Judith Owen

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Sunday Mercury loves Mopping Up Karma!!!
January, 2009
Welsh songbird Judith, wife of Spinal Tap and Simpsons actor Harry Shearer, started her latest album in 1998 but was stymied when Capitol dropped the project. Released at last on her own label, it is a remarkable achievement spanning genres from 60s nostalgia (Get Into It) and folk-pop (Creatures Of Habit) to Imogen Heap-like subversion (Inside You) and deep blues (Who’s That Girl?) Lyrically it’s often in a dark place, particularly in the destructive relationship of Let’s Hear It For Love and bitter frustration of set-stealing Shine, but it could be the delight of the year. PC
-- Paul Cole
Wears The Trousers Gives Karma Two Thumbs Up!!!
Wears The Trousers
January 19, 2009
Judith Owen will be unfamiliar to many in the UK, in spite of being Welsh-born and a one-time London resident. The prodigal daughter has spent the last decade or so Stateside with husband Harry Shearer (that’s the voice of Mr Burns and Flanders to you), releasing records to a solid base of fans and critical acclaim. So, while Mopping Up Karma is technically her first British release, it’s also the work of an established artist. Fittingly enough, however, her return to the homeland is marked by a collection of songs written in 1998 when, by her own account, she was still becoming accustomed to life in America. That she’s chosen to pose on the cover in full period costume, wielding the eponymous cleaning utensil like an anti-aircraft gun, shows that she’s retained that dry British wit, pairing it in Mopping Up Karma with clean-cut songwriting and a well-tuned sense of the dramatic.While it all sounds good on paper, that writing date of 1998 serves to instantly place Mopping Up Karma very much within the Girl Power decade, sounding at times like a cross between Tori Amos’s ‘Silent All These Years’ and Meredith Brooks’s ‘Bitch’, as sung by Vonda Shepard. This is by no means a bad thing, however it may sound. In fact, it’s what makes Mopping Up Karma so instantly likeable. Opener ‘Creatures Of Habit’ rocks in on that familiar tinkling piano, and probably would have been featured on at least one hit TV show had it been released at the time it was written. You can’t second-guess the delivery, however. While the instrumentation is at times dated, with guitar and piano lending a comfy cushion of soft rock, Owen’s raspy, sweet, Americanised voice demands attention and harmonises otherwise anachronistic elements.Certainly, Owen deserves credit for staying true to the original vision of her younger self. She hasn’t tried to jam these songs into more modern frames, just given them the attention and craft that they deserve. Where it works, it is absolutely sublime. ‘Let’s Hear It For Love’ is a lost hit, with Owen providing ironic, deeply felt lyrics: “it’s a man and a woman / it’s heaven, and it’s human / and there’s nothing better going”. ‘Inside You’ is a creepy, blindingly original ballad on the weary topic of mothers, sung, it seems, from the perspective of being in the womb. ‘I Promise You’ is more straightforward, but so beautifully performed and simply presented that it is a real highlight of the album. There are misses too, however; ‘Get Into It’ is an embarrassing pep talk that sounds like it has come straight off the ‘Baywatch’ soundtrack: “Get into it baby, and do whatever you can… / every woman, every man, enjoy your life”. It’s an unbearable listen, in spite of Owen’s good intentions. Likewise, ‘She’s Alright’ is an ambiguous bit of moralising on the subject of plastic surgery.Nevertheless, Mopping Up Karma is a fine album, full of sparkling moments – much like Owen herself, who, seen live, is wickedly funny and charmingly, disarmingly honest. She’s putting a lot of work into wooing British audiences at present, touring with Richard Thompson’s ‘1000 Years of Popular Music’. She certainly deserves recognition on these shores, not least for the fierceness with which she works that mop.
Wales Online talks with Judith!
