When you have a career as long as legendary vocalist Joan Osborne, you’re going to amass some “stuff.” Recordings, pictures, posters, and who knows what else someone who has traveled the world will end up with. Once again, Osborne literally dug through her boxes of stuff and unearthed her latest release Dylanology. A live performance from the tour supporting her 2017 album Songs of Bob Dylan.
The pristine recording features guests Amy Helm, Jackie Greene, and Robert Randolph whose contributions thrust an unforgettable night even higher in the musical stratosphere. Osborne’s vocals, powered from the all-star roster of musicians supporting her are as on point as they’ve been since her debut Relish 30 years ago.
In a career spanning interview with Slide&Banjo, Osborne discusses Dylanology and how it went from a box in her closet to being released for all to hear. Osborne also looks ahead to some exciting projects certain to hit the sweet spot for her longtime, loyal fans while graciously reflecting on the thirty year anniversary of Relish.
S&B- Hey Joan. It’s great to talk to you again. I see you finally crossed releasing another Bob Dylan album off your list. I can’t wait to discuss that. I must tell you, I got on a kick this morning and went back and listened to Relish. It’s hard to believe it’s 30 years old. What a fantastic album. Hopefully, we can reserve a minute or two to discuss.
Osborne- Definitely.
S&B- Let’s talk about Dylanology. Once again, those boxes in the back of your closet pay off with another stellar release.
Osborne- It was a bit of a happy accident. I was going through my archives and discovered this live recording existed. It’s from the 2018 tour we did with the full band and with special guests Jackie Greene, Amy Helm and Robert Randolph. I’m sure at some point I either was part of arranging the recording or said ok to it or whatever. Then I just sort of forgot about it. I was going through my archives and discovered it again and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, this thing.’ Normally, I’m the harshest critic of my own live performances, but I felt like there was a lot of really great stuff in it. Of course, from the special guests and from myself and the band too. I thought this is a great snapshot of the moment so let’s put it out in the world. Why have it sitting here wasting away in the archives? Let’s put it out. I think some people are assuming it had to do with this Dylan biopic that came out at the end of last year. We had no idea anything like that was going to happen. It was another happy accident that it happens to be coming out in a moment where Dylan has more attention around him than normal.
S&B- Diehard readers of Slideandbanjo.com will know that you had certainly floated this idea several albums ago. I went back and read the previous articles with you and that was one of the things you said. “I have this follow up to Bob Dylan in mind.” The timing on it happens to be pretty good, but I can certainly vouch that you had the idea years ago.
Osborne- We’re not just trying to ride his coattails of the moment.
S&B- Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with good timing for sure. You were touring in support of the 2017 Dylan album. Instead of this being a collection of individual songs from the tour, this is one specific performance from Tarrytown that I guess everything just happened to fall in line.
Osborne- We were able to get a good recording that night. This one happened to be a really strong performance. The Tarrytown Music Hall is one of those old theaters that’s been around for a long time. It used to be a Vaudeville house. It has that amazing acoustic quality and is really warm. It has all this natural wood everywhere. When you’re on stage, you just feel very comfortable. I’m sure that’s also reflected in the way everybody was performing that night. Everyone was just feeling really at ease.
S&B- The recording is really unique. I’d say well over 50% of the music I listen to are live recordings. The sound quality on this is impeccable. It does not sound like a live album. There’s not much crowd in the background, and the recording quality itself is fantastic.
Osborne- I’m glad to hear you say that especially because as you say you do listen to a lot of live stuff. I’ll give your opinion a lot of weight there.
S&B- Your archives are rife with splendor. You released Radio Waves that you found during Covid. Now you have this. It certainly makes sense that someone with as long of a storied career as you would have these hidden gems lying around. What is it like to find and release this album when it realistically could have sat in a box in your closet for the next ten to twenty years?
