JUDITH OWEN

Judith Owen has boldly followed her muse, independently releasing recordings that have captivated fans, fellow artists and the most discerning critics. She has been featured by NBC’s “Today Show” and NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” and lauded by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Washington Post and many others. Equal parts musicality, personality and wit, Owen’s music combines pop, rock, jazz, classical, R&B and theatrical influences. Variety effusively described her as “a charmer and a seducer, a rocker and a jazz chanteuse.” The Los Angeles Times has described Owen as “a drier, hipper Norah Jones who is whip smart, soulfully cool and deeply introspective.” And from a recent Boston Globe Arts cover story: “Owen’s voice is gorgeous. It’s a phenomenally forthright instrument that whispers when necessary and wails when the moment calls for candor.” Her 2012 release Some Kind of Comfort is a brilliant illustration of this highly acclaimed singer/songwriter performing at the top of her creative game. Featuring 13 classically folk inspired songs, including the prayerful “Trip and Tumble”, the revealing “Tell Me” and the hauntingly melancholic “Hungry Is The Heart.” Undoubtedly, the most intimate and confessional of Owen’s recordings to date, this her eighth album, shows how beautifully melodic her music is, sometimes soothing, sometimes emotional, both funny and sad, but the lyrics are always pointed, introspective and thought provoking. Each song has something to say. Much of the material on Some Kind of Comfort is soulful, earnest and hypnotic, as if the songs are searching for something positive. Yet there is nothing sentimental, for the emotions ring true and cut deep into the psyche in short stories that have drive and urgency. Some Kind of Comfort is in part a companion to her critically acclaimed The Beautiful Damage Collection. Both CD’s feature songs from the very successful West End show ‘Losing It’ co-starring Ruby Wax. On Some Kind of Comfort, Owen once again delivers what The New York Times describes her as having ‘the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch the vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering’. Her 2010 release The Beautiful Damage Collection features 16 meticulously crafted songs of past and present. Owen’s collaboration with the late legendary arranger Robert Kirby (Nick Drake and Elvis Costello) fulfills a long held dream partnership. The songs on The Beautiful Damage Collection are emotion-wrapped packages, hand-picked as the best from Owen’s six previous albums. The album also features 3 brand new studio recordings: “Water”, “Cry Me A River” and “When I Am Laid” (Dido’s Lament by Henry Purcell). The latter two tracks were specially chosen as they were the crowd favorites and critical highlights from Judith’s involvement with Richard Thompson’s “1000 Years of Popular Music” Tour. Perhaps her most constant collaboration has been with British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson, whom she met while recording on the Java label. Thompson asked her to sing on ‘Mock Tudor’, but it was his invitation to perform in his Billboard-inspired “1000 Years of Popular Music” at the Getty which proved to be their best-known association. Owen’s considerable contributions to this historic romp are documented on a collectable 2006 CD and DVD of the event. On it, she and Thompson perform music dating back to the 13th century, up to contemporary tracks by Julie London, the Beatles and even, Britney Spears. Owen has become one of Thompson’s female foils of choice. Aside from his guest performances on 12 Arrows and Happy This Way, she toured with him as the featured vocalist in the 2008 U.S. and the 2009 U.K. performances of “1000 Years” receiving tremendous praise. The Washington Post called her performance “amazing” and The Boston Herald said she “nearly stole the show.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel called Owen “as wildly versatile a singer as Thompson is a guitarist” and UK’s The Guardian commented that she “…deserves to emerge as a celebrity in her own right.” Their latest collaboration is Thompson’s inspirational song cycle ‘Cabaret of Souls’, which features Owen in a tour de-force, multi-character role. ‘Cabaret of Souls’ will be performed in fall of 2012. The seeds of Mopping Up Karma (Courgette Records, 2008) grew from a set of recordings Owen created in 1998 for an album she was making with Glen Ballard. His discovery of Owen performing in the Hollywood club, Luna Park, led to her signing with his Capitol imprint label, Java Records. Sadly, the CD was never released due to the unfortunate demise of this label in 2000. Despite