Judith Owen

Nick and Sue. This edition of the Chatterbox Redux podcast is brought to you in association with the Old Glory iconic music and sports fan merch Superstore. More from them in a bit. Chatterbox. When the stars talk they talk to Nick and Sue. Back to the Chatterbox Redux podcast and our guest in this edition is Judith Owen. We're Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about Muse! Now in Chatterbox, we're just lucky enough to welcome Judith Owen. Judith, welcome to Chatterbox. How

are you? I'm great. I'm sitting here in New Orleans talking to you from across the pond. Fantastic. It looks very bright over there. I believe it's about 25 degrees here right now. So, yeah, it's bright. It's spring -like. It's warm. It's getting sultry, but it's not quite at full swamp capacity

right now. okay yes quite quite well april 2026 it's a very exciting month for you yeah it is it is let's album and a single some dates yeah it's um and it all falls and i mean it just i figured that if i'm going to be bringing an album out in april it better it better fit in with jazz fest which is i'm going to be performing it a lot during the whole two weekends and the week in between so it seemed to me the perfect time to to release um this new album suit yourselves

but particularly because it's so inspired by this this city where i do all my recording where my band is from you know it's kind of it's a love letter to this city really job it's fantastic as well sounds good sounds really good and of course i did notice that well it's being released it's called suit yourself and it's being released on friday 24th of april yes and so by some people hear this it will just just come out and i see also you're busy over there in New Orleans doing

uh doing concerts and gigs call it what you like over there yeah being released i think this is the one the next day something like that so you're busy over there with your jazz festival yeah i mean i i just come back from europe where i tried out you know i did the like the french launch in paris then i went to switzerland italy um and then i came back and did just a few low -key shows um just to get get nice and used to playing this new repertoire now. And so now I'm

ready for the full kickoff. And the kickoff, the launch party, will be in New Orleans. And it will have the big J .O., big band, my band, the Callers, and the Gospel Choir. So I'm actually going for the entirety of the album on that one night. And then I play for pretty much almost every single day during Jazz Fest. Fantastic. Right. Let's go through the tracks on the album. You could tell us what you really want people to listen to and what they mean. We also do,

of course, have the single. Yeah. So tell us about the single. Why was that? Sounds amazing. That's a good reason. Tell us why. Why did you choose that to be the single? Was it always going to be the single to start with? You're talking about That's Why I Love My Baby? Yes. Yes. It's the first single of off the album and I'm very happy that it's the first single. The first and second single which will be To Your Door are

both my songs. I wrote them and that makes me feel really pretty good because the last few albums I've done, the last couple of albums I've done have definitely been like... love letters to homages to in the first place was my one in twenty twenty two come on again it was about the woman that really inspired me to be the kind of artist i am the head is a kid who are no longer remembered. fabulous woman at the piano, real kind of like unapologetic, you know, just extraordinary

women. And then I did a big band album, Christmas album, because I love big band. Well, this with Sit Yourself, it's all aspects of me, hence the title. It's really, it's about the things that I love to cover, but it's also about my interpretations of songs, my arrangements of music and my own writing. So It's about my husband. It's about the hell I put him through, because I actually see so much of life. I mean, I write about what's

real. I write about life as being something that's wonderful and painful at the same time, because that's the truth of it. And I have a sense of humor, but I think you need a good sense of humor to get through it anyway. It's about how my husband refuses to acknowledge Valentine's Day, has always hated being told what to do by basically a commercial holiday. I put him through hell for 10 years and then one day I woke up and thought, no, he's

right. When he says it's not about buying you a card or flowers on one day, it's about how you treat the person you love every day of the week. I realized, oh no, he's right. But of course I couldn't actually tell him he was right because we're married and that would have been, that would have meant I would have lost the battle. So I wrote this song instead and the song is very much a tongue in cheek, but it's very real.

in so much as it's like the radical acceptance of who we have chosen to be with as opposed to you know how I want you to be your perfect now change this is about warts and all I accept you for who you are you drive me crazy but you are fantastic and I love you to bits and that's exactly what the song is about and it's it I have a a single that also is out on the channel Judith Owen on YouTube which I filmed of this song with me in the French Quarter, walking through the

streets the Friday before Mardi Gras, and it really does approximate and shows you the joy, the absolute... kind of the elated experience of being in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. It's an exceptional thing and I recommend everybody listen to the song and watch that experience because it'll make you want to just buy a ticket now and get over here as soon as you possibly can. But it really does sum up the joy that this place sort of brings to every person that comes

