Biography

In a celebrity-driven world, it’s rare to find an artist of any genre who isn’t driven by fame, fortune and the next big hit. Rarer still is finding talent honed by experience and creative experimentation rather than manufactured in a recording studio amidst high tech software. But singer/songwriter Ginny Owens has always been one of a kind.

Born and raised in Jackson, Miss., Owens was discovering melodies on the piano almost before she could complete a sentence. Sunday school songs and common childhood tunes began to emerge from her fingers even as vision began to leave her eyes. By the age of three, a degenerative eye condition left Ginny completely blind.

Despite her physical challenge, music just made sense to her, quickly becoming a lifeline for both understanding and communication. Songs provided a window into a world Ginny couldn’t see, but they also offered an outlet for her to express her own thoughts, dreams and questions.

“My songs are my journal entries,” Owens said. “Sometimes they’re simply my observations of the world around me; sometimes they’re the conversations that I’m neither brave nor articulate enough to have with others.”

To this day—after more than a decade of writing, touring and crafting music as a full-time recording artist—Ginny’s songs retain the intimacy of journal entries and the insight of her unique perspective. Moreover, her music boasts the diversity of a lifetime of sonic influences, from the soulful gospel and blues of her Southern roots to the introspective lyrical styling of folk heroes to the classic innovation of artists like Carole King and Stevie Wonder.

In the mid-‘90s Owens moved from Mississippi to Nashville to attend Belmont University where she majored in music education. However, upon graduation, she discovered potential employers were reticent to hire a blind teacher. Of course, what’s the old saying? When one door closes, a window opens?

The window that opened for Ginny Owens brought refreshing winds of change, a career not as a music teacher but as an artist. She was discovered by a Nashville label and signed to recording and publishing deals. Since her debut album release, Without Condition in 1999, Owens has sold nearly a million records and performed more than 1,500 concerts, including sets at prestigious events like Lilith Fair, the Sundance Film Festival and the White House. Garnering honors such as the Dove awards for New Artist of the Year in 2000 and Inspirational Song of the Year in 2001, Owens’ music has found its way to the top of the radio charts and into scenes in television shows.

As affirming as the accolades are, Ginny still finds her true delight in the power of the song. “The longer I’m allowed to make music for a living, the more I love the process! In the beginning, music-making was my job…now it is the means through which I share my heart and life with all who will listen!”

Now writing and recording as an independent artist, Owens is enjoying the liberty of going solo. Without the restrictions that come with labels and big business, she’s finding the time and creativity to meet the needs and desires of her fans. In fact, her most recent album, a hymns collection titled Say Amen, was created as a direct result of the prodding from long-time fans and family members, particularly her grandmothers.

Ginny recently launched her own production company, ChickPower Music, which serves as an umbrella for her record label, publishing company, and music education work. She currently spends time each week teaching and mentoring songwriters at Belmont University, while continuing to write, produce and perform her own material.

Ginny is currently hard at work on a double-disc project, which will include new original songs, as well as some of her favorites from earlier records. The music she’s now writing for her next album release is borne of several years of new and challenging personal experiences.

Not long after Ginny made the leap of faith into life as an independent artist, she decided to journey to Manhattan for a personal sabbatical. Completely out of every comfort zone, her time in the Big Apple provided something akin to a system re-boot, re-energizing her creatively, emotionally and spiritually.

“I wanted anonymity, and I got it. I traveled to do concerts on the weekends, but spent every weekday in fiction-writing classes at Columbia University, where my co-eds were all young, empowered Ivy Leaguers. I’d leave campus each day, and on my walk home, I’d find myself conversing with street vendors and helpful strangers. The experience was an introvert’s worst nightmare and a songwriter’s dream!”

“I loved New York so much that I moved back for one more month—between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I taught songwriting to middle-school students, helped lead music at some area churches, volunteered at a non-profit that served the homeless, and developed some lifelong friends. I experienced the beauty of diversity and community in a way I never had before. I left Manhattan with significantly stronger faith in God than I had arrived with. I felt as if I was hearing His voice more loudly and more clearly than I had in quite awhile.”

It was a perspective that couldn’t have been more timely, as the past few years have required Ginny to negotiate a sobering journey through some rather dark valleys. The difficult ride began when Ginny was introduced to 20-year-old Trinidad native Ronell Ragbir. Ronell was in her final stages of battling terminal cancer at St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, but she harbored a dream of becoming a songwriter.
. Ginny jumped in to help turn that dream into a reality.

“Upon meeting, Ronell and I became fast friends. She joked that, since I couldn’t see and she couldn’t walk, together we’d make one completely able person. We spent several hours writing and recording ‘Say Amen,’ a song whose chorus I’d had for years, but no one had ever been able to help me co-write the verses. Ronell and I penned them in less than an hour. During the six months that I knew her, I learned much about the significance of life. Ronell lived every moment to the fullest, but she always had hope for her future…and she wasn’t concerned about whether that future was in Heaven or on Earth.”

When Ronell lost her cancer battle, Ginny was asked to sing “Say Amen” at her memorial service, an honor she couldn’t refuse. But Ginny’s run-ins with cancer weren’t over, and the next time would strike even closer to home.

“In February 2008, my Mom was diagnosed with breast and lymph node cancer. The news was very frightening for our whole family. Being that I have a job which can be done from anywhere, I packed up and moved home to Mississippi to be with her during the treatment and surgery, a span lasting about seven months.”

Thankfully, Ginny’s mom is now cancer free, and the singer/songwriter is back in her own home in Nashville. But the past few years have made an indelible mark on Ginny’s life, especially in renewing her desire to write songs about simple truths: hope, courage, faith.

“I’ve always felt strongly about not wasting words in songs, but I feel it even more now than ever…I realize that I don’t make the ultimate decision about what people take away from my music. However, my prayer is that they always hear hope. It is so easy for each of us to imagine we have no specific purpose for being here. I want people to look at me and my music and realize that this couldn’t be further from the truth. I believe God intends for each of our lives to be filled with meaning and purpose, and my desire is to communicate that through the lyrics I write, the music I sing, and the life I live.”