole owner of the club. Basically being an employee and not an owner like everything has its advantages and disadvantages. I certainly didn’t offer any less effort than I did when I owned it, but was able to cut down on some of the hours involved.” In 2012, the City of Duluth, in the Northeast Atlanta Suburbs, approached Eddie about a partnership in a building they owned, originally a church, converted for community theatre. Eddie says, ”From the first visit to Duluth, it was so easy to realize that these folks were serious about a revitalization of their downtown area.” He had had “hands on” experience with this in Decatur, where Eddie’s Attic was located. But Eddie says that Duluth was very way ahead of the curve with their planning, vision, and infrastructure. Eddie started promoting shows in the Red Clay Music Foundry as Eddie Owen Presents. He also was able to use the downstairs of the theatre to build studios for a music school, offering private lessons, group classes, and workshops. The theatre seats 260, and Eddie and his team worked diligently to provide expert audio and video capabilities, not only for the audience, but for the artist on stage as well. It is an understatement to say that Eddie Owen loves music since he has dedicated a major portion of his life to providing a venue for those who perform it. Whatever the future holds for him, Eddie’s Attic, and their future ventures, he never forgets that the passion not only extends to the musicians and bands themselves, but to the people who come to see them. “I’ve always, of course, loved the association with the artists. But watching people leave the club after they have just heard something that blew them away is really satisfying to me. Knowing they had a good time and a good meal and they feel like they have been treated like a million dollars is a great feeling. At the end of the day, if they came in and the beer wasn’t as cold as it could have been, and maybe the food wasn’t cooked perfectly, and the music was young but not quite there talent-level-wise from what they were expecting here, but we were the nicest people they have ever met, they will come back. That kind of buzz is what gives me the juice to go on.” Eddie Owen’s advice for performing songwriters: Play, play, play, play. Write, write, write, write. Meet, meet, meet, meet.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
It would be very easy to never leave beautiful downtown Duluth. Shops, Restaurants, Bars, Music, Green Space…most everything one could want.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I could not / would not have ever been able to do what I’ve done without my wife, Allena’s support and help.

Website: http://eddieowenpresents.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eopresents/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EOPresents
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EOPresents
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCglhYtuxtjonGCGc2CQKCgQ