Featured Artist: Natasha Owens
2017 has kept Natasha busy, recording her upcoming album with award-winning producer Ed Cash (Dave Barnes, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Chris Tomlin, Vince Gill) while simultaneously touring with 7eventh Time Down, Audio Adrenaline, Greg Sikes and Austin French on the "God Is On The Move" Spring Tour. She’s also been on the road for additional tour dates with JJ Weeks and John Waller and also performing support slots for both Plumb and Matthew West.
But Natasha’s path to a successful recording career is unique, rooted in agonizing heartache and unbelievable tragedy. Seven years ago, Natasha’s father died suddenly at just 58 years old. While cleaning his guns as he had done countless times before, one misfired, placing a bullet in his chest.
Once the shock wore off, the depression set in. And in the midst of the darkness, Natasha was approached by her pastor about taking over the music ministry at her church. After a lot of time in prayer, alongside her husband, she accepted the position. Soon, the music, the mission and the ministry captivated her heart. Week after week, as she poured herself into the music of the church and the people within, the Holy Spirit poured into her a peace, a reassurance and a drive to take this opportunity even further than she could have imagined.
“Sometimes you have to pour out to other people,” she says. “You have to pour out in faith. That’s when and how you get your healing. I took the music minister position and while it was still a long process of climbing out of the depression, I was so focused on songs, it stopped the spiral. It took time, but the music held me. The songs gave me strength enough to get out of bed.”
At the prompting of a friend she took some of her music into the recording studio and created her first full-length project. It didn’t take long for the album to circulate within the music industry, and she suddenly found herself touring as the opening act for CCM’s most iconic artists, including Michael W. Smith and Jason Crabb. And suddenly, her music was finding an audience and her songs were resonating with people desperate for hope.
The songs that had been her healing, her comfort and her restoration were becoming that very thing to people around the world. She wasn’t just surviving anymore. She was beginning to thrive. “When we go through something that leaves us so broken, we have to give Him the credit for pulling us through,” she says. “We have to show empathy and help others through it. We have to be out there with the broken.”
Natasha knew there was more in her heart that needed to be written and recorded, leading to her upcoming album We Will Rise. “The project took on a very clear direction,” she says. “I knew I had made it through, but it was time for more.”
The result is a collection of songs that seeks to inspire listeners to rise above their heartache and circumstances, letting go of the fear and regret that holds us back. The songs that comprise the We Will Rise allow listeners to be honest and vulnerable in the most challenging and intimidating circumstances.
“There’s something intrinsic about humanity and a survival instinct,” says Natasha. “Most of us will do whatever we can to keep our head above water, to take one more breath in and out…to keep breathing and keep our heart beating. But God’s intent for His children, His creation, wasn’t limited to survival. He intends for us to thrive. ‘I have come that you may have life to the fullest.’ (John 10:10).”
For Natasha Owens that verse isn’t merely a comfort or a pick-me-up… It’s a decree. A mantra for life…and it is the very thing that has turned her darkest days into a light that is too bright not to share.
