"Blues music rescued me when I was in need of rescue," said Osborne. "The voices of Otis Redding and Al Green soothed a troubled soul, the power of Etta James and Tina Turner gave me courage, and the depth of feeling of Muddy Waters and so many other great blues artists allowed me to find and express my own depths. When I began to sing in New York City in my early 20s, I wanted nothing more than to model myself on these people, to inhabit the music as they did in some small way."
As she traveled the country touring, performing with such luminaries as the Blind Boys of Alabama, Aaron Neville and Charlie Musselwhite, the idea of the album always resurfaced
Last Edited by on Apr 12, 2012 6:27 PM
I really like her stuff. Unfortunately I think a lot of people don't get a chance to hear her better stuff because she threw in with the RIAA and is kind of militant about people posting her stuff online. There are recordings of shows and whatnot, but mostly camera phone recordings. Her best stuff is on her albums. I understand people have different views on copyright infringement, but I think she's shot herself in the foot a bit, especially since most people only know her for her one big hit, which isn't a very good representation of what she can do.
They've been playing one of her blues tunes a lot on the local radio station - she has a VERY credible blues voice. (For the people who complained that Cyndi Lauper singing the blues "just wasn't right" - you wouldn't say that about Joan Osborne. I may buy the album but if anyone beats me to it, I'd love to know what you think. And.... is there any harp on it? ---------- /Greg
Joan was very much part of the downtown blues scene that I came up in. She used to work a club called Wonderland, 2nd avenue in the 20s, and Dan Lynch occasionally, and definitely Nightingale, just down the block from DL, where the Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler made their names. She had two feet in the blues scene at first--she sounded a lot like Janis Joplin--but when the jam band scene took off, she put one foot in that. The Holmes Brothers, who were a huge part of the DL scene (they ran the weekly jam session), were friends of hers, which is why she's been on and/or produced an album or two of theirs, and perhaps put them on her albums.
She blew up big in the early 1990s, same time as the Spin Doctors, and when you've known somebody as part of a local scene for a while and suddenly they go national, it's always a curious bittersweet feeling. I can't say that I loved her voice, but I liked it and I certainly respected her as a professional and was proud to know that somebody from our scene--the scene that produced The Holmes Brothers, Popa Chubby, and Shemekia Copeland--had burst into the pop/jam/r&B spotlight.
And at this point, seeing how she's aged and mellowed, I come back down to earth very much in her corner. The comparison with Cyndi Lauper is profoundly mistaken in one way: Joan came up in a blues scene, not a pop scene. Joan isn't making a "turn" towards blues. She sang blues night after night in her 20s. She's right about that. I was there, watching and listening to her. She's a Kentucky native and she had some of that southern thing. But yes: Aretha was an obvious influence.
I think she's perfectly positioned to have a comeback, after years of flying somewhat below the radar. In fact, I can't figure out where she went. But she's definitely back, and that's a good thing.
EDITED TO ADD: It appears from a post above that she's spent much of the past 15 years working as a sidewoman for other top touring acts.
Last Edited by on Apr 13, 2012 3:48 AM
