Joan Osborne: Little Wild One (Plum)

 |   |  1 min read

Joan Osborne: Daddy-O
Joan Osborne: Little Wild One (Plum)

Osborne is probably already in some One Hit Wonders of The Nineties book for her chart-troubling One of Us. She'll be alongside Crash Test Dummies.

But there was always much more to her than that hit, as was clear when I interviewed her after a show in Vermont at the time. On the Relish album which sprung the unlikely One of Us, she acknowledged one of her co-writes as owing a debt to Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet who was given a co-credit) and she covered Dylan's Man in a Long Black Coat from his Oh Mercy album.

She naturally shunned the pop charts because her heart was grounded in the slightly country-styled singer-songwriter school (although she could and sometimes did belt out the blues and soul) and her most recent albums such as Pretty Little Stranger have seen her shift between adult pop-rock and country-rock.

For this album she is teamed again with those behind her career around the time of One of Us, notably producer/songwriter Eric Brazilian who penned One of Us, and Rick Chertoff who produced Relish (and which was nominated for six Grammys).

There's a real spark to this album as it strides confidently from slow ballads (the title track) to searing, guitar-driven alt.country, and on tracks like Rodeo and Can't Say No she seems to take off into some qawalli wail (not surprising if you read that interview). Elsewhere she gets away some slinky and slippery sensuality (To the One I Love), something with a nod to Anglofolk (Daddy-O) and includes an original with an acknowledged quote from Rev. Gary Davis' spiritual Light of This World.

She closes with Bury Me on the Battery which sounds like a home recording on a battered upright piano. 

Osborne is a rare talent and largely overlooked other than by her fan base. But the purity of her tone, her innate power which she employs judiciously, her bridging of soul and country, and the thoughtful lyrics she delivers make her someone quietly quite special. 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Great North: Soldiers (Great North)

Great North: Soldiers (Great North)

New bands often make great claims for themselves -- that is forgivable -- but I especially like the humour of what this Auckland five-piece say of their music: "It is the sound of Bruce... > Read more

The Roulettes: Unread Books (Roulettes)

The Roulettes: Unread Books (Roulettes)

The openers here by this Auckland trio don't initially seem stray too far from the template of fizzing and slightly fuzzy power pop-rock, but when the spirit of Marc Bolan and early Bowie walk... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

PETER GREEN: IN THE SKIES and LITTLE DREAMER, CONSIDERED (1979/1980): The slight return in the late Seventies

PETER GREEN: IN THE SKIES and LITTLE DREAMER, CONSIDERED (1979/1980): The slight return in the late Seventies

The sad story of Sixties singer-guitarist and songwriter Peter Green (born Peter Greenbaum in 1946, of Bethnal Green) probably needs little repeating but the bare facts look like this.... > Read more

ELMORE JAMES: Sliding with the king

ELMORE JAMES: Sliding with the king

It has been almost half a century since Elmore James bent over to pull up his socks before going out to play in an Chicago nightclub . . . and went face down on to the floor with his third and... > Read more