Joan Osborne
NewMusicforOldFolks says …
There are lists of the best albums of all time and there are lists of favorite albums. For most of us there aren't necessarily the same albums on both lists. The second list is a lot more personal. Joan Osborne's first album, Relish, is not Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but guess which one is on my favorites list. You all remember Relish, it's the one with "(What if God Was) One of Us" That's not the best song on the album. In fact, it might be at the bottom of the list. "St. Theresa," "Spider Web," "Dracula Moon," "Pensacola" and "Crazy Baby" are all spectacular. Osborne has a pure voice and has been making great music ever since. She's recorded with The Funk Brothers (Motown's house band) and is a member of the semi-super group Trigger Hippy. She's currently touring with Mavis Staples. There's nothing that Joan Osborne can't sing. But dig up that first album (it sold 3 million copies, you probably have one of them) and put it on the CD player you never use anymore. It's fantastic and belongs on more favorites lists.
Artist's Info
Website: joanosborne.com
See her live: Tour dates
See Also: Trigger Hippy
Record company: eOne Records
Genre: Rock ’ Roll, Roots
If you like this, look into: Ruthie Foster, Lucinda Williams, Marc Broussard
Bio (From AllMusic.com)
"This one feels a little different," Joan Osborne says of her new release Love and Hate. In addition to being the beloved singer-songwriter and seven-time Grammy nominee's eighth studio album and her eOne Records debut, the 12-song set is one of the most personally-charged, creatively ambitious efforts of her two-decades-plus recording career. While Osborne has already earned a reputation as both a commanding, passionate performer and a frank, emotionally evocative songwriter, her soulful songcraft reaches a new level of musical and lyrical resonance on Love and Hate. Such insightful, emotionally complex new compositions as "Where We Start," "Work On Me," "Kitten's Got Claws," "Keep It Underground" and the pointed title track survey some of the more complicated terrain of romantic relationships, in a manner that's rarely been attempted in popular music, while the album's intimate, stripped-down sound marks a stylistic departure from the gritty blues-based rock for which Osborne is best known. (more)
Spotify sampler
Recordings
Most Recent
LOVE AND HATE (2014): Love and Hate is the product of an extended birth cycle that spanned no less than seven years a period during which Osborne released two other albums and worked on an assortment of other musical projects. She and co producer/guitarist Jack Petruzzelli with whom she also recorded 2012s Bring It On Home, which was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Blues Album category had initially intended to make a lush, pastoral album in the mold of Van Morrisons Astral Weeks or Nick Drake's Pink Moon. But as she continued to write songs for the project, Osborne found herself drawn towards more personal subject matter.
Others
Relish (1995)
Righteous Love (2000)
How Sweet It Is (2002)
Pretty Little Stranger (2006)
Breakfast in Bed (2007)
Little Wild One (2008)
Bring It On Home (2012)
