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By Stew Magnuson
Diversions
The first time I saw Earlene Owens, I was
sitting at the far end of the Zoo Bar on a
Sunday eating Ernie's famous bar-be-cued
chicken and watching the World Series on TV
without sound. Magic Siim and the Teardrops
were laying down their hard blues sound on
stage. The three best things about America
were right in front of me: blues, bar-be-cue
and baseball. But not one of these thing were
overwhelming me, they were just a perfect
blend of Americana a whole in itself.
Suddenly, a big woman dressed in a long,
gold, sequined gown strolled through the
door.. A big, sharp-looking man wearing a
black suit and a blacker mustache followed
her a pace behind. Everyone at the bar forgot
the Bo Sox and Mets for a second and let their
eyes follow the couple as they walked to a
table and sat down.
"Oh well," I thought, "some people like to
dress up for Magic Slim, I guess." I went back
to the game and my chicken and didn't think
another thing of the two.
A short while later, Magic Slim bellowed
through the microphone, "Ladies and gen
tlemen, from Kansas City, Miss Earlene
Owens!" Then the gold, shimmering woman
climbed on stage and took the mike. She
asked the crowd how they were doing that
night. She asked the crowd if they wanted to
hear the blues. "Yeah, yeah," they all scream
ed. And the woman let out s soulful moan,
then launched into a down and dirty tune,
letting the audience not only hear but feel
her blues with every note. By the end of the
song, the laid-back Sunday-night crowd was
alive and awed.
I forgot the game.
"Who is this?"
Her name is Earlene Owens, The Queen of
the Kansas City Blues. She's the mother of
five and grandmother of six, and she has four
diamond studs centered across her front
teeth. She's a blues singer, a real entertainer
and a part-time manager for male and female
strippers. And best of all, she's singing all
this week with Magic Slim and the Teardrops
at the Zoo Bar.
Life story
Owens grew up in Beaumont, Texas, sing
ing in a high-school chorus. She had no
dreams of becoming an entertainer. She mar
ried at 17 and lived an ordinary life, raising
five children and moving to Kansas City in
1967.
Her entrance into show business came on a
bet.
"My girlfriend and I were at this talent
show one time. This girl was singing and I
said, 'I can do better than her!' She said, 'I
don't think you can,' then we bet on it. And I
joined the talent show."
Owens won five consecutive titles at talent
shows; then the agents started calling, book
ing her as an opening act in the Kansas City
area, letting her sing Aretha Franklin tunes
and other rhythm and blues standards. Then
they started booking her with blues artists,
letting her warm up with such greats as
Albert Collins, Albert King, Z.Z. Hill and her.
idol, Chicago guitarist Little Milton. Then she
left R and B forever, finding a perfect niche in
the K.C. blues scene.
About two years ago, Owens started sing
ing regularly with the Ray Drews blues
review, which brought her to Lincoln for the
first time last summer. On the very first night
she sang, Larry Boehmer, owner of the Zoo
and bassist for the Tablerockers, asked her to
record with the band. The result was the as
yet unreleased "Taxi," an achingly beautiful
ballad written by Jay Blackfoot that features
the full range of Owens' singing ability. It's a
song where she begs and pleads the taxi
driver to get her to the other side of town just
as fast as he can, where her baby waits.
The Battle of the Blues Queens
The next time Owens made it to Lincoln
was on a stroke of genius by Boehmer. He
already had booked Chicago's Zora Young for
a three-night stand. Why not invite Owens up
to sing with Young's band? Why not have
them both sing a couple of songs in each set,
then get up together for an encore at the end
of the night?
It worked. The line formed early on the
weekend nights as the word spread about one
of the best, most unique shows to hit the Zoo in
years. Since the show last February, Young
and Owens have become good friends. And
Owens insists that it really wasn't a battle at
all.
"We just both do to the best of our abilities
.... I wasn't trying to out-star her and she
wasn't trying to out-star me. We were just
trying to play what the people liked."
Back with Slim
Last Monday was just about the most fun a
person could have on a Monday night in Lin-
"There is no enter
tainer nowhere in the
United States with
diamonds on their
teeth. But I wanted to
be different. I like to
have a click of my
own.
Owens
coin. Slim and the Teardrops were cooking
like never before. Owens climbed on stage
and let loose. Her voice could change in an
instant from as sweet as chocolate to a mean
growl.
"Ladies, I want you to keep your cotton
pickin' hands off my man. Because that man
is mine, ladies!" Then she screamed the
blues, warning every woman off, letting her
diamond studs and silver-black gown shine
under the orange glow of the Zoo Bar lights.
"I want to be wearing something different
from somebody that's sitting in the audience
When you're on stage you're supposed to
look different . . ..You can't be wearing what
you can buy in any store."
Photos by Ward WHHamsDiverslons
All of Owens' gowns are designed just for
her. But it's her teeth that get the most atten
tion. "There is no entertainer nowhere in the
United States with diamonds on her teeth.
But I wanted to be different. I like to have a
click of my own."
The four diamond studs are family heir
looms from her grandmother. They've been
permanently cemented in for the past seven
years. What would Grandma have thought
about her diamonds being used for dental
flash?
"She would have thought I was crazy! She
was old-fashioned, of course."
Part-time job
"My dream was to always have four beauti
ful men singing and dancing in the back
ground when I performed but that didn't
work out."
Owens was at an all-male stripper show a
year and a half ago when she discovered
another way to get involved in show business.
She struck up a conversation with the men in
the show after a performance and asked them
if they wanted a manager.
Soon Owens was their manager and emcee
of the show. Owens said she makes sure they
have beautiful costumes and plenty of towels,
and tell a dirty joke or two to the audience.
"I also have my bucket of ice in case one of
the men gets a little rambunctious dancing
with the ladies. I just go up and drop a little
ice down their g-string."
Owens' future
For now, Owens patiently awaits the release
of the "Taxi" single, which she said will be a
hit. Then she hopes to release it with some
other material on a album. Owens will be
back trading off blues standards with Zora
Young June 10 to 11, and she hopes to tour
Europe this summer with Magic Slim.
"If I never made it real, real big in this
business, I'm satisfied . . . I did what I wanted
to do and came out smelling like a rose, so
that's fine. I make enough money to provide
for my family, so I'll just be happy to know
when my grandkids look in some family
album, that their grammy was an entertainer."
