Joan Elizabeth Osborne (born July 8, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter, and interpreter of music, having recorded and performed in various popular American musical genres including rock, pop, soul, R&B, blues, and country.[1] She is best known for her recording of the Eric Bazilian-penned song "One of Us" from her debut album, Relish (1995). Both the single and the album became worldwide hits and garnered a combined seven Grammy Award nominations. Osborne has toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers and was featured in the documentary film about them, Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002).
Originally from Anchorage, Kentucky, a suburb of Louisville, Osborne moved to New York City in the late 1980s to study filmmaking at New York University, where she had classes with legendary documentarian George Stoney, among others. Osborne was paying her own way through college and taking time off to earn money for another semester when, by chance, she sang at an open mic night at the Abilene Café. The other musicians encouraged her to return, and she began singing weekly at the Abilene's open mic and at other blues open mics in NYC's East Village. She soon became immersed in NYC's live music scene, forming her own band and playing in nightclubs alongside groups like the Sweetones, Surreal McCoys, Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler, and the Holmes Brothers, and artists like Chris Whitley, Frankie Paris, and Jeff Buckley.
In 1991, she formed her own record label, Womanly Hips, to release her first full-length album, Soul Show: Live at Delta 88, and she began to tour around the Northeast, building a devoted regional following. She signed a recording contract with Rick Chertoff of Mercury Records, and released her second (and first major label) album Relish (1995), which became a hit on the strength of the single "One of Us". "Right Hand Man" and "St. Teresa" were minor hits, and "Spider Web" also received radio play. Osborne wrote and directed the second music video for "St. Teresa".
Osborne was a co-headliner for the Lilith Fair in 1997.
In 2001, Osborne produced an album for her friends the Holmes Brothers, Speaking in Tongues, engineered by Grammy winner Trina Shoemaker and featuring backing vocals from Catherine Russell, Maydie Miles, and Osborne. The album was released by Alligator Records.
In 2001, Osborne appeared on Austin City Limits, singing material mainly from Righteous Love. In a brief interview segment at the end of the episode, Osborne reflects on her gladness to have gotten out of the limelight of her mid-1990s stardom. She was featured in the 2002 documentary film Standing in the Shadows of Motown and toured with Motown sidemen the Funk Brothers. She and her band accompanied the Dixie Chicks for a national tour in the summer of 2003, during which time she also joined veteran San Francisco jam-rockers The Dead as a vocalist, and released her fourth album, titled How Sweet It Is, a collection of classic rock and soulcovers.
Phil Lesh, Osborne, and Bob Weir playing in Virginia Beach, Virginia, June 17, 2003
During 2005 and 2006, Osborne performed on numerous occasions with Phil Lesh and Friends. Her vocals were featured prominently on the album Live at the Warfield. She continues to make appearances with the band.
In February 2007, she appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. In May 2007, she issued Breakfast in Bed, produced by Tor Hyams, a return to the soul music that she had covered on How Sweet It Is. Breakfast in Bed also featured the two songs ("Heatwave" and "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted") that she had covered for the film Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The same year, Osborne appeared as a featured guest in the third season of the Transatlantic Sessions television series, performing "Saint Teresa", "Holy Water", and "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends".
In 2010, Osborne again produced an album for the Holmes Brothers on Alligator Records, Feed My Soul, which featured contributions from keyboard player Glenn Patscha.
On October 31, 2015, Osborne and Mavis Staples performed in Washington, D.C. at The George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium as part of their Solid Soul Tour.[7]
Osborne has a long history of political activism, in particular with Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She began volunteering as a PPFA clinic escort in NYC in the 1980s, has organized benefit concerts for the group, and was honored as a PPFA "Woman of the Year" in 1997 after she promoted Planned Parenthood from the Lilith Fair stage in Houston, TX, despite being expressly forbidden to do so by the arena's owners, who then blacklisted her from the venue.[8]
The Isley Brothers are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, that began as a vocal trio consisting of the brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades, the group has enjoyed one of the "longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music".
Martha and the Vandellas were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown.
Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul, and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s.
