John Owen, also known by his bardic name Owain Alaw Pencerdd (November 14, 1821 – January 29, 1883), was a Welsh-language poet and also a musician.

He was apprenticed as a young man to a cutler, but he also studied music and the organ, and became the organist at the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, as well as conductor of the Octagon Orchestral Society.

From that period came his earliest music ("Calfari", published in the Haleliwia collection of 1849), and soon after, his first major success, at the Rhuddlan eisteddfod of 1851, with his composition "Deborah a Barac".

Owen played a major role in popularising "Glan Rhondda", singing it at concerts throughout North Wales, and then publishing it in his widely used Gems of Welsh Melody collection of 1860 (where he gave it the more familiar modern name, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau").

[2] Owen continued to compose, perform and adjudicate in his later years, while also editing and contributing to several collections of Welsh music and poetry that were published in the 1860s and 1870s, including Tonau yr Ysgol Sabothol and Y Gyfres Gerddorol.