the set back, Owen fought for and regained ownership of the masters. Eight years and six CD’s later, she listened to the songs with a seasoned ear at the behest of fan emails. She was struck by how relevant and moving they continued to be. She then spent two months stripping the songs of their “major label clutter,” even directing the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ photo shoot and CD cover art. As the title indicates, Mopping Up Karma is a revisit and cleansing of the past and was followed quickly on the heels of Here (2006) and Happy This Way (2007). Standouts from the former include ‘Worship,’ with guest artist kd lang, lending her incomparable vocals and the title track ‘Here,’ so universally resonant that Jamie Lee Curtis, a longtime Owen champion, chose it to make her debut as a music video director. The result is an exquisitely poignant portrayal of a woman finally inhabiting the present — no longer regretting the past nor fearing the future. Happy This Way is a layered homage to Owen’s native Britain. It was co-produced with her longtime collaborator, John Fischbach, engineer of Stevie Wonder’s classic 1976 album Songs In The Key Of Life. The album is characteristically wide-ranging in mood and style. It includes ‘60’s influenced British Invasion pop-rock, cinematically orchestral landscapes of home and emotionally bare solo performances at the piano; as much hymn as folk tale. Among Owen’s most ardent advocates are some of the world’s finest contemporary musicians, many of whom Owen has collaborated with: bluesman Keb’ Mo’, saxophonist Tom Scott, Julia Fordham and Van Dyke Parks. Others include musical legends Leiber & Stoller, jazz vocalist Ian Shaw, Shawn Colvin, Quantic and others. Cassandra Wilson calls her “one of the most passionate, mesmerizing, thoroughly creative vocal artists on the scene today.” Jamie Cullum has dubbed Owen a “female Randy Newman.” The beginning of Owen’s ascent over the last decade was her 1996 debut album, Emotions On A Postcard. The beguiling single, “Hand On My Heart,” was featured in the 1997 Jack Nicholson/Helen Hunt film “As Good As It Gets.” Her next effort, Limited Edition (which would become Mopping Up Karma) produced several tracks that were showcased in various television shows that aired on CBS, NBC, HBO and most notably the WB’s ‘Charmed’ and Fox’s ‘The Simpsons’ in which she also appeared as herself, thanks to Simpson’s producer Mike Skully. An acclaimed third album—featuring a dozen tracks so penetrating that Owen entitled the disc 12 Arrows—earned her the opening slot on tour with kd lang. Owen’s 2005 EP Christmas In July (and word of her and husband Harry Shearer’s talent-filled Christmas sing-a-longs) culminated in an invitation to recreate the private yearly gathering at LA’s prestigious Walt Disney Concert Hall. The EP also begat a fearless interpretation of Spinal Tap’s “Christmas With The Devil,” which has become a yearly highlight for her and Shearer when touring the show. As part-time residents of New Orleans, (both record there), the annual 8-10 performances around the U.S. continue to raise money for the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic in the post-Katrina New Orleans area. With worldly wisdom beyond her years, Judith turns suffering into divine lyrical melodies, as she draws on her life-long battle with depression. This experience lays the foundation of Owen’s recent stage collaboration with fellow depressive sufferer UK comedienne Ruby Wax. Together they co-created “Losing It”, a poignant, funny yet devastatingly honest, two-woman show tracing the emotional descent of Wax, through music and monologues. 2011 marked sold out runs at the Meiner Chocolate Factory and the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End. A long-awaited live performance DVD, “An Intimate Evening with…” will be released worldwide next year. All recordings appear courtesy of Courgette Records, the label which Owen formed in 2005 with her husband/collaborator Harry Shearer and longtime business partner, Bambi Moé. The partnership insures that Owen will continue to release recordings on her own artistic terms and partake in a variety of creative outlets. Whether it be as serious singer-songwriter, comedic actress/performer (Owen sends up Shirley Bassey, Sarah Palin, Condoleezza Rice and Lady GaGa in Shearer’s satirical music video spoofs: on MyDamnChannel.com and Grammy nominated cd’s), or as re-arranger of ‘testosterone’ anthems such as “Smoke on The Water” and “Eye of the Tiger”. Esquire Magazine included two of her sensualized treatments in their feature, ‘Cover Songs Men Could Listen To’ (including Ray Davies “I Go to Sleep” which was featured in HBO’s Mrs. Harris).