Osborne- Yes. Or forever. One of the gifts of Covid was me having the opportunity to pull out all these boxes that have been sitting in the back of my closet for so long and realizing how much I have. We have only scratched the surface. I’ve been going back again now that this recording is complete. There are things from the late 1980’s. There are things from all throughout my career. I’m very much planning on getting that stuff out to the public at a certain point. The way the music business is these days is there’s kind of no rules anymore about how to do it. I’m trying to figure out the best way to get it to the people who are going to appreciate it most. But yeah, there’s a lot more where that came from.
S&B- Hopping back to the album. The songs on the album aren’t the entire show. What was the process of picking what made the final cut?
Osborne- When you’re putting a show together, you try to have a good mixture of songs. You don’t want all ballads. You don’t want all high energy rockers. You want a nice flow to the evening. We tried to construct a record that would have a similar flow. Of course, you want to get the standout performances and that’s where you go first. Then you try to tailor the rest of the record around them. For example, this version of Highway 61 was great and a very energetic performance. So, let’s try to find something that can be the flipside of that mood. Which drew us to Buckets of Rain. That version was something that I was hesitant to have on the record because there’s this moment where Amy Helm and I were singing a duet. We kind of crack up and sort of lose it. I was listening to it again and thought well that’s the beauty of a live performance. It’s not a studio recording. You’re gonna have these moments where unexpected things happen. I think part of the charm of allowing people to feel like they’re sitting in those seats in the audience that night is to have a very spontaneous moment like that.
S&B- Absolutely. As someone who listens to loads of live music, the screwups are the best part.
Osborne – laughs
S&B- While we’re on the topic, talk about Amy Helm and her presence on the album. You also have Jackie Greene and Robert Randolph. Since they didn’t play with you every night on the tour, the fact it all worked out so this performance is what made the light of day must be a little serendipitous?
Osborne– We were fortunate to get those guests. They certainly could’ve filled that hall themselves any night that they wanted to. The idea of doing this reinterpretation of Dylan stuff and doing it in this different way sounded fun to everybody. It certainly was exciting for us. It’s that combination of you’ve got people who could fill this hall themselves but want to do something a little bit outside of their normal thing. We were super fortunate to have that. We did do some other shows on that tour with different special guests. Anders Osborne was part of one of the versions. He’s not on this record. That night, those were the guests we had and were very lucky to have them.
S&B- It’s an extra cherry on top of a great sundae. I thought the songs with just your band were equally fantastic. There’s more instrumental improv than I would have expected. You definitely open up every song. They all have nice instrumental segments in them.
Osborne- This is the live experience, and you don’t want it to be this very concise thing. That’s what you’d want to have on a studio recording. A live recording lends itself to stretching out, and I’m so fortunate to have these players on stage with me that night. They’re amazing soloists and instrumentalists. Some of them are producers as well. Not only are they skilled musicians, but they’re also very tasteful and do what serves the song. They have the experience of having played for so many decades and know exactly what to leave in and what to leave out. Another wonderful aspect of the record is letting the band really breathe and take up the space they know how to take up in their amazing way.
S&B- I mentioned how great the sound of the recording is. You take time to introduce the band, and left in musings before and after songs. It really flows like an actual concert. Just from those extemporaneous moments.
Osborne- Yeah. I think part of that was trying again to capture that feeling of you being in the seats there. The other part is I always want to give props to these guys. Not everybody is going to dig in and read the liner notes. Especially nowadays when people stream things and don’t have liner notes even if they wanted them. That was sort of my way of allowing the people who are listening to understand who these guys are and give them credit for what they’re doing.
S&B- Another area that stands out is how you put your own touch on these Dylan songs. That’s the beauty of Bob Dylan who’s covered by everyone. His songs are so open to exploration and interpretation. How did you weave your Joan Osborne into these iconic Dylan songs?