January 14, 2009
Welsh folk singer realizes her American dream
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
In the 15 years since Judith Owen left Wales she has never looked back.You can’t blame her given that she now lives in a beach front house in Santa Monica but the daughter of Welsh opera singer Handel Owen returns to Wales this month on tour with folk-rock legend Richard Thompson.The stability in her life today is built on her marriage to Harry Shearer, the star of The Simpsons and Spinal Tap, but when she left Wales Owen admits she was finding it difficult to cope.“I was 25 but struggling to come to terms with my mum’s death when I was 15,” says the 40-year-old from Llanelli.“She was depressed and killed herself and much of my melancholy stemmed from that.“I found it very difficult to talk about, but music was the one way I could express myself and be myself. I just feel such incredible joy when I’m singing.“I was in a very low place in my early 20s and meeting Harry that night was one of those ‘ding ding’ moments. I was performing a crappy little gig in a Chelsea bar and when I finished my song I turned round to see this man applauding me.“I recognised him from Spinal Tap and after the gig we got talking. He shared my love of music and that was that.“There was an incredible geometry that occurred instantly and I had an instinctive feeling that I could feel better if I stuck with this man.“It was absolutely the right thing to do. I moved to America, got better, made eight records and continue to make them.”Shearer too has enjoyed great success, voicing 12 characters during the 20-year run of The Simpsons including Mr Burns and Ned Flanders, but he is also a political satirist and has his own TV and radio shows.The relationship and her subsequent success has helped give Owen the sense of belonging that she lacked in Britain.“To be honest, I’d always felt a bit of an outsider because I was a Welsh girl living in London,” she says.“It sounds corny but my happiest times were when we visited family in Kidwelly and Llanelli, although even then I think I was seen as the English one because I lived in London.”Now an adopted American, Owen has amassed a huge fan base in the US with her albums and tours being lauded by the likes of The New York Times and LA Times.Her music combines pop, rock, jazz, classical, R’n’B and theatrical influences and her new album Mopping Up Karma represents the journey she has taken from struggling musician to bona fide star.“The seeds for the album were set back in 1998 when I was making a record with Glen Ballard, who had just helped Alanis Morissette become a huge star,” she says.“The label we were working under folded and I kind of moved on. But then I had people asking me ‘Why can’t we get this song?’ and Harry encouraged me to revisit them.“I recently listened to the songs for the first time in years and was struck by how good they were. So I re-recorded the vocals and remixed tracks and produced it on our own record label Courgette.“I think the album is a result of a small triumph over adversity and represents the journey I’ve taken.”Judith Owen performs with Richard Thompson at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on Monday, January 26. Tickets cost £15-£20 from 029 2087 8444.
-- Rachel Mainwaring
Washington Post loves Mopping Up Karma!!!
Oct 3, 2008
JUDITH OWEN "Mopping Up Karma" Courgette
Friday, October 3, 2008; WE08
IF WELSH-BORN singer-songwriter and keyboardist Judith Owen's latest CD sounds somewhat familiar, echoing '90s pop sensibilities, there's good reason. "Mopping Up Karma" is a reclamation project of sorts, featuring newly recorded vocals and remixed tracks salvaged from an album that Owen made with producers Glen Ballard and Clifton Magness a decade ago. That recording, which would have marked Owen's major-label debut, was never released because of a corporate shuffle.
In revisiting these songs, Owen hasn't tried to strip them of all sonic ties to the past, whether it's an electronically processed vocal or an angsty arrangement that evokes vintage Alanis Morissette or Tori Amos. But faded influences aside, Owen's voice is so lovely and soulful, even spellbinding at times, that she has no problem convincing us that looking over her shoulder is time well spent. Given her knack for composing ballads, it's not surprising that some of the songs that have held up the best over the years, such as "Shine," "Who's That Girl," "Let's Hear It for Love" and the Ballard-produced "Creatures of Habit" unfold slowly and shrewdly.
Incidentally, Owen dedicates "Mopping Up Karma" to her husband, writer and actor Harry Shearer of "This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Simpsons" fame. If he didn't come up with the album's perfectly apt title, no doubt he wishes he had.
-- Mike Joyce
Bio
Judith Owen has relentlessly followed her muse, independently releasing recordings that have captivated fans, Hollywood music supervisors, fellow artists and the most discerning critics. With the same determination she has applied to finding her voice, she has also found her audience. Her albums and tours have led to her being 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 and wit, Owen’s music combines pop, rock, jazz, classical, R&B and theatrical influences. Variety effusively describes her as “a charmer and a seducer, a rocker, and a jazz chanteuse.” The Los Angeles Times, in a Sunday Calendar profile, called Owen “whip smart, soulfully cool and deeply introspective.” The Washington Post praises Owen’s “rare talent for effortlessly crossing genres” adding, “her alluring vocals are a gift that keeps on giving.”