here. One brief question about that's why I love my baby. Does your husband know? Of course he does. He's the first person to ever hear my songs and he knows. It's like if you're writing about your life, you're going to write about the person you're with. That's just how it is and the good

news is that It's like I said, I've never, I'm kind of, I call myself the queen of bittersweet because I see life as being that way. And I think that's what people really relate to. My listeners really relate to and the audiences relate to is this is how it is. It is the truth of how it is, but it's like, it's, it's, it's something that was that we all know, but it's something we can all like enjoy and, and celebrate that

that really is. Um our life experience and uh, and you know, like I said humor really really important No one I ended up with a funny man. That's all I can say Well, what i've seen of him he makes me laugh anyway, so there you go. Um, there you go To your door. Um, yes a little bit about to your door is the second the second uh single again about him but about the way that my husband, um And again, I've got another video that goes with this, which you can see too. Very

much another. They're all set in New Orleans. It gives you a real sense of this place. But it's about the fact that when I go out on the road, my husband always says to me, go out, shine, make people happy, do the thing that you're here

to do. just you know kill and you know go go go out and kill and and just just do give it your all as opposed to what could be oh don't go why are you going when you have you know now i am with somebody who's the love of his life is what he does is you know as an entertainer it's the same thing he gets why and what i do and why i do it and how i do it and the importance of doing it's the love of my life so and this is a song where i'm saying you know For that,

for the fact that you never, ever clip my wings, you always just send me out there, like, to do my job. That's the reason. That is the reason I will never, ever, ever... Not come home to

you are the reason I come home. That's it Well, and that's a big part of I think that's the other thing in life is like when people hold you too tight when people are too You know When they when they kind of like hold you down hold you back Your first if you like me anyway, your first reaction is to run is to go as opposed to the person that absolutely lets you be entirely who you are, loves entirely who you are, respects it, encourages it, and that's the person that

you know. It's like, no, no, you're it. You're the one. You're it. So that's really what that song is about. And again, I think people really appreciate that and understand what I'm saying. Sure. Absolutely. There's some wonderful titles here, and they all sound great. It's one fantastic album. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's chilled. Chilled to it. Totally chilled to it. Of course, it's the idea, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It is. It is. It's meant to make you feel

good. That's the point. Yeah, absolutely. There's some amazing titles here, but any others earmarked for singles? Yeah, I think Blue Skies is a really important one. I mean, this song is nearly 100 years old. And yet it's still... Holds for me. I don't see it as a romantic song. I have a history of taking famous songs classic songs, whether it be rock or pop or whatever it might be and

Turning them into songs. It sounds like I wrote them or that it's my My life I'm singing about because that is the point I think of being an interpreter is that it's yours It means you it's about your life and with blue skies Right now in the current situation in this world that we're living in, I thought what it said to me is that, you know, we are constantly surrounded by storm clouds, constantly metaphorical storm clouds.

And what we have to remember and what's important to remember is that like when you fly on a plane and you go through the clouds and you're out in the sunshine on the other side behind every dark cloud, the sun is shining. There are blue

skies. It's right. there we have to remember to have hope and to remind ourselves that that is it's it we're still you know it's still there we can still reach it we can still find that place and it's not to give up hope really and so I found that to be a very important very important song on this album and a very important sentiment This edition of the Chatterbox Redux podcast is brought to you in association with the Old Glory iconic music and sports fan merch superstore.

Old Glory offers over 300 ,000 items for music, sports, entertainment and pop culture fans featuring officially licensed merch from iconic brands and top sports teams. Discover your perfect fan gear and save with our exclusive listener discount

of 15%. Old Glory is a family owned business and superstore founded in 1969 so the same age as me but Old Glory t -shirts and merch look a lot better than I do their t -shirts are the highest quality and you get none of this colour run malarkey on the first wash and they keep their colour and looking great wash after wash The Old Glory Superstore provides high quality licensed graphic t -shirts, hoodies, hats and accessories featuring the world's most iconic

bands and sports teams. While music lovers can explore merch across all genres including legends such as Bob Marley, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Metallica and many many more you'll even find some official

NASA merch. Old Glory offers products celebrating entertainment, TV shows, movies and lifestyle brands From quality gifts to all time favourites, there's something for everyone Whether shopping for yourself or looking for that perfect gift, Old Glory is your one stop shop We have secured you the best possible discount of 15 % Just scroll down to the link in the episode's description and be sure to enter this 8 -digit code CBUKRDUX