Osborne- To me, it’s your job when you are covering somebody else’s song. Unless you’re in a tribute band or something. You’re not trying to do it exactly like they did it. You want to find that place where the song and your voice and your sensibility can come together in a way that really blossoms and allows some aspect of the song to live through you in a unique way. In a way that isn’t going to sound like anybody else’s version of it. That’s what we are always looking for. In fact, we’re getting ready to do another one of these Dylanology tours with Nicki Bluhm, Gail Ann Dorsey, and Cindy Cashdollar. Anders Osborne’s gonna come out for some of the shows. We’re looking through the catalog again and trying to put together a show that’s going to allow the songs themselves to really live and breathe in a unique way.
S&B- I’m sure letting these songs breathe is important on a nightly basis. These are live, free flowing organisms that form a shape based on the night, the room, the audience and those other external factors that can make it great or make it a dud if you will.
Osborne- Well, thankfully, I don’t think we’ve had a lot of duds.
S&B- Yeah. I can’t imagine.
Osborne- You touched on something that’s another aspect of it too. His music and his lyrics, I sort of relate to it as if you’re doing Shakespeare as an actor. There’s such incredible depth and you’re going to be living through those lyrics and trying to inhabit them in a way they relate to whatever is going on in your world in that moment. You could be singing a song that was written 50 years ago. Maybe the way you’re feeling, it’s talking about a current relationship or it’s talking about some current political situation. It’s written with enough skill and enough open-endedness that it can also be talking about what’s happening right now. That’s another aspect of what a live performance allows you to do. Just draw on where you are and where the world is.
S&B- Having listened to Dylanology numerous times another thing stands out. On one hand, here’s Joan Osborne, one of the great vocalists and one of the great voices around. Then you have Bob Dylan. Who in all the musical godliness he possesses, vocalist probably isn’t at the top of the list. What is it like vocally taking on someone so profoundly different than your hotspot?
Osborne- Well, in a way it makes it easier because there’s no way I’m ever going to sound like Bob Dylan. There’s no temptation for me to imitate his phrasing or his tone or anything like that. It releases me from any need to emulate him. It sends me directly to the lyrics and the melodies and what do they mean to me and what’s coming up for me emotionally when I connect with these. How am I going to express that with the instrument that I have? It’s just a gift that keeps on giving the depth of his lyrics and just how many amazing songs there are. There’s such a variety of songs. There’s these beautiful, tender, love ballads, and then there’s these acidic put down songs. Like Masters of War where he’s taking on the entire military industrial complex and letting them know I see who you are, and I know what you’re doing and you’re not fooling me. Then there’s some songs that are very lighthearted. A song like Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat is almost comical. Again, it’s kind of like Shakespeare where he has these deep tragedies like Macbeth. Then he’ll have these characters like Falstaff, or Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that are just these clowns. Then he has these romances. It’s just everything. It’s all of life in this music.
S&B- That’s a perfect way to describe it. Other than Dylan, you certainly can tackle pretty much anything that’s out there. Is there another musician you may give the same treatment?
Osborne- Oh absolutely. When Covid was hitting, we were doing a residency covering the songs of Tom Waits. I think it was night three when everything started shutting down. We weren’t able to realize that vision as we might have. I’m interested in the way these platforms are reaching out to audiences in a different way. It lets you pursue some of these things. Maybe a record company isn’t going to give me a big advance to do the songs of Tom Waits or songs of Lou Reed or whatever. There’s enough interest from the fans to make it worthwhile and to be able to fund a project like that. So, that’s very much on my mind and perhaps the next thing that I do.
S&B- You mention Tom Waits or Lou Reed. Any specific artist that you would love to honor?
Osborne- I was listening to a bunch of Ben Harper stuff the other day and I think he would be an amazing person to cover. I’m a huge Lucinda Williams fan and although she certainly sings her own songs beautifully. I think there’s room for other people to interpret that stuff and I would love to try to take on some of that. The sky is the limit.
S&B- What other projects are out there? You’ve been doing this a while, so what is left on your list that has yet to be crossed off?
