Free concert: Natasha Owens is giving Montgomery an early Christmas gift on Monday

It's time to make some new musical Christmas memories.

Expect a night of favorite holiday songs, and some new ones, when Natasha Owens comes to Montgomery on Monday.

"I'm hoping that it will be a night of restoration to give people hope and comfort in the midst of this holiday season," Owens said. "Not everybody has family surrounding them."

Owens is performing Monday, 7 p.m. at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1728 S. Hull St. Doors open at 6 p.m. for this free concert, sponsored by Faith Radio and Holt International. She said it'll be mostly Christmas music, with a few anthem songs thrown in.

"Faith Radio has supported me for the past 8 years, and my music," Owens said.

While her mom's from Arkansas, Owens' dad grew up in Mississippi. She said they used to come through Alabama a lot, and that her grandfather was in the VA hospital in Tuscaloosa. These days, she stops in Montgomery every once in a while to visit with Faith Radio.

"I love the people in Montgomery," Owens said. "They're just so hospitable, you know? You definitely get that Southern hospitality."

This concert is also a chance for Owens to share the path, and the time, that led to her music and ministry. "You hear '80s all in my music, whether it's Christmas or regular, just different layering of different aspects," Owens said.

Owens' Christmas traditions

Christmas traditions at her early childhood home in Memphis, Tennessee were strong, especially with her father, Herbert Michael Wayne Harlow.

"He was all about Christmas, and making Christmas memories," Owens said.

Her family would watch movies, especially her favorite "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

"That's the one we'd always watch on Christmas Eve," Owens said. "And still to this day, we watch it every Christmas Eve. It never gets old to me."

Then her family would all load into the car with grandma and spend hours driving around looking at Christmas lights.

Christmas Day brought even more fun.

"My dad had this one tradition that's so funny to me that I did it to my kids," Owens said. "We would lay out cookies for Santa, but we would lay out carrots and celery for the reindeer. My dad was kind of a perfectionist... He would make the biggest production on Christmas morning. He would take those carrots and he would bite teeth marks in them. They would be all over the floor. They would make a trail out the door, down the driveway and down the street. We would follow that trail. He would make the biggest deal about how we're not going to (leave reindeer treats) anymore, because the reindeer make such a mess in the house. 'Santa should bring it out to them. They shouldn't let those reindeer in this house.' As a kid, that was the biggest deal, to see how big of a mess they made next year."

While the carrots were a mess, Owens' family didn't have to worry about picking up wrapping paper on Christmas morning. None of the gifts were wrapped.

"My dad started this thing up," Owens said. "He wanted everything put together. All the clothes laid out. So everything was so neatly arranged throughout the entire living room... So that you could come and see each individual thing, instead of unwrapping them."

The traditions continued when she was 14, and her family moved to Texas.

These days, she lives there in Frisco, just outside Dallas near the Cowboys' practice stadium.

She and husband David have passed her dad's Christmas traditions on to their children, two boys 18 and 21. They still watch "Christmas Vacation" together. They still go out and look at Christmas lights. The unwrapped gift thing worked for a while with their sons, but no longer.

"They like their presents wrapped," Owens said. "They like to count the presents underneath the tree going into the holidays, and see if one has more than the other."

Owens said her dad was all about giving. It's something that reaches back to her grandfather, who left her dad when he was a kid and became a homeless veteran. Years later, when her dad was in his 20s, they were reunited. That sparked another tradition.

"Every homeless person he saw, dad would go get food and bring it to them," Owens said. "He made the holidays all about more giving than receiving. That was the most important thing."

That 's another tradition for Owens, helping feed the homeless and buying gifts for single mothers and widows that they know from their church and community.

"We bring them something special for Christmas," Owens said. "Because it's a little tougher on them."

One crushing memory, and how Owens moved forward

Not all memories are good, though. Some are tragic. And especially in those times, she leans on her favorite Bible verse, Deuteronomy 31:6.

"It just says, He will never leave you or forsake you," Owens said. "He's always near the broken hearted, especially during the holidays."

She loves being able to give comfort to others who are struggling, because Owens knows the struggle. It changed the course of her life.

"My dad died 11 years ago cleaning his guns," Owens said. "He was sitting at the table. A bullet went off in the chamber that he didn't see, and it hit him in the heart."

In the wake of her dad's death at 58, Owens said she tried to be strong. That strength failed, and she went into the downward spiral of depression.

"It was music that brought me out," Owens said. "It was a pastor that asked me to be music minister when I couldn't even get out of bed every day."

She rose, and soon found a new life's mission to help people who have no hope — people who have turned to alcohol or drugs to cope.

"Everything leads to a suicide road, and I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for God crossing my path," Owens said.

In 2013, Owens wrote "I Made It Through," a song that was a raw account of surviving her father's death.

In 2016, she officially stepped into the world of Christian music and released "No One But You." In 2017, she released We Will Rise, which the following year was named "Inspirational Album of the Year" at the We Love Christian Music Awards. In 2019, Owens signed with Radiate Music, and released her third album Warrior, which she co-wrote with Radiate's founder Ian Eskelin.

Along the way, she's toured with some of Christian Music’s bestselling artists, including Michael W. Smith, Kutless, JJ Weeks, Ryan Stevenson, Jason Crabb, Matthew West, 7eventh Time Down, Audio Adrenaline, Point of Grace and more.

Pandemic time brings Owens two new albums

“Through the last year or so, there has been a lot of chaos going on in our world,” Owens said. “It’s incredibly easy to look around us and instantly become anxious and fearful at all that we see. But there is a hope that I have found that is stronger than the enemy that tries to intimidate us; His name is Jesus.”

Last year, when the pandemic shut down almost all of the touring act world, Owens decided it was time to cross something off her bucket list. She released a 10-song Christmas album in honor of her dad, Christmas Memories. She said it's a mix of traditional carols, original songs, and fun. The title track captures a lot of the Christmas memories her father gave her.

This year, she's releasing Christmas Memories again in a deluxe version, with four additional songs. She'll have CDs of it available on Monday.

"We added two songs from the movie 'Christmas Vacation,' because that's my favorite movie," Owens said. One is, of course, "Christmas Vacation." The other is "That Spirit of Christmas," which for the movie was by Ray Charles.

One of her favorites on the album is "Too Much Christmas," a quirky pop original which features Owens' husband in the music video.

"We all know someone who leaves up their tree all year," she said.

This deluxe version also has the Owens family version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

The new Christmas Wishes CD also comes with a Christmas book, with lyrics, family photos, and family recipes that have been handed down for decades.

"I put everything that we cherish in our Christmas life into that book," Owens said.

So what's her favorite recipe? "I love carrot soufflé, and I've got a really good recipe that I put in there," Owens said. "It's always a crowd favorite when I make it at the holidays."

Last year wasn't just about making Christmas music. Owens also created the10-song album Stand. That one released this year in August.

"We topped off two entire projects in one year," Owens said. "As well as other things going on in my life. It was almost too busy. I should have rested. Now that it's getting busier again, I wish I would have rested during that time. But we have a lot of music to show for it."

Follow her on natashaowensmusic.com.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel at sheupel@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Natasha Owens is giving Montgomery an early Christmas gift on Monday