Alternatively, go to the oldglory .com website and again put in the 8 -digit code CBUKRDUX before you check out Chatterbox has joined a growing community committed to carbon removal and scaling techniques to combat climate change. 1 % of all commissions is deducted at source and donated to the Stripe Climate Program and helping to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. So here's Nick and Sue, your musical duo. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox, giving you all you need to know

about musical entertainment. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. Chatterbox. And the other one is Inside Out, which I wrote with the extraordinary Jameson Ross, who's... who plays drums for me and is a phenomenal artist in his own right and a Grammy winner. And it really is about, again, learning to live as I have learned to, showing exactly who I am, being very, very open about who I am, all my flaws, all my problems, all

my issues, all my struggles. and to not hide or live with a secret as I've done so much of my life with, you know, depression and so many things that I've struggled with because when you're authentically yourself or when you're honest about who you are, you will actually open yourself up to helping other people and to sharing with other people by the very fact that you are transparent uh you'll find that other people will say oh no i know exactly what you're talking

about i felt that way myself i've been through that i know that you you we all go through life thinking that if we show who we really are a lot of us do anyway that other people will run for the hills and you you know there's so much shame involved you don't want to show your flaws you don't want to show your struggles when in fact uh it's interesting how when you do you will find that there is uh There is appreciation around you and others that need your help, that

need to know that they're not alone as well. So that's what that Inside Out is about. It's about literally showing what's going on inside. And I think that is the comment. That's really is this whole album is wrapped around finding joy in the face of adversity. And it's about turning darkness and fears and all those things into turning into beauty in a joyful place. Nice, lovely. There's one with an interesting title which I should just pluck out and ask you about.

If I Were a Belle. Yeah. Don't worry about one. If I Were a Belle is from a very wonderful and famous American musical, Guys and Dolls. Oh yeah. And I'm a huge Guys and Dolls fan. And it's a

song. that people don't recognize just because of course I've done my reimagining on it and turned it into a very kind of chill adult bossanova that has more kind of job beam about it than anything else but in fact it's a very earnest sweet fun song that in the movie Gene Simmons sings to Marlon Brando if you're a movie buff as I am but I've taken it to this Again into this like adult sexy place which which I love

in Brazilian jazz. So I took it there because that's what I thought it really needed because it's about. It's exactly what it says. It's like, you know, the what the song says is like I am so in love I am so overwhelmed by this feeling I have it's like, you know If I were a duck I quack if if I were a bell I'd ring if I were a bridge I'd burn, you know, it's it's all that

stuff. Yeah It's it's the first feelings of love that we all know so well, so I just I thought that was a beautiful song that needed just needed to be to be made a little bit more adult sure evil gal blues of course the i know the the um the aretha franklin version of course i mean aretha is one of my idols uh but again i can't do that i'm not gonna even attempt to do anything like that but making that into a big band number is one of the great joys because It's um, it's

the ultimate in In in being a front person to me. Yeah, I mean you're in front of this big sound You're you're the you know, yeah You're the band leader and the swing in these guys again. They're all New Orleans players They've got such swing to them. They really are incredible. And so it's very a very exciting experience to sing live with them, as I'll be doing when I do my launch show during Jazz Fest, which is coming

up. Again, it's a very straightforward blues, but what matters when you do songs like this is the big band arrangement. That's what counts. And I have an incredible arranger called John Wasson, who lives in Texas, who like Nelson Riddle, who I, you know, of course I worship at the temple of Nelson Riddle, but he is also a trombone player and he has that thing in his head where he hears that sound of all, like the stacks. of these instruments. And so I adore his arrangements

and it's just, it's the swagger. It's like singing in front of a great rock band. This is the version of that. When it was the big band era and the jazz era in America, that was the pop music of his time, but that was the rock music of his time in the power that was on stage. It's a very similar feeling. It's just like, no martial arts needed, but man, you are loud as heck. It's fantastic. Fantastic stuff, brilliant. Is this the sort of stuff that you would chill out to at home?

Or does it depend what sort of mood you're in as to what goes on? Or if your husband's there, is it something more rocky? Or is this literally what you prefer? Because it is amazing, you know. I will always, as I started out life with my family who were classical, father and opera singer, but very unusual man who loved. jazz and blues.

