Sunny Ozell, Lady Stewart (born December 23, 1978) is an American singer and songwriter who resides in Los Angeles, California. She is married to the English actor Sir Patrick Stewart.
Early life
Ozell grew up in Reno, Nevada, in a musical household and began her classical training at an early age. Her parents did not play or perform themselves, but they had a passion for music and took music education seriously, getting Ozell to play the violin from the age of just four years old.
She also started vocal training at the age of 11 years and soon after realised that music was the career path she wanted to pursue.
From 13, she started working with an opera coach.
At university in Boulder, Colorado, she majored in English literature and sang in blues bands and soul music-funk bands in her spare time throughout college. After graduating, she started performing in clubs around New York and became a part of the city's musical community with her blend of jazz, blues and American roots music, performing both original material and interpretations of works by other blues, soul and country music songwriters.
Music career
She considers
Take It with Me (which mainly consists of covers of works from artists such as Howard Jones,
Hank Williams,
Randy Newman, T Bone Burnett and
Tom Waits) to be her debut album.
Both on
Take It with Me and live, Sunny Ozell works with musicians, including guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan (Semi Precious Weapons, Drivin N Cryin), bassist
Andy Hess (The Black Crowes, Gov't Mule, Uberjam), keyboard player Andrew Sherman (
George Duke,
Mariah Carey), pedal steel player Jon Graboff (Ryan Adams & The Cardinals), backing singer
Nicki Richards (Madonna) and drummer Ethan Eubanks (
Teddy Thompson, Crash Test Dummies,
Joseph Arthur).
Ozell performs frequently at Rockwood Music Hall and The Living Room in New York and has collaborated with musicians such as
Jim Campilongo and Adam Levy of
Norah Jones’ backing band, and Krystle Warren.
Musical style and influence
Ozell cites
Gillian Welch and
David Rawlings as influences, for their "simplicity and their total lack of pretension", but also American jazz singer
Cassandra Wilson, in particular her 1993 album
Blue Light ‘til Dawn.
She is also inspired by soul music that is not limited in any way to the traditional definition of the genre (i.e.
Motown or
Stax Records).
Personal life
Ozell is married to English actor Sir
Patrick Stewart. They met in 2008 at Franny's restaurant in New York where Ozell was working as a waitress
while Stewart was performing in
Macbeth at the nearby Brooklyn Academy of Music.
In March 2013, it was reported that Stewart and Ozell were engaged
Discography
Take It with Me (2015)
Overnight Lows (2020)
Git Gone (single) (2015)
External links
