Judith Owen - Live Performance and Interview

Posted by Evan Levy on April 2, 2009

It never ceases to amaze me how much great music there is to discover. Until this week, I had not heard Judith Owen’s latest album Mopping Up Karma. Normally listed as a jazz artist, Judith’s music transcends the usual labels and propels her into a category all her own, especially with this album. One really interesting fact about Mopping Up Karma is that it is made up of a number of songs that she had recorded about 10 years ago that were never released. This created an interesting listening experience because Judith is a very different person today than she was 10 years ago (hey, aren’t we all?). So you have the Judith of 10 years ago singing along side of the Judith of today – two women at different places in their life with very different opinions of themselves. Every song tells its own story of overcoming obstacles within herself with the Judith of today fighting her way out of the darkness and dragging her older unhappy self into the light. She’s finishing up a residency at the Metropolitan Room this weekend, and we were fortunate enough to have her stop by to play my two favorite songs from the album.

The title of the album is Mopping Up Karma and apparently there have been some journalists who didn’t understand the meaning behind it – perhaps they didn’t listen to the album. . .

Listen up:  

Here’s the first single from the album that she performed for us live in our WNEW.com studios called Creatures of Habit.

Dig it:  

The story of her fight to reclaim her long lost music and the journey to discover them parallels the fight she went through with herself to achieve the happiness that surrounds her now. Here’s the full tale of how everything she had created was lost and then found.

Listen up:  

My favorite song from the album has to be the second song she performed for us called Let’s Hear It For Love, a powerful emotional rollercoaster about the ups and downs of love and how it can consume you entirely.

Dig it:  

In a few weeks, Judith will be doing her thing down south as part of the lineup at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this year. There’s no doubt that she’s excited about it as she lives there part time.

Listen up:  

As I mentioned before Judith will be finishing up a residency at the Metropolitan Room here in New York this weekend. Tickets are still available, go to http://www.metropolitanroom.com/ for more info and stop by and see her before she packs up to do Jazzfest. For more on Judith, make sure to visit her site at http://www.judithowen.net/.