Joan Osborne, Little Wild One (Saguaro Road Records, 2008)

Her days of significant commercial success may be long behind her, but Joan Osborne has kept quite busy over the past decade. The Kentucky native's latest album Little Wild One is a collection of songs thematically linked to her adopted home of New York City.

For Little Wild One, Osborne reunited with the same team of collaborators that helped make her debut album Relish a big hit fourteen years ago. Producer Rick Chertoff, guitarist Eric Bazilian, and keyboardist Rob Hyman were the creative nucleus of The Hooters in the eighties, but they gave big boosts to the careers of Osborne and Cyndi Lauper as well. The combination makes Little Wild One Osborne's most melodic album, outside of her 2002 album of soul covers How Sweet It Is, that she's done since Relish. Highlights include "Sweeter Than the Rest," a mid-tempo rocker propelled by a classic 12-string riff; the stately ballad "Cathedrals"; the upbeat rocker "Rodeo," which features Bazilian playing a hurdy-gurdy (which I'm pretty sure he hasn't done yet on a Hooters recording); "Daddy-O," a requiem for the old Coney Island; and the gospel-tinged closing song "Bury Me on the Battery," an ode to her favorite city.

In addition to the focus on New York, Osborne's lyrics revolve around her usual themes of sexuality and spirituality. The combination may seem odd, but Osborne has usually made it work very well on her albums, and Little Wild One is no exception. Osborne's primary selling point remains her voice, though. She's one of the few white singers who really understands how to sing with soul -- in fact, there's a long line of contemporary R&B divas who could learn something from her. She also studied Qawwali singing under the late Nusret Fateh Ali Khan. While she has made some half-hearted attempts to incorporate the style into her own on past albums, songs like "Rodeo" and "Can't Say No" mark the first time she's been able to make it work and not sound out of place.

Joan Osborne is another one of those performers who's always worth checking in with when a new album comes out. If people have stopped listening, it's certainly not a reflection on the quality of her music. Little Wild One continues her string of solid records, and hopefully she has plenty more to come.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Joan and her touring band in the studio playing "Sweeter Than the Rest"

Joan Osborne, Pretty Little Stranger (Vanguard, 2006)

Joan Osborne has had one of the more noteworthy careers of any recent rock performer. When her debut CD Relish came out in 1995, her brand of soul-tinged folk rock seemed destined to appeal mainly to the WFUV market, and she appeared to be content to do her own thing for whomever bothered to listen. Then, several months after Relish came out, she had a very improbable hit with "One Of Us," a quirky song about God written by Hooters guitarist Eric Bazilian. Suddenly Relish was a monster seller, but the upswing in her fortunes came at a heavy price. She and her record label had very different ideas about what the follow-up should be, and Osborne refused to compromise regardless of the toll it would take on her. Neither side budged, the lawyers were brought in, and after several years in limbo Osborne had to restart her career from scratch. When her second album Righteous Love finally came out in 2000, it was a bit harder-edged than Relish -- evidently a cardinal sin from the perspective of her original label. It didn't come close to matching the sales of Relish, but at least Osborne was in control of her music and the output was solid. Always a better singer than a songwriter, she returned in 2002 with How Sweet It Is, an excellent set of soul covers that merged Osborne's potent voice with some classic material. Artistically at least, Joan Osborne had more than come all the way back.

For her new offering Pretty Little Stranger, Osborne aims for a country feel, even recording a good part of the album in Nashville. Guests include Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, and Rodney Crowell. She deftly mixes her own compositions with the covers on this album. For example, her ominous "Shake The Devil" could easily pass for a folk standard, and fits perfectly between Patty Griffin's "What You Are" and Kris Kristofferson's sad ballad "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends." Other interesting covers include The Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Palace" and an excellent rendition of the country standard "Till I Get It Right," originally done by Tammy Wynette. While the covers tend to be mellow, Osborne adds some variety with her originals, including the rocking title song and the funky "Dead Roses." She also takes a very daring step by including "After Jane," a song very clearly about a relationship with another woman. The highlight of the album though, and the best song Osborne has written to date, is the brilliantly soulful "Who Divided," a very catchy song with excellent potential as a single.

Pretty Little Stranger has its share of good songs, but Osborne doesn't always sound as completely in her element here as she did on How Sweet It Is. She brings some soul to the ballads, but her voice isn't as perfectly suited for country music as Neko Case's is, for example. Plus, other than "Who Divided," there wasn't enough energy to balance the sad, somber efforts. Given that, a couple of the ballads are very nicely done, and "Who Divided" by itself would have been sufficient to recommend giving this album a listen. Joan Osborne has determinedly stuck to her guns and done things her own way, and has never shied away from trying something a little different and challenging, regardless of the risk to her commercial aspirations. With Pretty Little Stranger, she has added another worthy effort to her increasingly impressive resumé.

Overall grade: B+

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