Gloria Richetta Jones is an American singer and songwriter who first found success in the United Kingdom, being recognized there as "The Queen of Northern Soul". She recorded the 1965 hit song "Tainted Love" and has worked in multiple genres as a Motown songwriter and recording artist, backing vocalist, and as a performer in musicals such as Hair. In the 1970s, she was a keyboardist and vocalist in Marc Bolan's glam rock band T. Rex. She and Bolan were also in a committed romantic relationship and had a son together.
The 38th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the main recipient, being awarded four trophies, including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men opened the show with their Record of the Year nominated "One Sweet Day".
Mary Esther Wells was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s.
The Pointer Sisters are an American girl group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as R&B, pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country, and rock. The Pointer Sisters have won three Grammy Awards and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. The group had 13 US top 20 hits between 1973 and 1985.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 American documentary film directed by Paul Justman that recounts the story of the Funk Brothers, the uncredited and largely unheralded studio musicians who were the house band that Berry Gordy hand-picked in 1959.
India Arie Simpson is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut album, Acoustic Soul, was released in 2001, and she has since released six more studio albums. Arie has sold over five million records in the US and ten million worldwide, and has won four Grammy Awards from 23 nominations, including Best R&B Album.
Bettye LaVette is an American soul singer who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, when her album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise was released to widespread critical acclaim, and was named on many critics' "Best of 2005" lists. Her next album, The Scene of the Crime, debuted at number one on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart and was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards. She received the Legacy of Americana Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
Audley Freed is a guitarist from Burgaw, North Carolina.
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again". In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album.
Relish is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Joan Osborne, released on March 21, 1995. It was nominated for Album of the Year at the 38th Grammy Awards, and also earned nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Osborne. In addition, the track "One of Us" was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Gina Sicilia is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Her album, Heard the Lie, peaked in the Top 10 on Billboard charts blues music charts in September, 2018 as well as Sunset Avenue peaking at #15 in September, 2016. She was nominated for a Blues Music Award for Best New Artist in 2008 and has shared the stage with such artists as Beth Hart, Joan Osborne, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Joe Bonamassa, Shemekia Copeland, and Johnny Winter amongst others.
Richard E. Chertoff is an American record producer and songwriter. He is credited on the singles Joan Osborne's "One of Us", Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time" and Sophie B. Hawkins' "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover". Chertoff has received five Grammy Award nominations—twice for Album of the Year, twice for Record of the Year, and also for Producer of the Year.
The Holmes Brothers were an American musical trio originally from Christchurch, Virginia. Mixing sounds from blues, soul, gospel, country, and rhythm & blues, they have released twelve studio albums, with three reaching the top five on the Billboard Blues Albums chart. They have gained a following by playing regularly at summer folk, blues, gospel, and jazz festivals. They have recorded with Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Willie Nelson, Freddie Roulette, Rosanne Cash, Levon Helm and Joan Osborne, and have gigged all over the world—including performing for President Bill Clinton. They won the Blues Music Award from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation for Band of the Year in 2005 and for the Soul Blues Album of the Year in 2008.
Tom Bukovac is an American session musician and producer. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in nearby Willowick, Ohio. He has been a Nashville-based musician since 1992. He previously owned 2nd Gear, a used music consignment shop in South Nashville.
Catherine Russell is an American jazz and blues singer. She is best known for her 2016 album Harlem on My Mind and for touring with David Bowie and Steely Dan.
Bring It On Home is a covers album by Joan Osborne, released under Saguaro Road Records on March 27, 2012. It was her first album in five years. The record is co-produced with guitarist Jack Petruzzelli and consists entirely of blues and R&B covers. The album also includes tracks originally made famous by American blues masters, such as Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, as well as recordings originally released by some of the best-known R&B performers, including Ray Charles, Al Green ("Rhymes"), and Otis Redding.
Danielle Nicole is an American blues/soul musician from Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Her self-titled solo debut EP was released March 10, 2015, on Concord Records. The self-titled EP features Grammy Award-winning producer and guitarist Anders Osborne, Galactic's co-founding drummer Stanton Moore, and keyboardist Mike Sedovic. On February 25, 2015, American Blues Scene premiered the track "Didn't Do You No Good" off the EP.
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