Brian Owens’ What’s Going On: The Marvin Gaye Experience, now in its third year, invites audiences to partake in a show combining the beloved and lesser-known hits of the legendary Marvin Gaye to deliver an event that simultaneously honors the past and attends to the present and future.

Brian performs selections that span Gaye’s music-making career. Early solo hits like “Can I Get a Witness” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” share space with “You’re All I Need to Get By” and other classic duets. And any Marvin Gaye song list would be incomplete without perennial (and challenging) crowd-pleasers like “Let’s Get It On” or “Got To Give It Up.”
At its heart, Brian Owens’ Marvin Gaye Experience is about “preservation; it’s a matter of upholding the tradition of true soul music that is so desperately needed in our culture today.” The show prominently features a suite of pieces from Gaye’s “What’s Going On” album, which Brian counts as “one of the most socially important artistic works in the history of American music.” In light of recent events in and around Ferguson Missouri where he resides, Brian says the show also speaks to a “heightened sense of urgency November 24, 2024 and the prophetic beauty” of Gaye’s 1971 work.

The Marvin Gaye Experience is as multifaceted as the late musician was himself: Brian Owens stays true to what he calls Gaye’s “artistic journey, defined [as much] by his prolific writing of love songs and genius musicianship” as it was by his more socially-oriented pieces. This faithfulness to Gaye’s essence, energy, and soul has drawn new and repeat concert-goers alike.
Since its 2013 beginnings at St. Louis’ Sheldon Concert Hall, Brian Owens’ Marvin Gaye Experience has had additional local concert dates, and has traveled to the Hett Performing Arts Center in Lebanon, Illinois. Brian also recently performed the “What’s Going On” album, in its entirety, with members of the Saint Louis Symphony.