Judith Owen
Twelve Arrows Album Aims for the Heart

The title of Judith Owen's new album, Twelve Arrows, couldn't be more apt. Everything about Owens is sharp, from her wit to her piercing blues eyes to the way she punctures her conversation with not-so-subtle jabs at herself and others who deserve it. The Wales-born, Los Angeles-based songwriter also consistently hits her mark as a singer, as a musician and as a performer. She has a big, soulful voice; she is a masterful pianist and in her live show she commands attention with her onstage banter as much as her music.

On Arrows, which features duets with Richard Thompson and Julia Fordham, Owen mixes rock, pop and jazz musical styles with intelligent lyrics in songs that cut deep both emotionally, such as in "Some Arrows Go In Deep," and humorously, such as in "Walking the Dog." It is not surprising that she is married to a comedian -- actor/writer/director and musician Harry Shearer (Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, The Simpsons). Owen recently performed in a reading of Shearer's new musical, J. Edgar: The Musical, at the Aspen Comedy Festival alongside Shearer, Kelsey Grammar, Chris Guest, John Goodman, Michael Mckean and Annette O'Toole. Shortly after her captivating performances at this year's ASCAP's Music Café at the Sundance Film Festival, Owen talked to Playback's Erik Philbrook.

I think I understand it better since I've been with Harry as to why I've always been that way. I think people have a capacity to be awful and dark and incredibly wonderful and bright. And I think they both exist in the same person and I believe this is true for everyone on this planet. And I think that my knowledge now of funny people which has been strengthened by knowing Harry and other very funny people, is that usually the darker their insides are, the funnier they get on the outside.

My father was an opera singer. He was at Covent Garden for 35 years. And so I basically grew up backstage at Covent Garden around this tremendous classical music. But my father was also a huge jazz and R&B fan which is really bizarre for a classical musician, because as we all know they're usually such terrible snobs. So I also grew up listening to the most incredible jazz and R&B performers.

Well, of course, all of the classical pianists. And it still shows in my music. In the first place, there's a real element of Welsh folk music in there, which comes through in any of my ballads. But then there's this kind of exquisite form and beauty that comes from studying Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Mozart. But my first real influence, and it was the biggest influence upon me as a kid, musically, was Stevie Wonder. I was just completely obsessed because he just didn't seem to have any boundaries, and it was all about this incredible sense of harmony and rhythm. Amazing.

Well now you bring me to my most favorite topic of conversation. I must say that I had an epiphany recently and I realized that what I do is absolutely just what I do. It's a piece of theater. It's a show. I do it to entertain. I don't do it for any other reason. I didn't write this record and I'm not gonna make the next record in order to become hits. I actually made a record that was based purely on its musical merit. The truth is that I am so affected and moved by so many different forms of music. Just great music. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's jazz or or folk or whatever it might be. Beautiful music is beautiful music. And I know that my job is to move people in the audience. It's to make them feel and feel something deeply. Whether it be yearning and sadness and nostalgia. Or whether it be real fun and happiness and exhilaration. I just has to be deep for it to work for me.