Judith Owen - Come On & Get It

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:09
Size: 127,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:28) 1. Blossom's Blues
(2:52) 2. Satchel Mouth Baby
(3:37) 3. The Spinach Song
(2:55) 4. Tess's Torch Song
(5:57) 5. He's a Tramp
(3:52) 6. He's a Real Gone Guy
(3:03) 7. Big Long Slidin' Thing
(3:16) 8. Fine Brown Frame
(2:47) 9. Everything I've Got Belongs to You
(4:12) 10. Come on & Get It, Honey
(4:57) 11. Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast
(3:28) 12. Why Don't You Do Right?
(3:03) 13. Snatch & Grab It
(3:36) 14. Long John Blues

Welsh singer-pianist Judith Owen now lives in New Orleans. She’s recorded and toured with Richard Thompson and she supported Bryan Ferry during his UK tour.

Owen became intrigued as a young girl by the risqué lyrics of female vocalists after finding records by Nellie Lutcher and Julia Lee that had been hidden by her father. Come On & Get It (Owen’s 13th album) celebrates these and kindred singers like Dinah Washington and Blossom Dearie who delivered similarly suggestive songs in the 40s and 50s. One of them, Julie London’s Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast, was actually first recorded in 1967, but no one’s complaining.

In keeping with the spirit of things, just as Julia Lee’s band was called “Her Boyfriends”, Owen refers to hers as “Her Gentlemen Callers”. On cornet is Kevin Louis who’s played with Jimmy Heath, Carmen Lundy and Gary Bartz amongst others. His splendid accompaniments are much in the manner of John Chilton’s trumpet playing with that other salty songster, George Melly. The excellent David Torkanowsky (Cyrille Aimée) is on piano; Lex Warshawsky (Cyrille Aimée and Adonis Rose) is on bass and in-demand Pedro Segundo (Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, Dennis Rollins and Kansas Smitty) is on drums. For a taste, try this: Blossom’s Blues.

Every song on the album is a gem delivered with crystal clear intonation by Owen and superb musicianship from the band. There are guest artists along the way who I understand to include 89-year-old Preservation Hall Jazz Band reedsman Charlie Gabriel, Donald Harrison Jr, Jason Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Evan Christopher and saxophonist Ricardo Pascal. I think they mostly feature in the recording’s three big-band numbers and there’s great saxophone playing on some of the tracks but unfortunately there’s a lack of detail about any of the artists on the promotional CD that I received. Perhaps more information will be on the commercially available issue. Either way, it’s a smashing album and highly recommended.https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2022/10/04/judith-owen-come-on-get-it/

Come On & Get It

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Judith Owen - Here

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:29
Size: 93,7 MB
Art: Front

(3:22)  1. Here
(3:58)  2. You And The Moon
(3:08)  3. Best Friend
(5:03)  4. Worship
(5:07)  5. Climbing Shoes
(4:10)  6. I Go To Sleep
(5:04)  7. Hand Across The Water
(3:25)  8. Eye Of The Tiger
(4:09)  9. The Room
(2:58) 10. I'll Watch You (While You're Sleeping)

British singer/songwriter Judith Owen, for whom Here is her fifth self-released album, is the ideal performer for music fans who wish Joni Mitchell had gone on making records like Blue and For the Roses back in the first half of the '70s. Owen sounds like she has a complete collection of Mitchell's albums, at least up as far as The Hissing of Summer Lawns, that is, and also a general familiarity with the works of Carole King, Kate Bush, and Tori Amos. She writes and sings quiet, melodic songs dominated by her slow, careful piano playing and richly considered voice. Especially because of her accent, she often sounds exactly like Bush and Amos (who often sound exactly like each other, of course), at least when those singers are not wafting into their soprano ranges. But her lyrics are never as obscure, instead aiming for emotional clarity. That brings back the Mitchell comparison, and the difference there is that Owen sounds like a woman who is happily married with a child rather than suffering romantic turmoil, at least in the present moment. Although the first two songs, "Here" and "You and the Moon" seem to be about a lost and fondly remembered love and a love suffering from separation, respectively, the key songs are the third and fourth ones. "Best Friend" is full of advice to a loved one, while "Worship" is a recollection of a bad, but compelling love affair by someone who is now in a good one. 

