SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT
This week the spotlight falls on Judith Owen

London born, Welsh-Californian singer Judith Owen is well-known in America for her Celtic/jazz/pop crossover music, with her songs appearing on films such as As Good As It Gets.  Music was part of her life from an early age: her mother, Handel Owen, sang at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  "The things that influenced me most were classical music, jazz, and melancholy Welsh folk music, and those are the things that come up in my music.  They are always there."

In the early 1990s she met American actor Harry Shearer when he was appearing with spoof rock band Spinal Tap in London.  They married in 1993 and in 2005 she formed Courgette Records with him and her manager Bambi Moe.

Happy This Way is her new album, released to critical acclaim, with performances by Julia Fordham, Ian Shaw, Richard Thompson, Cassandra Wilson, and a remix by Quantic.  It features songs dedicated to her parents, and to the Welsh town of Conway Bay.  “I do love the human condition and I can’t write about anything else”, she says. “I’m fascinated by what I know and see in myself, and in other people. I think this album embraces that thoroughly - how you just have to enjoy the ride, every second of it.”

She's been compared with Joni Mitchell, Barbra Streisand, Dusty Springfield and Cassandra Wilson and displays a wide variety of styles in her music, from ballads to jazz.