From the UK to Music City, USA. Take a ride with guitarist Owen Barry.
April 14, 2026
In a small English village, a sound is born.
Owen Barry was born and raised in a village called Burnham 60 miles due west of London. At 12, he wasn’t in front of a screen playing video games like a lot of kids. Barry was obsessed with the guitar even before he was a teen, and started hitting the stage early to hone his skills. It was in these local venues where he began to discover his sound, with his eye and ear pushing him toward an even larger arena.
A Purple Melon appears in London.
Barry’s sonic presence soon outgrew the local pubs and music halls in Burnham. In a career move that was just a one-hour drive, his entire musical journey changed. Barry began to create his signature sound in front of bigger crowds on the London stage. When he joined Purple Melon with Tom Hill and Eric Joyce, the stage was about to get a whole lot bigger, something that couldn’t be contained on an island in the North Atlantic.
“Helloooooooo, Los Angeles!”
After moving stateside with Purple Melon, the boys put out two studio records: a full album called Henry’s Rocket and an EP entitled Seven Years. But it wasn’t his band that pushed him to fame. It was the scene and the exposure that propelled Barry into the orbit of stardom. He began to back legends with his buttery smooth, impossibly versatile style. His prolific and undefinable guitar skills helped him work with everyone from Celine Dion to Macy Grey, Tom Jones to H.E.R., Jackson Browne to Billy Gibbons and more.
Music City to the Motor City.
Today, you can find Barry backing The Chicks and touring the world from his homebase in Nashville. But we got him to touch down in Detroit to get his hands on our latest cardboard creation: a fully playable, archtop, hollow-body acoustic jazz guitar. We invite you to see how Barry brings it to life, with slide blues and a range of sounds from clean to just plain soulful and grimy. Barry’s performance shows the true craftsmanship of Gabriel Currie from Echopark Guitars. And proves once again the power improvisation between the artists, our design team at Ernest and Signal Productions.
