Joan Osborne
Friday, November 12, 2021 at 8:00 PM at SOPAC
Joan Osborne has rightfully earned a reputation as one of the great voices of her generation — both a commanding, passionate performer and a frank, emotionally evocative songwriter. A multi-platinum selling recording artist and seven-time Grammy Award nominee, the soulful vocalist is a highly sought-after collaborator and guest performer who has performed alongside many notable artists, including Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Luciano Pavarotti, Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal and Mavis Staples, to name a few.
Osborne continues to enjoy a long and storied career that was jumpstarted with the great success of her major-label debut album, Relish, which wove together strands of American Roots music, poetic lyrics and impassioned vocals and produced the massive MTV and international radio smash, “One of Us.” The song occupied the number one spot on the U.S. singles chart for two weeks, Relish eventually racked up sales of over three million copies and Osborne found a large and appreciative audience, particularly during touring as part of Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair tour.
Although the Kentucky native grew up with a passion for music, when she arrived in New York City in the late 1980s, it was to attend New York University’s prestigious film school. But she couldn’t resist the pull of the city’s live music scene for long and soon she was performing her own songs in downtown Rock clubs and emerging as a popular presence in a vibrant scene of Rootsy new acts that included such then-unknowns as Jeff Buckley, Chris Whitley, Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors. In 1992, Osborne launched her own indie label, Womanly Hips and released the live Soul Show: Live at Delta 88 and the studio EP Blue Million Miles. Becoming a regional success led her to the signing of a major label deal and the success of Relish. But Osborne quickly made it clear that she was more interested in musical integrity and creative longevity than transient Pop success and she made that point repeatedly with such subsequent albums as 2000’s Righteous Love, 2002’s How Sweet It Is, 2005’s Christmas Means Love, 2006’s Pretty Little Stranger, 2007’s Breakfast in Bed and 2008’s Little Wild One up through her three latest releases, 2012’s Bring It On Home, 2014’s Love And Hate and 2017’s Songs of Bob Dylan.