Band Details

From the Promoter

Earlier this month Judith Owen, whose latest album Somebody’s Child has received rave reviews across Europe and her native U.K. (including listed in Top 100 Albums of the Year (Sunday Times, UK), gave a stunning performance in the Windsor Arms Courtyard Café before an invitation-only full house.

Judith, with her band that includes legendary bassist Leland Sklar (James Taylor, Phil Collins), percussionist Pedro Segundo, first-call classical cellist Gabriella Swallow and violinist, Lizzie Ball, is about to embark on an extensive North American tour with Bryan Ferry.

An artist whose work updates the classic Laurel Canyon vibes of Joni Mitchell and Carole King with elements of jazz and R&B, Owen’s songs also fearlessly touch on contemporary social issues. At the same time, it’s hard for her to hide her sense of humour, as it would for anyone if they were married to Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, This Is Spinal Tap), who also contributes bass to one of the album’s tracks.

“By nature, I am a diverse musician,” Owen says. “It’s who I am because of all the music I grew up being exposed to, from opera to Sinatra, Joni to Stevie Wonder, and everything in between. It’s a very British thing where you love mixing all those styles. It’s classical. It’s pop. There’s jazz. There’s rhythm and blues. Then there’s rock thrown in there too.”

A songwriter since her teens, Owen paid her dues performing in London clubs during the late 1980s and early ‘90s. Her future husband, Harry Shearer caught one of these shows and the pair immediately fell in love. Upon relocating to L.A. in 1993, Owen began collaborating with an array of notable names, including producer Glen Ballard, singer/songwriter Richard Thompson, and her friend, actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
~
In 2000, Owen and Shearer moved to New Orleans where she made a string of albums with John Fischbach, the engineer on Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life. During this period, she and her husband also developed their Christmas variety show, which now tours annually to raise money for a host of charities, from mental health organizations to World AIDS Day. In 2006, she and Shearer created a live theatre production entitled “This Is So Not About The Simpsons,” and Owen also had the honour of performing live with Spinal Tap under the guise of back-up singer “Arnica.”