Judy Philbin

by Dawn R. Starr

Judy Philbin smilingly sings a sublime samba to the delight of the audience. Whether performing to a concert audience or restaurants and wineries, Judy relishes the opportunity to be energized and inspired by her listeners. She is excited about her newly released CD, Keeping It Simple, in which she collaborated with local talented guitarist and composer, Adam Levine (see my March 2013 column on Adam). The CD includes jazz standards, pop tunes, and four originals with two written by her, and two more to which she wrote lyrics to Adam's compositions. As the title reflects, they kept the music simple and straightforward, with Judy on vocals and Adam laying down from one to four guitar tracks for each song.

Judy always loved to sing and retrospectively noted that she was privileged to start singing at age six in one of the stellar children's choirs they had at the time at San Luis Obispo First Presbyterian Church. At that time, she also began playing piano. Over the years, she learned a variety of instruments, including percussion, stand-up bass, trumpet, and guitar. In the eighth grade, she noticed all the boys played brass and all the girls played woodwinds, so she decided to play trumpet, which she continued through high school. She also was active in choir. In high school, as was typical of the era, she played guitar and sang the typical teen-age angst-filled songs, and began singing in coffee houses.

After completing her college degree, which was not in music, she returned to her love of singing by becoming one of the founding members of the acclaimed San Luis Obispo Vocal Arts Ensemble. Motherhood led her to take a temporary hiatus from the time demands of performing, but when her children started school, she began collaborating with a friend to do sing-along concerts for kids. Her husband and two children were also involved, and they even performed on the Children's Stage at the Live Oak Music Festival.

As a child, Judy felt enriched by living with her family in Guatemala for two years, from ages four to six, while her father worked there. She was drawn to the simple, traditional music there, particularly marimbas and flutes, and has since enjoyed music from Central and South America. She and her professor husband decided to give their children a similar experience living abroad by taking his taking a teaching position in Denmark, where they became involved with the international mix of people at the school. 

During her two year stay in Denmark, she was impressed by and drawn to the quality jazz music. Upon return to San Luis Obispo, she was inspired to start developing her jazz and standards repertoire. To that end, she attended a workshop with Phil Mattson, a conductor, arranger, and father of the vocal jazz movement. He encouraged Judy to explore solo vocal work, which she has been doing seriously for the last five years.

In 2007, she released her first album, Candle in the Window, which is a compilation of songs to provide comfort for those who have lost a loved one. As a result she has performed numerous times nationally at conventions for The Compassionate Friends, which provides grief support after the loss of a child. She and her husband, who also sings, have been involved for seven years with the annual Central Coast Follies Parkinson's fundraiser at the Clark Center, and she noted that the benefit has contributed over $250,000 toward Parkinson's research.

Judy presently performs locally at restaurants, wineries, public concerts, and private parties. Nearly every Thursday evening, she, Adam Levine, and bass player, Mike Swan perform at La Bellasera Hotel in the lounge/restaurant starting around 6:30 p.m. There is no cover charge. On September 28th, she and Dawn Lambeth (see my July 2013 column on Dawn) performed their show A Sentimental Journey at the Templeton Performing Arts Center.

On Sunday October 20th, as part of Paso Robles' Harvest Festival, Judy and Adam will be performing from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the beautiful Still Water Vineyards.  For information on Judy and her performance schedule, go to Judy Philbin. Judy encouraged locals to purchase the new release, Keeping it Simple, at local businesses which include Boo Boo Records (San Luis Obispo), Volume of Pleasure (Los Osos), and Matt's Music (Paso Robles.) It can also be purchased from her website, Itunes and CDbaby.