OWEN RUBY "Crooner at Heart"

by jenny heying

Owen Ruby’s interest list Stevie Ray Vaughn to Kings of Leon. Enough to spark my interest; I flew on down to the Overlook to check him out.

The first thing you notice about Owen is that his avatar doesn’t have an instrument or use the microphone. He prefers to dance and have his avatar put on a bit of a show, and it’s refreshing from standing behind the microphone with repetitive moves. Opening with Coldplay’s “Trouble” set the mood for listening to a great smooth voice. It was a great opening number allowing his voice to soothe us in to his world. While sliding across the stage, he followed with “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”; his voice in fine form. It’s a strong voice with sexy overtones and he doesn’t miss a note. He got even better with “Lost” and his mellow set list won me over.

Moving away from his mellow side, Owen jumped in to “Creep” and he didn’t lose a step and into “Hey There Delilah’. His voice suits every song and while his voice is controlled, it does convey emotion.


Owen uses backing tracks and while I’ve seen a lot of performers lately that don’t, there’s something refreshing about hearing them. While it doesn’t give you the ability to vary too much from the original, it certainly makes the song noticeable and identifiable. The tracks fit well not taking anything away from Owen’s incredible voice.

The Overlook Lounge is an open air venue that overlooks, well, Second Life®. It’s a cozy place but with ample room to dance and enjoy the show.

Definitely a favorite in any crowd is “Stairway To Heaven” and Owen nailed it, beautifully. A little reminiscent of Robert Plant, but with enough originality to make it his own. He’s a crooner at heart and in the best sense of the word.

Owen carries the usual performer traits, acknowledging the crowd and venue and while he doesn’t offer a whole lot more in the way of chat, his on stage antics keep your eyes glued to the stage.

The best way I can think of to describe an Owen Ruby show is that it’s for the romantic in all of us. He sings the standards from across the generations keeping them on the mellow side and it’s a perfect date performance. Dancing with your best man (woman) is the only option here. (Or a glass of red wine in my case).

Livening things up, Owen fed us “La Bamba” proving he can up the tempo, keep the beat and his voice continues the foray. That set up “The House Is Rocking” and Owen was on fire. You just had to jump up and dance or at least sway a bit. Sitting at the piano which constantly jumped about again added to the visual. Not wanting to change pace, Owen settled on “Born To Be Wild” and that’s just what the Overlook started to do. It was fun and continued that way through his set. “Straycat Strut” continued the fun and whether you danced, listened or whatever, you couldn’t help but catch his fever.

Whether mellow or up tempo, Owen Ruby wants you to have fun and inevitably you do.

He continued with “Arms Wide Open”, “When I’m Gone”, and “Turn The Page” before finishing with a perfect rendition of “The End of Innocence”. He makes you wish hours were longer.