Owen’s newest album, Mopping Up Karma (Courgette Records) is the best representation to date of her singular artistry, which a recent Boston Globe Arts cover story described this way: “…records that blur the line between troubadour and chanteuse, pastoral beauty and urbane sophistication. Her songs are literate, and often melancholy, but also pithy and blunt. She’s been accurately described as the female Randy Newman, but there’s one big difference: Owen’s voice is gorgeous. It’s a phenomenally forthright instrument that whispers when necessary and wails when the moment calls for candor.”
The seeds of Mopping Up Karma lie in a set of recordings Owen began in 1998 for an album she was making with Glen Ballard, whose discovery of Owen performing in the Hollywood club Luna Park led to her signing by the Capitol boutique label Java Records. Setting out to make her first album for the label, she began writing and recording with Clifton Magness (Avril Lavigne) and Ballard, both of whom co-wrote, engineered, produced and played on various tracks. Owen wrote the lyrics and the bulk of the music, and supplied all of the vocals, piano and keyboard parts (organ/strings). The original recordings also featured contributions from such eminent musicians as Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers), who played Hammond organ, and David Campbell (Alanis Morissette, The Goo Goo Dolls), who provided orchestrations.
Owen was inspired to bring the material to fruition for Mopping Up Karma when she recently listened to the songs the first time in years and was struck by how good they were. She then spent months transforming the songs—newly recording vocals, re-mixing tracks, and more—for the new album..
Mopping Up Karma follows somewhat quickly on the heels of Happy This Way (2007) and Here (2006). Happy This Way, a layered homage to Owen’s native Britain, is co-produced by Owen and her longtime cohort 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, from fun British Invasion pop-rock to wistful chamber pop.
Learning to be in the present was the central theme of Here, which earned Owen an appearance on NBC’s “Today Show.” Jamie Lee Curtis, a longtime Owen champion, made her debut as a music video director with one for the Here title track.
Among Owen’s most ardent advocates are some of the world’s finest contemporary musicians, many of whom Owen has collaborated with in recordings and tours: k.d. lang, bluesman Keb ‘Mo, saxophonist Tom Scott, Julia Fordham, jazz vocalist Ian Shaw, Quantic and others. Cassandra Wilson calls her “one of the most passionate, mesmerizing, thoroughly creative vocal artists on the scene today.” Jamie Cullum has deemed Owen a “female Randy Newman.”
British folk-rock legend Richard Thompson was so impressed by Owen that he invited her to perform on his tour “1000 Years of Popular Music.” Owen’s considerable contributions to this historic jaunt are documented on a collectable 2006 CD and DVD of the event, where 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 Thompson’s female foil of choice: Aside from him performing on Happy This Way, she was a featured vocalist in recent U.S. performances of “1000 Years.” Owen received tremendous praise on the tour: 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.”
Owen is especially beloved for her live performances. Reviewing her at NYC’s great launching pad for singer-songwriters, The Living Room, The New York Times raved that she “has the kind of wailing folk-jazz voice that slices away surfaces to touch vulnerable emotional nerve endings and leave you quivering.”
The beginning of Owen’s rapid ascent over the last ten years was her 1996 debut album, Emotions On A Postcard, which “Hand On My Heart,” the beguiling single featured in the 1997 Jack Nicholson/Helen Hunt film “As Good As It Gets.” Owen’s sophomore recording Limited Edition resulted in several tracks being showcased in television shows on CBS, NBC, HBO and the WB. An acclaimed third album—featuring a dozen tracks so penetrating Owen titled the disc 12 Arrows—earned the singer, songwriter and pianist an opening slot on tour with k.d. lang. 2005’s Lost & Found release and tour culminated in a sold-out performance at LA’s prestigious Walt Disney Concert Hall. Owen’s 2005 EP Christmas in July begat a fearless interpretation of Spinal Tap’s “Christmas With The Devil.”
In 2005, Owen formed the Warner Music/ADA-distributed Courgette Records with her husband/collaborator Harry Shearer and her manager, Bambi Moé. The partnership insures that Owen will continue to release recordings on her own artistic terms. The influential arts and letters blogger The Head Butler recently wrote, “jazz now favors female singers, and…each year, we get a new one to marvel at. We never seem to get Judith Owen. Our loss…You don’t have to sit in a club nursing Jack Daniels to appreciate [her] deep sensitivity, good taste and exceptional voice of Judith Owen.”