Owen Riegling is the kind of artist so down to earth his boots are always dirty. He’s a small town kid with his roots firmly planted in the songs he sings. There’s something organic about the way Owen does what he does. It’s hard to put a finger on exactly what makes it so special but it’s even harder to ignore how fast it’s growing. Owen writes songs that connect because he’s connected. To the things and people and places that matter. That’s what roots do.

He stands on stage, voice like browned butter, songs both sweet and weighted, and he instantly makes new fans feel like old friends – connected by shared experience. He takes the right ingredients and handles them with care because he cares where they came from.

Owen’s from Mildmay, Ontario. Population 1200. A town of farmers and blue-collar workers. People for whom ‘organic’ isn’t a trendy word, it’s annoying red tape they have to go through in order to sell their wheat for a fair price at the co-op. Mildmay grows its own, and while a budding country music star isn’t the typical crop yield, you can be sure that every person who calls Bruce County home is proud of what he’s doing.

“I grew up in the middle of nowhere and that’s who I am as a person,” Owen shares, “I’m a pretty simple guy, happy with simple things.”

He wrote his very first song at 10 years old on a toy piano. After getting his first guitar from the Sears catalogue, he decided writing songs was an act of prayer and practice. A devotion to the craft of connection. Not 3 chords and a little truth, it had to be 3 chords and all of it. Wednesday nights were spent jamming Merle Haggard with his guitar teacher, which led to gigs in local bars playing cover tunes of his favourite artists. Country singers like Eric Church, but also genre-spanning bands like Bon Iver, Weezer, Green Day and Steve Miller Band. He would call up all the bars in the towns surrounding his, then play long sets in the corner of the room while hard working people ate hard earned meals. It’s a tough crowd to win over if you’re anything but authentic. Pretence does not pass the smell test in a small town.

Soon, he was seeing familiar faces pop up at all his gigs as he wove humility and honesty into every original song he started sneaking into the set. People singing along to the songs he wrote, and the bars he used to have to call, started calling him. One gig led to 2 gigs, led to 3 gigs, and soon he was playing every weekend and paying his dues in the way you’d always expect a small town farm kid to. Willingly. Honestly. Humbly.

2022 saw Owen move from the small stages of local bars to the big stage of the country music mega-fest Boots and Hearts. “It was mind-blowing,” Owen says. “I had never been on a stage that big before. The bars I was playing before that – we could fit four or five of those inside of that one structure.” Boots and Hearts, as well as other high profile festival slots like Music In The Fields, brought Owen to the attention of Universal Music Canada. That led to a record deal, and all the attention, opportunity, and the full schedule that comes along with it. Soon Mildmay turned into Broadway, with trips to music city for recording sessions and co-writes with some of Nashville’s biggest writers.

2023 saw Owen release his debut single ‘Love’ as well as the massive sing along radio hit ‘Old Dirt Roads’. Fan response continues as “Old Dirt Roads” steadily grabs new accolades. From #1 Most Added Country Radio to being featured on the 3 largest country playlists in the world. Owen wrapped up 2023 with Apple Music’s UpNext Program and launches in 2024 selected as Spotify’s Hot Country Artists To Watch and Amazon Canada’s Breakthrough Artists to Watch 2024. With over 30 million global streams, it is clear Owen is maintaining his unstoppable pace and making his mark on the music industry. He topped 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has toured Canada with Tyler Hubbard, returned to play Boots and Hearts, the CCMA awards, and a summer of festival slots across the country. He made music videos, saw his song on the radio charts, and played for thousands of people a night. All one year removed from playing in the corner of Harley’s Pub in Mildmay. It’s been a pretty strong wind across the wheat field for a kid with one foot still planted on the ground.

With a full 2024 in front of him, including a slate of new singles, a cross country tour with Country superstar Chase Rice, and some big festivals internationally, there will be many miles between the place Owen started to the place he’s headed. He’ll be standing in the wheat field watching the weather, grounded by the reasons all this is worth it. He knows that he will leave but knows that he will always come back. He knows that finding and keeping that balance while the wind starts blowing is just as important as letting it catch his sails. Owen says it and sings it from stage at every show – ‘this town’s a part of me’. He might be headed to Nashville, but he’s talking about Mildmay. Roots firmly planted. Kneeling at the altar of connection. Making new friends while keeping the old ones close.

Humble.

Simple.

Honest.

Owen Riegling in 3 words.

He knows what he’s doing, cause he knows why he’s doing it.