{"id":6409,"date":"2017-03-21T16:24:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T16:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=6409"},"modified":"2017-03-21T16:24:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T16:24:28","slug":"judith-owens-considers-somebodys-child-and-embraces-her-dazzling-musical-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/21\/judith-owens-considers-somebodys-child-and-embraces-her-dazzling-musical-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Judith Owen Considers Somebody&#039;s Child (And Embraces Her Dazzling Musical Family)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n3kxtHnWLwY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe last time I heard singer and pianist Judith Owen at Manhattan\u2019s Iridium club, she was celebrating the release of her new CD, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Somebodys-Child-Judith-Owen\/dp\/B01N9N63WT\/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_1\">Somebody\u2019s Child<\/a>\u201d (Twanky Records).<br \/>\nShe\u2019ll take a detour from tour opening for Bryan Ferry (who apparently endorses her version of his \u201cMore Than This\u201d) to return to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ticketweb.com\/t3\/sale\/SaleEventDetail?eventId=7228915&amp;pl=iridium&amp;dispatch=loadSelectionData&amp;REFID=artist%20 \u00a0\">Iridium on March 31.<\/a><br \/>\nAt that last gig, before playing the new album\u2019s title track (see the above clip), she explained its backstory:<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I was in New York, in the middle of winter, and I saw this beautiful young woman, about nine months pregnant, barefoot in the snow, wearing a trash bag, that was all she had, stomach out and in a state. I was crossing the street, with everybody else, trying to avoid her, when I thought, \u201cThat\u2019s somebody\u2019s child, and if my life had been different, that could have been me.\u00a0 Or any of us!&#8221; We\u2019re all so dehumanized, and this whole record is about reconnecting with our humanity, really seeing what\u2019s around us, discarding, even if it is just for a moment, our constant state of denial.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In lesser hands\u2014Owen plays piano with sensitivity and hipness\u2014and lesser voice\u2014hers moves from breathy to declarative without guile\u2014this sort of thing might grow cloying or preachy.<br \/>\nBut when Owen sang of a \u201cgirl on the street in a trashbag dress\/baby in her belly\u201d she sounded simply honest, reflective. It felt like unabashed gratitude.<br \/>\nOn the new album, Owen\u2019s adaption of \u201cAquarius,\u201d from the musical \u201cHair,\u201d which I love, could easily have leaned toward irony or sarcasm. It doesn\u2019t resolve into \u201cLet the Sunshine In,\u201d nor does it attempt to draw meaning from or mock the nonsensical lyrics.<br \/>\nIt simply grooves.<br \/>\nOwen called her new album a team effort. On \u201cThat\u2019s Why I Love My Baby,\u201d her husband, Harry Shearer, plays the upright bass. (He likely wasn\u2019t wearing the wig and foil-wrapped courgette of his bass-playing days as Spinal Tap\u2019s Derek Smalls, but one never knows.)<br \/>\nThose familiar with the odd blend of bright wit and hard truths Shearer brings to his weekly syndicated radio program \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/harryshearer.com\/le-show\/\">Le Show<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0will find a roughly similar combination in Owens sometimes deadpan, sometimes deadly funny between-songs banter. I\u2019ve begun to think of them as the best husband-and-wife comedy team that doesn\u2019t work together.<br \/>\nI recall when they co-hosted an annual <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/2015\/11\/laugh-dont-cry-its-christmas-with-harry-shearer-judith-owen-and-their-talented-friends\/\">Christmas benefit<\/a>,\u00a0Shearer had described Owen as \u201ca Welsh woman prone to melancholia who could not stand the fact that, at Christmastime, Southern California was about 78 degrees and sunny.\u201d She confessed the truth in all that. \u201cIn a strange way,\u201d she said, \u201cbad weather means Christmas to me.\u201d<br \/>\nAs for Owen\u2019s musical team, it\u2019s just sort of an unfair-advantage situation in the way that the Golden State Warriors hold too many aces: the band on the new album includes bassist <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Leland_Sklar\">Leland Sklar<\/a>, guitarist <a href=\"http:\/\/waddywachtelinfo.com\/\">Waddy Wachtel<\/a> and drummer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.russellkunkel.com\/\">Russell Kunkel<\/a>. (American listeners unfamiliar with those names need immediately check the liner note to their old LPs.)<br \/>\nSklar, in particular, who will perform at Iridium, is a true master; he is to a particular stripe of folk\/rock\/pop what Ron Carter is to modern jazz.<br \/>\nSklar\u2019s strong, supple, wise, modest and dancing approach to electric bass is well showcased on Owen\u2019s \u201cArianne,\u201d which is, to me, the showstopper on the new CD, and a good example of Owens skills as lyricist, songwriter and musician: She blends personal and political, digs into a rhythm\u00a0that owes to no one genre, and sings in a confessional manner that will never go out of style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last time I heard singer and pianist Judith Owen at Manhattan\u2019s Iridium club, she was celebrating the release of her new CD, \u201cSomebody\u2019s Child\u201d (Twanky Records). She\u2019ll take a detour from tour opening for Bryan Ferry (who apparently endorses her version of his \u201cMore Than This\u201d) to return to Iridium on March 31. At &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/21\/judith-owens-considers-somebodys-child-and-embraces-her-dazzling-musical-family\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Judith Owen Considers Somebody&#039;s Child (And Embraces Her Dazzling Musical Family)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6409"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}