As usual, Owen demonstrates a surprising taste in covers, giving a jazzy reading to the old Survivor hit "Eye of the Tiger," which is a funny idea, but also taking on the Kinks' "I Go to Sleep," a less appealing choice since another influence, Chrissie Hynde, got there first with the Pretenders. Here is an unfailingly tasteful and listenable collection, but it's the work of a confessional singer/songwriter who doesn't have all that much to confess. ~ William Ruhlmann https://www.allmusic.com/album/here-mw0000779521

Here

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Judith Owen - Rediscovered

Size: 99,4 MB
Time: 42:22
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2018
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. Hotline Bling (3:28)
02. Shape Of You (3:08)
03. Hot Stuff (2:50)
04. Cherokee Louise (4:43)
05. Can't Stop The Feeling (3:17)
06. Ladies' Man (3:32)
07. Smoke On The Water (3:48)
08. Black Hole Sun (3:17)
09. Summer Nights (4:05)
10. Play That Funky Music (3:48)
11. Blackbird (3:20)
12. Dream A Little Dream Of Me (3:07)

For most artists, an album of cover songs is an idea of last resort, a Hail Mary pass when one's creativity has stalled out or there's a contract to be fulfilled. But most artists aren't Judith Owen. This firebrand singer/songwriter and pianist is currently riding the wave of a tremendous couple of years. Her previous album Somebody's Child was adored by critics around the world - The Sunday Times UK chose it as one of the best records of 2016 and Analog Planet said that it "sparkles with Owen's witty energy" and noting that "the songs will stay with you long after the record ends". So with all that wind in her sails, why then turn to the music of others for her album redisCOVERed? For Owen, it is something of a gift for her fans, both old and new. That question are easy to answer once you listen to redisCOVERed. As she has done since her earliest days attempting to plunk out the music of Mozart and Debussy on her family's piano to her days playing four hour sets in piano bars fulfilling customer requests, Owen makes these songs her own. She molds the familiar melodies and lyrics to contemporary pop hits and longtime favorites to her unmistakable voice and style.

Rediscovered

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Judith Owen - The Beautiful Damage Collection

Size: 138,5 MB
Time: 59:16
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2010
Styles: Jazz Vocals
Art: Front

01. Best Friend (3:04)
02. Blighty (2:53)
03. Conway Bay (4:03)
04. Cool Life (Feat. Ian Shaw) (3:48)
05. Emily (4:04)
06. Cry Me A River (4:39)
07. Here (3:19)
08. Sympathy (3:10)
09. I Promise You (4:34)
10. My Father's Voice (3:19)
11. Train Out Of Hollywood (Feat. Keb' Mo') (4:33)
12. Nicholas Drake (Feat. Ron Thompson) (2:34)
13. Smoke On The Water (3:36)
14. That Scares Me (Feat. Julia Fordham) (3:40)
15. Water (4:18)
16. When I Am Laid (3:36)

British singer/songwriter Judith Owen's eclecticism has seen her records shelved in the rock, folk, and jazz sections of record stores. She was born the daughter of an opera singer and began writing songs as a teenager. Becoming a professional musician, she met and married actor/musician Harry Shearer and contributed vocals and keyboards to his 1994 album, It Must Have Been Something I Said. Her debut solo album, Emotions on a Postcard, was released on her own Dog on the Bed label in 1996. Among its songs was "Hand on My Heart," which was featured in the 1997 film As Good as It Gets and appeared on the soundtrack album. Owen befriended singer/songwriter Julia Fordham and appeared on Fordham's albums East West and That's Live. Another musical association was struck up with Richard Thompson, which led to Owen's appearances on the Thompson albums Mock Tudor, 1000 Years of Popular Music, and Old Kit Bag.

She released her second solo album, Limited Edition, in 2000. "Creatures of Habit" and "Get into It" from the album were featured in the film Olive Juice. 12 Arrows (2003), her third album, boasted guest appearances by Fordham and Thompson, and it featured Owen's cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." It earned her an opening slot on a k.d. lang tour. In 2004, Owen released a holiday EP, Christmas in July, including her cover of "Christmas with the Devil," a song by her husband's fictional group Spinal Tap. She also placed her song "Dreaming" in the film P.S., then used it on her fourth album, Lost and Found, released on her newly formed Courgette Records label in 2005. Her cover of the Kinks' "I Go to Sleep" was featured in the TV movie Mrs. Harris, and she then included it on her fifth album, Here, released August 8, 2006. Happy This Way appeared a year later in 2007, with Mopping Up Karma following the next year. The compilation Beautiful Damage was issued in 2010, while a new studio album, Ebb & Flow, arrived four years later in 2014. ~ by William Ruhlmann

The Beautiful Damage Collection

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Judith Owen - In The Summertime EP

Size: 39,9 MB
Time: 16:59
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz/Pop Vocals
Art: Front

01. In The Summertime - Radio Edit (3:36)
02. Blue Jeans (2:41)
03. Summer Nights (3:39)
04. It Might As Well Rain Until September (3:26)
05. Summer Breeze (3:35)

Back in May, Wales-born singer-songwriter Judith Owen released her acclaimed Ebb & Flow album, which she calls her "love letter to the American troubadour music of the 1970s."

