Jeff Clark/Daily Times Leader
Thursday, March 24, 2005

New Orleans resident Judith Owen and her husband Harry Shearer recently played three dates during the SXSW Music Conference in Austin, Texas. South by Southwest (SXSW) is the largest event of its kind in the world. Featuring more than 2,600 bands from four continents, it is an opportunity for those in the music industry to discover unsigned talent. It is also a chance for signed artist to showcase new material to a diverse audience. Daily Times Leader features reporter Jeff Clark attended the festival, which ran from March 16-20. The following is the second in a multi-part series, "Keeping the South in South by Southwest."

Who: Judith Owen 
From: New Orleans 
Album: Lost and Found 
Music: Torch-style jazz 
Info: www.judithowen.net

The first three things usually associated with jazz singer Judith Owen is that she's from Wales, she's the daughter of a famous opera singer and she's married to actor Harry Shearer. With that bit of information out of the way, we can now move forward and concentrate on the things that are important about Owen, such as the fact that she's an extremely talented vocalist, she's quite humorous and she's, well, very beautiful. She also loves her adopted hometown of New Orleans.

"We moved to New Orleans a few years ago and I never want to leave," said Owen. "It is my home. There is so much to love about the city--the music, the people, the food and the weather. Wales is a very bronchitic country. Consumption is also quite popular there. That being said, I absolutely love the weather in New Orleans."

Owen's love for New Orleans can be found on her latest album, "Lost and Found," which features New Orleans musicians such as Keb' Mo and Mississippi native Cassandra Wilson. The album was recorded partially at New Orleans' Piety Studios and co-produced by John Fishback.

"John produced one of my favorite albums of all-time, Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life,'" stated Owen. "He's quite brilliant. I was very fortunate to work with him."

Owen was at SXSW in Austin, Texas to promote the new album, playing three shows in three days. Her final show was held Sunday at the Flamingo Cantina. With an absent bassist, Shearer joined his wife on her Austin mini-tour along with drummer Debra Dobkin.

Owen's crowd was quintessential Austin: a melange of hipsters, indie rockers, journalists, feminists, music critics and jazz fans. Regardless of who or whom may have been in the audience, her show is 100 percent Judith Owen. From the way she captivates the audience with her sultry piano playing to the humorous anecdotes between songs, Owen commands attention from her audience.

Forget any preconceived notions about woman in Owen's line of work; she is not Tori Amos nor is she Norah Jones; she is Judith Owen, an original jazz artist that owes more to Randy Newman than Diana Krall. She is not there to entertain her audience; she is more apt to amuse herself in front of a crowd.

However, her confidence is not to be confused with arrogance because Owen finds her audience as charming and intriguing as she must certainly appear to them, especially for someone who self-degradingly refers to her music as "songs to commit suicide by." Regardless, Owen is just happy to be there.

"I used to play this dreadful hotel in London--actually, it was a beautiful hotel but I had to play for like four hours straight--it was dreadful. However, it did allow me an opportunity to play my original material," she noted.

It was that original material in said hotel that changed Owen's life forever.

"One night I was playing my material and I heard some unusual applause," Owen recalled. "I looked over and there was (Spinal Tap members) Dereck St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and a midget clapping for me. It was the most surreal moment of my life. Harry (Shearer, star of the film "Spinal Tap") and I hung around together in London. Spinal Tap was there to perform at the Royal Albert Hall. We ended up falling in love--he is my soulmate."

Owen and her soulmate split their time between L.A. and New Orleans, but it is the latter that both prefer to call home.

"We love living in the French Quarter--it is darling," said Owen. "It is the most European city in North America--there is no other city like it in the world. I'm such a lucky one--I live in a fabulous city, I get to play music for a living and I'm married to a wonderful man. Not bad for a girl from Wales, right?"