{"id":5827,"date":"2012-04-25T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T16:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5827"},"modified":"2012-04-25T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T16:20:08","slug":"joan-osborne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/04\/joan-osborne\/","title":{"rendered":"JOAN OSBORNE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

JOAN OSBORNE\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Bringing it on home to the blues and soul of her early days\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

From the moment she lit into Sonny Boy Williamson II\u2019s \u201cHelp Me\u201d on her triple-platinum 1995 debut, Relish<\/em>, it was clear that Kentucky-born Joan Osborne had a natural feel for gutbucket blues. She\u2019s explored those roots regularly ever since, but never so directly as on her new album, the all-covers affair Bring It On Home<\/em>. With the help from her co-producer and guitarist Jack Petruzzelli, Osborne tackles a set of gems from the classic blues and soul songbooks. She\u2019s already working on her next album of originals, a song cycle called Love and Hate<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m keeping busy,\u201d says Osborne, 49, speaking from her home in Brooklyn. \u201cLife is good for me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

What inspired this album?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to take credit for it, but I really can\u2019t. The guys from Saguaro Road Records approached me and said, \u201cWould you want to do a record of nothing but blues and soul covers?\u201d At the time I was more focused on working on original material, but the more I thought about it the more I came up with ideas. \u201cI could do that song, wouldn\u2019t that be cool?\u201d \u201cWhat about that tune?\u201d I started to compile a list in my mind. It\u2019s cool to just throw down and step\u00a0right into those shoes.<\/p>\n

Does this represent your roots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My education in becoming a singer was in trying to sing this music. That\u2019s why I wondered what it would sound like for me to sing these songs now, having been doing this as my career for 20 years. What would it be like to go back to the source and reach into this music? What different things could I bring to it? I felt like my voice has gotten deeper and richer as an instrument, and being older brings more life experience. That\u2019s an important thing to have when you\u2019re singing this kind of music, because it\u2019s very raw and emotional. The more of yourself you bring to it, the better you\u2019re going to be.<\/p>\n

Is it tricky to produce yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to be objective about yourself to a certain extent. But then when you listen to a playback, it becomes easier to step out of that mindset and compare one thing to another. I think I\u2019ve gotten much better at getting beyond that nervousness and being more matter-of-fact about it: \u201cAll right, this is working and obviously that is not. That thing I did right there? It clearly sucks.\u201d Just being able to say that about yourself and not be too precious about it. It\u2019s easier when you\u2019re working with friends, because they\u2019ll tell you what sucks. The people I work with have\u00a0that level of comfort with me.<\/p>\n

What mics do you use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I usually end up with a Neumann U87 on my voice. They can get all the different nuances and not get completely blown out when I start to sing really strongly. I will sometimes use other mics, but I do tend to go back to those Neumanns.<\/p>\n

Do you have a goal now?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many, many things I still want to achieve. There are other recording projects on my wish list. There are dozens and dozens of different records that I\u2019d like to do. I want to continue to grow as a writer and a singer. It\u2019s very satisfying to have the feeling that I\u2019m still getting better at what I do. This is a business that doesn\u2019t always allow people to have lengthy careers, so I feel grateful that I\u2019ve had a career this long. It\u2019s a big life, you know?<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOAN OSBORNE\u00a0 Bringing it on home to the blues and soul of her early days\u00a0 From the moment she lit into Sonny Boy Williamson II\u2019s \u201cHelp Me\u201d on her triple-platinum 1995 debut, Relish, it was clear that Kentucky-born Joan Osborne had a natural feel for gutbucket blues. She\u2019s explored those roots regularly ever since, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[3303,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5829,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions\/5829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}