Owsley

Owsley was William Reese Owsley III, born in 1966, out of Anniston, and he made the kind of power pop that sounds simple until you try to write it: chiming guitars, stacked harmonies and choruses built with a watchmaker's care. He played guitar and mandolin as well as singing, and he knew the other side of the glass too, working as a record producer and recording engineer and playing guitar in Amy Grant's touring band.

His self-titled debut came out in 1999 with "I'm Alright", a sunny, sharp-edged gem that shrugs off heartbreak with a hook. The critics took to it, and the album earned a Grammy nomination. He made only one more solo record, which was just as well received, and the song "Threaten Me With Heaven" was also nominated for a Grammy.

Owsley died in 2010, leaving behind two albums of finely made power pop.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.