So I am the same person, ever expanding with all the new music that I discover and find, but I started out listening to Rachmaninoff and Puccini and Chopin and Oscar Peterson and Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra and Elvis Gerald and Nelly Lutcher. And it goes on and Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin and Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. And so it's like every single area of music and then very depressing Welsh folk music of course. So I am that same person and I listen to the music that

suits my mood. And sometimes it is Rachmaninoff. or Mozart and sometimes it's Oscar Peterson or Errol Garner or Miles and sometimes it's Stevie and Aretha and I'm dancing down the street in heaven and it really it's really about the mood and that's why this this album is I think a very honest approximation of who I am because I think of music as being the language we all speak and within that are different dialects that suit whatever mood you're in. But the sound, my voice,

the style, it's me. I've been fighting a endless war that was the industry saying, would you just stick to your lane? Would you stay in your box?

and i've been saying forever no that's not what being an artist is that's not music music is not about being pigeonholed and only doing feeling that you can only do one thing that's music is much more free than that yes that's not that's not the beauty of music and um so i've continued on that path until I guess the world came around to my way of thinking or rather the business maybe I don't know the business ever has or ever will but as the as the business as as the as

it's become more easier to be able to reach a huge audience digitally online you know in all these capacities with you with you know being able to go on all these different things it's I've never ever faulted the the public and the audience because they can make their own minds up the audience has a capacity listeners your audience has the capacity to listen to many many different things and to be able to appreciate many stars many genres um and so I think it's

very liberating right now where we are and I hope it it continues to be because I I love that John Baptiste can go out there and win a Grammy for Americana when he's a jazz and you know artist who does classical too and everything else besides that's what being a real artist is and I've always I've always felt that way you should you should do whatever you can do brilliant route to a point of excellence not what you're okay at but what you're great at and don't let you know don't

be confined to one thing just because somebody says it's too difficult to sell. That's not the point of this. No, not at all. I've got two dates for you. I mean, you're busy over there, of course. I see you've sold out in Switzerland and all over the place. But over here, at the moment, we're looking at you're playing a show at the Bush Studios in London on Monday, 1st of June and in Cardiff on the 5th of June. And there's more dates to be scheduled. Oh, let me just make

one difference in information. The fourth, I believe, I think that Cardiff is the fourth of June. Okay. Let me just, I would just say, listen, I'm playing at the Millennium Centre at that. Canberra is the room, which is very exciting. I think it's the fourth. First, yes, Bush Hall in London. I'm bringing the callers, I'm bringing the New Orleans band, it's going to be... Wonderful.

Very exciting. We'll have some guests. But it's going to be thrilling because, of course, nothing can be as thrilling as me coming home and playing this music and a home crowd. There's nothing like it. Nothing like it. that really is a home crowd for you isn't it yeah yes it is it is i know so those are the two i'm going to be playing all over the world but honestly those are the two that i'm i'm most excited about uh let's do your social media quickly we've got judyowen

.net's fantastic website it's called everything everything including the podcast you were doing which is fantastic well it's literally everything and rather than keep Reeling off all these social media. What's what? This is what that is straight underneath your name and on the home page You've got your direct links to the Facebook the Instagram basically YouTube. Everything's there So people just go to Judith Owen dotnet all your shows

are there as well. And yes nice these defined from there So yeah, yeah, and I'm on all the platforms Spotify iTunes as usual stuff so you can find me everybody It's always good to go to the website because you get all the correct information, thank goodness. But yeah, it's just, it's going to be an adventure, so I'm about to hold my nose and jump in, but I'm excited. Of course. Judith, it's been great meeting you. Thank you so much. Lovely to meet you too. Thanks

for coming. You've been absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for supporting me. Absolutely. Let's do it again sometime. Sounds great. Please. Take care, Judith. Bye bye then. Thanks, love. Bye. Bye, love. Thanks for watching You've been listening to the Chatterbox Redux podcast and

today our special guest was Judith Owen. If you're interested in becoming a future guest on the Chatterbox Redux podcast or the radio show Chatterbox UK, you're welcome to submit songs, books or whatever it is you do and send us a CV, synopsis or press release. However, we receive several thousand such press releases every week and it's impossible to reply to each one individually. Why not email us or leave a comment because we'd love to know what you think of the podcast. Our

email address is nickelbum at myyahoo .com. Alternatively, you could write to us. And wherever it is you choose to listen to the Chatterbox Redux podcast, don't forget to give us a like, a follow, a favorite or whatever it is on that platform, just so you don't miss a future episode. Sue, myself Nick and Twinkle the tuxedo cat. Thank you very much for your company and we look forward to welcoming you again next time for another Chatterbox Redux podcast. In the meantime, take care, we thank

you for your company and we catch you then. Bye bye. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment Chatterbox, the best interviews with Nick and Sue Chatterbox, the best news