Osborne- You mentioned that it’s the 30th anniversary of the Relish album and in fact I’m scheduled to go into the studio and re-record all of those songs, but in a reimagined way. I connected last year with Christian McBride, the jazz bass player who’s also kind of an empresario now. He’s the artistic director of the Newport Jazz festival and he does a lot of other things in that space. I was so impressed at Newport last year. Just seeing the breadth and the depth of what is called jazz now is so interesting. I thought wouldn’t it be great to re-record these songs from Relish but do it in such a way that they could live in this jazz space now and exist in that world. Christian and I have gotten together to do some arranging and we’re going to be recording that later this year. Hopefully we can release it either by the end of this year or the beginning of next year. So that’s on the list of things to do. I’ve also been writing original lyrics and I’ve been leaning back into this blues space which was kind of where I started out when I first started singing. That’s been interesting. It’s possible I could make a blues record at some point very soon. I’m always trying to keep it interesting for myself and for the fans as well. I feel so fortunate I have the audience that I have and that has stayed with me for all these years. I just feel like there’s no point in retiring when I’m so still so interested to see what will happen next.
S&B- It’s impossible for a musician to retire these days. Just through technology alone. You may stop touring, but you can do so much from your house it’s hard to imagine that someone of your productivity will retire. It’s just too easy to create stuff.
Osborne- As long as my voice and my body hold out, I feel like they’ll be things that I want to do. I think there’s going to be more things that I would like to do than I have years on this planet left to do so.
S&B- The beauty of it, as we have discussed is you’ve got so much wonderful stuff from the past that hasn’t been unearthed. That gives you options on both ends of the spectrum. Archives and new releases. Speaking of archives, let’s take a few seconds to go back to Relish. As I mentioned, I listened to it this morning. One of Us obviously is the main song on that album. If you asked the average person, that’s the song they’re going to remember. I really hate to even bring that song up because the album is so much more than that. It’s everything from Dylan and Help Me. Spider Web is just brilliant in itself. Crazy Baby has these Joni Mitchell like lyrics. I mean that album is just so diverse that when you say you’re going to translate it to jazz, I can see that instantly. What are your thoughts on the diversity and depth of the album and the growth it’s led to all these years later?
Osborne- To touch on what you mentioned about the song One of Us. In a way, it was a bit of a gateway to the rest of the album. People who wouldn’t necessarily have gone to seek out songs like Crazy Baby, Spider Web, or Dracula Moon. They wouldn’t necessarily have gone to seek those out. Once they got in the door with One of Us then they were able to appreciate the rest of what was happening there. Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of people come up to me and say yeah, I bought your record because of this song, but then these other songs became my favorite, and I don’t even really listen to that first song anymore. I’m much more drawn to this one or that one. In a way it’s kind of like the Trojan horse. Where you sort of sneak into people’s consciousness with a song they are more likely to be drawn to, but then you’ve got this whole other aspect of what you do that comes along with it.
S&B- I’m glad to hear that. I was almost hesitant to bring it up because of the stigma of having such a notable song in your catalogue. For anyone who hears the name Joan Osborne and only knows One of Us, it’s like you do not even begin to know what you’ve missed. Go listen to her play with Phil Lesh or cover Dylan. Or her duet with Pavarotti. Listen to Spider Web and hear what sounds like a young Bonnie Raitt. There’s so much more to your career, the thought of someone only recognizing you for One of Us rubs me the wrong way. I appreciate your response to it because that is what it should be. It opened many roads for you well beyond that song
Osborne- People ask me or are you sick of it or this or that and I’m actually not. I’m very grateful I had a song that had that kind of visibility. Not only did it bring an audience into that record who might not have found it otherwise, but it allowed me to have a lot of opportunities that I probably would not have had without it. So, it’s all good.
S&B- As always, thank you for the time and openness. Given your recent productivity, I’m sure we’ll be discussing your next project soon.
Joan Osborne- Dylanology 2025 Womanly Hips Music
Photos – Laure Crosta