Finding herself still in a Laurel Canyon state of mind, Owen spun off an additional EP from one of that album's tracks, her version of the 1970 Mungo Jerry hit In the Summertime.

If you've been putting off this season's summertime romance, Owen's EP will make you glad you waited. Her covers possess the lure and excitement of a late-summer fling. Owen already had recorded In the Summertime and Carole King and Gerry Goffin's It Might as Well Rain Until September with some of the great Los Angeles session musicians who'd had played on classic albums by King, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor.

"After that I ventured further outside my musical comfort zone to turn the effervescent, Summer Nights from Grease, into a 'woman wronged' torch song, David Dundas's very polite Blue Jeans into a pseudo-New Orleans rhythmic romp, and Seals and Crofts' Summer Breeze into a semi-classical piano ballad." Owen recorded those tracks in London, shortly after her L.A. sessions, using cellist Gabriella Swallow, percussionist Pedro Segundo and double bassist Geoff Gascoyne.

"For me," Owen says, "this EP's a souvenir of summer to cast an ironic and wistful warmth on the cold months ahead."

In The Summertime

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Judith Owen - Ebb & Flow

Size: 98,6 MB
Time: 41:30
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2014
Styles: Jazz/Pop/Rock Vocals
Art: Front

01. Train Out Of Hollywood (3:32)
02. I Would Give Anything (3:29)
03. In The Summertime (4:20)
04. Hey Mister, That's Me Up On The Jukebox (3:21)
05. Under Your Door (2:36)
06. About Love (3:04)
07. I've Never Been To Texas (3:11)
08. You're Not Here Anymore (3:30)
09. One In A Million (3:36)
10. You Are Not My Friend (3:27)
11. Sweet Feet (2:58)
12. Some Arrows Go In Deep (4:21)

Judith Owen’s new album Ebb & Flow (her 10th studio release) evokes the spirit of the halcyon days of the great 1970s troubadours. Ebb & Flow features the great Russ Kunkel (drummer), Leland Sklar (bassist) and Waddy Wachtel (guitarist). Judith remains an unflinching singer-songwriter, bearing her soul as the core of her creativity.

British singer/songwriter Judith Owen's eclecticism has seen her records shelved in the rock, folk, and jazz sections of record stores. She was born the daughter of an opera singer and began writing songs as a teenager. Becoming a professional musician, she met and married actor/musician Harry Shearer and contributed vocals and keyboards to his 1994 album, It Must Have Been Something I Said. Her debut solo album, Emotions on a Postcard, was released on her own Dog on the Bed label in 1996. Among its songs was "Hand on My Heart," which was featured in the 1997 film As Good as It Gets and appeared on the soundtrack album. Owen befriended singer/songwriter Julia Fordham and appeared on Fordham's albums East West and That's Live. Another musical association was struck up with Richard Thompson, which led to Owen's appearances on the Thompson albums Mock Tudor, 1000 Years of Popular Music, and Old Kit Bag.

She released her second solo album, Limited Edition, in 2000. "Creatures of Habit" and "Get into It" from the album were featured in the film Olive Juice. 12 Arrows (2003), her third album, boasted guest appearances by Fordham and Thompson, and it featured Owen's cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." It earned her an opening slot on a k.d. lang tour. In 2004, Owen released a holiday EP, Christmas in July, including her cover of "Christmas with the Devil," a song by her husband's fictional group Spinal Tap. She also placed her song "Dreaming" in the film P.S., then used it on her fourth album, Lost and Found, released on her newly formed Courgette Records label in 2005. Her cover of the Kinks' "I Go to Sleep" was featured in the TV movie Mrs. Harris, and she then included it on her fifth album, Here, released August 8, 2006. Happy This Way appeared a year later in 2007, with Mopping Up Karma following the next year. The compilation Beautiful Damage was issued in 2010, while a new studio album, Ebb & Flow, arrived four years later in 2014.

Ebb & Flow

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