Jake Owen

Jake Owen’s twangy party anthem “Down to the Honkytonk” sums up the singer’s style in less than three and a half minutes: good times, sunshine, and easy living. It might not come as a big surprise then that the country songwriter, born Joshua Ryan Owen in 1981, is a Florida native. After a waterskiing accident derailed his university golf career, Owen turned to an acoustic guitar to alleviate his depression, teaching himself tunes by icons like Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. He found his groove through shows at campus drinking holes and decided to scrap the university track altogether, eventually releasing his debut record, Startin’ With Me, in 2006. His first single, the punchy “Yee Haw”—about taking a load off and tying one on for the weekend—established Owen’s vibe in a big way, and led to an inspired tour pairing when he ended up opening for fellow beach lover Kenny Chesney. Since then, he’s worked at fine-tuning his feel-good formula, like the dreamy “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” and the sun-kissed “Summer Jam” with Florida Georgia Line. In 2019, he even made a connection with Midwestern party legend Kid Rock, combining Detroit Rock City with the Sunshine State’s Treasure Coast for the laidback head-nodder “Grass Is Always Greener.”