Music |
Judith Owen
By
Published: Jan 01, 2007
Category:
Jazz
Judith Owen
Videos
Here
Lost and Found
In My Father’s Voice
I’m weak on torch singers, saloon musicians, crooners of songs that require only a piano and bass for backup. But I knew that Judith Owen is the wife of Harry Shearer — the brilliant commentator for HuffingtonPost.com, legendary member {Derek Smalls) of "Spinal Tap" and multi-voice of “The Simpsons.”
And so I wondered: What kind of singer would this sharp-eared, hyper-critical guy marry?
Well, a very talented singer. And a kindred spirit.
Harry Shearer was a child actor. Judith Owen’s father was, for 35 years, an opera singer who performed with many of the greats while his young daughter watched from the wings. Handel Owen — what a name! — had eclectic taste for a classical musician; Judith grew up listening to jazz and gospel. (Though the Owens lived in London, the Beatles were completely off her radar for this self-described “opera brat”.)
When she was 15, her mother died. For refuge, Judith took to songwriting. She had an eccentric genius as a pianist: “I have a perfect ear and I can hear everything; I can’t read or write music as I am symbol dyslexic.” All she needed was the urge to perform. And once that came….
Judith Owen has spent years and years on the verge. James Brooks, the noted writer-director, heard her sing at a party and had her record “Hand On My Heart” for “As Good As It Gets”. Her versions of “Eye of the Tiger” and “Smoke on the Water” — as a ballad — are cult classics. But she’s hard to pigeonhole; she refuses to record a CD in any single genre. And so industry mavens don’t quite know what to do with her.
Great musicians do. Richard Thompson, k.d. lang, Cassandra Wilson — they happily record with Judith Owen. To them, she’s Joni Mitchell, incarnated as a torch singer. Rickie Lee Jones singing scat. And, like her husband, a sharp-tongued ironist with a big sentimental streak.
All the sides of Judith Owen are on display in “Happy This Way.” She begins with a song that evokes her Welch heritage, and soon finds herself paying homage to doomed English singer Nick Drake. She sounds like an LA hipster when she gives advice to the Paris Hilton set: “Your face in magazines/don’t make it look like work.” And like an old soul soon after: “I need some sympathy for myself.” And, in a lovely song to her father on his 80th birthday, she’s all modesty as she describes her friends’ reaction to his singing:
I’m proud and I’m pleased
That through him, they must see me
I’m the acorn, he’s the tree
I’m aware enough to know that jazz now favors female singers, and that, each year, we get a new one to marvel at. We never seem to get Judith Owen. Our loss. I’m correcting it a tiny bit here: You don’t have to sit in a club nursing Jack Daniels to appreciate the deep sensitivity, the good taste and the exceptional voice of Judith Owen.
To buy “Happy This Way” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “12 Arrows” from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy “Here” from Amazon.com, click here.
To listen to Judith Owen’s NPR interview, click here.
For Judith Owen’s web site, click here.
