TOMORROW’S TEARS TODAY CONTAINS NEWLY REMASTERED RECORDINGS
BY LOUIS & BILL OWENS FROM 1961–1967 | LISTEN HERE
NASHVILLE, TN — Owepar Entertainment continues its preservation of the Owens-Parton family musical legacy with the October 2nd release of Tomorrow’s Tears Today, a newly remastered collection featuring eighteen recordings by The Owens Brothers recorded between 1961 and 1967.
Bill Owens and Louis Owens, The Owens Brothers, were among the earliest professional performers in the Owens-Parton family. The Owens family consists of eight children, including brothers Robert “John Henry” (born 1931), Louis (born 1933), and Bill (born 1935) who pursued music from an early age, and spent their teenage years seeking out every opportunity to perform country music together. This became the start of The Owens Brothers musical legacy.
The recordings collected on Tomorrow’s Tears Today trace a creative journey that continued to evolve through those formative years. By 1959, Bill and Louis Owens, alongside a young Dolly Parton, had become fixtures in the Knoxville country music scene, performing at local theatres, honky-tonks, and radio stations, steadily building experience in both live performance and songwriting, as well as making their first recordings for the tiny Goldband Records label.
In the early 1960s, Bill and Louis further refined their craft in Nashville, Tennessee, where Bill and Dolly secured publishing contracts with Combine Music and Dolly began recording for Monument Records. During this period, The Owens Brothers entered a particularly productive creative phase as Bill and Louis wrote and produced country singles in Nashville with their crack show band, The Kinfolks. The singles featured on Tomorrow’s Tears Today reflect that evolution, blending traditional country roots with the emerging polished Nashville sound of the era, while highlighting Bill Owens’ growing reputation as both a songwriter and producer.
The collection also includes two incredibly rare Knoxville-produced singles from 1961 and 1962, “Vagabond” and “It Seems Like a Lifetime,” featuring background vocals by 14-year-old Dolly Parton and her younger sisters, Stella and Cassie. Performing as the “Vocalaires,” the trio’s appearance marks Dolly’s second appearance on a record as a non-billed artist, following her debut single “Puppy Love.” The other 14 tracks date from the Owens Brothers’ mid-1960s Nashville period with several also featuring young Dolly on back-up vocals. Together, the eighteen tracks offer a remarkable snapshot of a family whose musical influence would eventually reach audiences around the world.
Carefully restored from rare 45 rpm singles, Tomorrow’s Tears Today preserves an overlooked chapter in Country music history while celebrating the enduring artistry of the Owens Brothers and their lasting contribution to the Owens-Parton family musical legacy.
Tomorrow’s Tears Today is now available on all major streaming platforms HERE.
Track Listing:
1. Vagabond
2. Just A Friend
3. It Seems Like a Lifetime
4. Take My Love
5. What Am I Doing Here
6. Honey You’re Not Fooling Me
7. Wish I Had My Troubles Back
8. Begging for More
9. Got to Pull Myself Together
10. Home Cooking
11. Tomorrow’s Tears Today
12. Would You Believe
13. The Right Kind of Girl
14. I’ll Introduce You
15. Thanks To You
16. Before It’s Too Late
17. Practice What You Preach
18. I’ve Gotta Stay High