Judy Fjell is a longtime
singer and
songwriter. As her website, judyfjell.com, notes, "She is known as an
activist who often performs and writes for
social change but who consistently teaches and empowers for
personal change." Some of her well-known songs include "I Was A Teenage
Lesbian," "
Peace Somewhere," and "
Kenneth Starr Revue."
As a teenager, she worked at a "dude ranch" and heard her boss singing Joan Baez songs. She quickly bought a guitar at a garage sale and an instruction book at a dime store and taught herself to play.
Judy went from two-chord covers of songs performed at Lutheran Ladies' Aid functions in her native Montana to becoming a folk and women's music icon. She has her own label, Honey Pie Records, and is the founding director of Music Empowerment Camps (1986), Women Making Music Retreats (1991), the Canta Bella Women’s Chorus (1996), and the Montana Women’s Chorus (1997). She has been a music teacher in Oregon public schools as well as privately back in Montana, and holds degrees in Art, Asian Studies, and Elementary Education. She has performed with everyone from Alix Dobkin and Holly Near to Romanovsky and Phillips.
She notes that "the word "Fjell means "rock or "stone" in Norwegian and is pronounced fYELL;" liveforever points out that "In Norwegian, "Fjell" usually means mountain, though "rock" and "stone" and "bedrock" are valid, too."