Simon Hale talks to the multi-talented Judith Owen.
Judith Owen’s life is about to turn full circle with a tour that she says will feel like a homecoming.
The Welsh singer-songwriter, who was born in London and now lives in America, is bringing the 1970s troubadour music that she was brought up on to the UK – and making Birmingham her first stop.
Influenced by the likes of Carole King, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, the songstress the New York Times has described as “a funny and fearless performer”, will be at the Glee Club next month performing songs from her new album, Ebb and Flow, supported by three musicians that helped create their sound.
Bassist Leland Sklar, guitarist Waddy Wachtel and drummer Russ Kunkel – Judith calls them “her band” – performed with many of the great 60s and 70s singers from the Laurel Canyon era.
“I heard these guys when I was young and I managed to bring them together for the first time in 15 years to recreate the sound that has inspired me all my life,” said Judith from her home in Santa Monica. “I’m looking forward to sitting in the Carole King seat with them for my first solo appearance in Birmingham. I last played in the city six years ago as part of Richard Thompson’s 1000 Years of Popular Music project. It will feel like a homecoming.”
The catalyst for the collaboration was the death from cancer three years ago of her father, who provided many of the happier moments in an unnerving childhood.
“My father was an opera singer who would take my sister and me to dress rehearsals every other Saturday. During those road trips we would sing along to the likes of James Taylor on the car radio, which made me light up, and when I got home I would mimic what I heard my sister play at the piano.
“I didn’t realise it at the time but what I was doing was a form of therapy because it was my way of trying to deal with my mother’s depression which led to her suicide when I was 15,” she explained.
“I’ve inherited that illness but found music to be the greatest form of self-medication. I couldn’t talk about the stress I was under so it all poured out in my songs and as long as I was playing I was fine.
“Offstage I would become down very quickly and it was only when I met my husband and followed him to the States that I started to get better.”
Her husband Harry Shearer of Simpsons and Spinal Tap fame became what Judith called her “greatest ally and friend. He allowed me to feel happy and to like the person I am. With his help, I got better with each album – even though it took years of re-learning and un-doing.”
Judith returned to the UK to co-create a stage show, Losing It, which was a box office hit in the West End, with her close friend and fellow depressive Ruby Wax.
“It gave me ‘a voice’ in being open about emotional despair. Now Ebb and Flow has shown me that I’ve reached a place where I can function well and enjoy life, whether I’m on stage or not.”
Judith created all her own songs for the album. Reflecting the title, they focused on the range of her deepest emotions from love and loneliness to sadness and joy with unswerving honesty.
But the final product also included three covers re-recorded in such a way that Judith feels they are now her own. One of them is a re-recording of the James Taylor classic Hey Mister, That’s Me Up on the Jukebox. It was recommended to her by Russ Kunkel who, with Leland Sklar, backed Taylor on the 1971 original.
“The song was written at the height of James Taylor’s depression when he had become famous but couldn’t bear to listen to his music being played. Having been “on the other side”, it couldn’t have been a better song to cover,” said Judith.
“I also reworked Mungo Jerry’s laddish In the Summertime after asking myself: what would Joni do? She would turn it around and sing it like a cougar lusting after guys on the beach!”
Her most moving songs reflect Judith’s grief at the loss of her parents. You’re Not Here Anymore was written chiefly with her father in mind, and I Would Give Anything, related to her mother.
But Judith doesn’t see herself as a writer of sad songs: “I write personal songs that are emotionally revealing, cathartic and uplifting in their honesty and to which an audience can relate.”
Judith Owen will be bringing her Ebb & Flow UK Tour to The Glee Club, Birmingham (0871 472 0400 www.glee.co.uk) on March 5th. Tickets are priced at £14. For more information, go to www.judithowen.net