Tary Owens

Austin, Texas music producer who spent his life championing the sounds of forgotten or unsung Texas bluesmen. He founded Catfish Records (2) to release recordings of Grey Ghost. Owens and his partner Jon Foose revived the career of East Austin blues players T.D. Bell and Erbie Bowser, and brought attention to East Texas blues musicians such as Frank Robinson and Long John Hunter. He was born in Illinois and raised in Port Arthur, Texas where he was a high school classmate and friend of Janis Joplin. He followed Joplin when she moved to Austin in the early 1960s, and was a part of the early Threadgill's beer-joint folk scene. He attended the University of Texas at Austin for a time and legendary folklore professor Americo Paredes inspired him to document "roots" music in Texas.