Owens made other recordings (some by Alan Lomax) in the 1960s and 1970s. Owens travelled the music festival circuit in the United States and Europe in the last decades of his life, often accompanied on harmonica by his friend Bud Spires, until his death in 1997. He was frequently billed in the company of other noteworthy blues musicians who maintained a higher profile than he did but were longtime associates. One such performance was with Spires in an all-star tribute to Chess Records in 1994 at the Long Beach Blues Festival, along with Jeff Healey, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy, the Staple Singers and Robert Cray's band, among others, in Long Beach, California. He was a recipient of a 1993 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the United States. Owens died in Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1997, at the age of 92. It Must Have Been The Devil (1971)  Jack Owens (Vocals & Guitar), Bud Spires (Harmonica), Testament Records  Track listing:  Recorded Sept. 7, 1970 in Bentonia, MS  Bonus tracks on 1995 Testament Records CD release*  Bentonia Country Blues (1979)  Jack Owens (Vocals & Guitar), Bud Spires (Harmonica), Albatross Records  Track listing:  Songs: 2, 3, 7 written by Jack Owens; Songs: 1, 4, 5, 6 written by Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James  Recorded Aug. 13 & 17, 1978 in Bentonia, MS