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White Owl Red’s Running Blind presents a great blend of blues, country, folk, and rock.”

Outsider

cutting alternative country music”

The Indie Source Magazine

Style as indebted to vintage Americana as it is modern alternative…an epic way of entering a new era in western music”

Music Existence

Constantly pleasing and immediately affecting... worthy of wide recognition”

— Goldmine Magazine

Thanks to the awesome folks at these radio stations for playing my new songs!  

It's been 2 weeks since my new White Owl Red album - Running Blind - came out. 
I want to take a moment to say thanks to the folks at these radio stations for playing my new songs! 
Its super fun when people tell me they hear my songs on their radio!
KMTN-WMUD-KSUT-MSPR (WMKY)-WERU-KUWR-WHRV-KDUR-Americana Boogie Radio-Ocean Beach Radio-WMNF-WCNI-WMVY-WCBE-WNRN-KRVM-WXCI-WXAV-WRSU-WRIR-WOOL-WODU-WLUW-WLFR-WHFR-WGDR-WESD/WAWM-WDIY-WAWL-MSPR-M3 RADIO- KVNF-KSQD-KHNS-KGLT-KDHX-KCSB-KBRE-KZFR-WPVM-KMTN-Out Of the Woods!-Radio Lagoa (Portugal)-Radio Vetrina (Italy)
 

Single Running Blind drops today - Full album out Thursday! 

In anticipation of my new album coming out this Thursday, I dropped the title track today. It's a road trip song about friendship, adventure and life in a van with nowhere to be... nothing but time and the open road.

click image to Listen on spotify

 

New Album Out 3/23/23! 

Singer/Songwriter JJ McManus’s fifth White Owl Red studio album, Running Blind is set for release March 23, 2023.  Fourteen new songs that cover more ground than a road trip down Route 66. 

2am Christmas Eve - A Timeless New Holiday Song by White Owl Red - Americana, Roots, Alt.Country, Folk, Non-Com 

 

https://whiteowlred.com/single/23624/2am-christmas-eve (full version) 

https://whiteowlred.com/single/23874/2am-christmas-eve-radio-edit  (short) 

White Owl Red 
2am Christmas Eve 

Impacting 
November 16th, 2020 

Format(s): Americana, Non-Commercial, NPR 

Time for holiday music! 

A new song that pierces your heart with that dreamy Christmas feeling. 

Timeless and memorable as John Prine or Charles Dickens. 

Put this on your holiday playlists now!

Also Available in a Radio Edit short version for shorter attention spans!

Thanks to Jeff Monk for this new Review of Afterglow in the Winnipeg Free Press! 

 

 

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/newmusicMay282020.html 

Country  

White Owl Red  
Afterglow (Independent)  

J.J. McManus (a.k.a. White Owl Red) is now four albums into his musical recordings career and it’s worth explaining why his work has been credited for being "better alt-country music.  

Afterglow has heart and it has power. McManus delivers the kind of songs that resonate of a thoughtful life, and those feelings are crafted into songs with meaning and even playfulness. There is no forcing of the moods here, either. The musicianship is of the highest quality and the group McManus has engaged for his albums (Kyle Caprista, drums, Gawain Mathews, guitars, and backing vocals by Leah Tysee, Tonia Smith and Sage Gray) are outstanding.  

The opening title track is essentially horrific in its subject matter, a sombre tale of abuse and death, yet in the hands of McManus and crew, the leisurely rhythm and sweet musical hooks draw you in. I Walk The Line For You is an idiosyncratic homage to Johnny Cash’s love for his wife, June Carter, and here McManus modulates his own appealing vocals just enough to sound like the Man In Black.  

The rollicking Out on the Waters offers a country and Celtic swagger that rolls along, buoyed by a snappy beat, accordion and mandolin. There’s some humour shot through the organ-charged Tip Top Bob’s, wherein one regular patron of the titular, off-the-beaten-track watering hole advises another "don’t bring a knife to a gunfight" and "don’t piss off Red when he’s feeling blue."  

The drifting country/folk of The Way I Feel would have been a perfect fit for Gregg Allman to sing on his way to the great gig in the sky. Always the worker’s union supporter, McManus delivers a worthy partner to Union Fight Song from his 2019 album, Existential Frontiers, with the dutiful and insightful Working Class Heroes.  

Afterglow proves once again that McManus can create beauty from the residue of his life experiences and supply the kind of emotional immediacy that makes for a cool listen. ★★★★ out of five  

STREAM THESE: Through is Through, Tip Top Bob’s  

— Jeff Monk