Joan Osborne explores mortality in latest songs. Here's when she returns to Rochester
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Joan Osborne has a lot going on.
A 15-year romantic relationship has come to an end. Her teen daughter has now left the house, as happens with teenagers. Osborne's own mother is suffering with dementia.
Oh, and she also recently turned 60.
So Osborne did what many singer-songwriters often do: She corralled the hardship, the difficulties and the tears and transformed them into music, specifically her latest album, “Nobody Owns You.”
"Something just comes along and makes your mortality very real to you in a way that it isn’t when you're younger," Osborne, who performs March 7 at The Hochstein School, said in a recent telephone interview. "You realize this is not going to last forever.
"I feel like this new record ... is definitely the most personal record I've ever made. I've been going through a lot of stuff in my personal life and with my family."
Known for her soulful voice, Osborne is a seven-time Grammy nominee. Those nominations speak to both her vocal range and the fruitlessness of trying to shoehorn her music into categorization. She has been nominated as a blues artist, a pop artist, a rock artist.
Asked if she sees her music fitting into a certain genre, she concedes, "I have no idea how to answer that question."
What if God was 'One of Us?'
Osborne has 11 albums but will likely always be best known for the hit single, "One of Us," which posed the question, "What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us?"
The song's popularity was boosted as the theme to the television show in the early 2000s, "Joan of Arcadia," a CBS series about a teenager who encounters God in the guise of everyday folks.
The song and the show were a pairing made in, well, heaven.
But to anchor discussion of her career to that one song is a disservice to Osborne's craft. Her voice is so singular and so able to wander the terrain of a vast musical landscape that she has performed with the likes of Dylan, the Dead and Luciano Pavarotti.
"I've been very fortunate to be welcomed into all different kinds of musical places and with all different kinds of artists," Osborne said.
What is Joan Osborne's new album?
Her latest album's title comes from a song specifically penned for her daughter, a reminder that many in the world will try to maintain an oppressive grip over people, especially women, but those people should be rejected.
"I think there's still a lot of forces in our culture that make (young women) afraid — afraid to make people mad at them, afraid to make a misstep, afraid to say the wrong thing, afraid to look wrong." she said.
"I think that’s a recipe for people to manipulate them, people who don’t have their best interest at heart."
Even parental ties have limits, Osborne sings:
"Nobody owns you,
Not the one who pays.
Or the mother who has given
You her yesterdays."
An album's reflections
The album is one of reflection, of parental love, of cathartic healing. Its opening track, "I Should've Danced More," is self-explanatory with its title, a lesson about the need for joy in daily lives.
Even what seems like a break from the personal, the album's song "Great American Cities," is meaningful to the songwriter. In the interview, Osborne said she has grown tired of "these TV pundits running down America's cities and spooling out this narrative about they're so crime-ridden or they're this or they're that."
Osborne's tours take her to many of the nation's large and mid-sized cities and they are rich with culture, with diverse populations with fascinating lives, with the thrum of activity, she said. A new video for the song is a travelogue paean to cities from coast to coast.
"Do they have issues? Of course, because they're real places. But these places are all so incredibly vibrant and creative."
She has been a regular in the Rochester region for years, returning for concerts.
Early in her career, local radio personality Brother Wease was one of the first to vigorously promote her music to a welcoming audience. When Brother Wease was inducted into the Rochester Music Hall of Fame last year, Osborne came to Rochester to perform at the ceremony.
"He was an early supporter and very vocal and really gave us a lot of attention way back in the day when I was first starting out," Osborne said. "I've always tried to repay that kindness and show up for him."
Joan Osborne's upcoming memoir
Osborne is also now mining her journals and memories for a memoir she's planning.
In the meantime, she'll be touring and Rochester will likely continue to be on the destination list. Tickets for the March 7 concert can be purchased online.
"It seems like there's some demand for me up in Rochester to come play," she said.
— Gary Craig is a veteran reporter with the Democrat and Chronicle, covering courts and crime and more. He enjoys arts coverage as well, recognizing its richness and vitality to the Rochester region. He is the author of two books, including "Seven Million: A Cop, a Priest, a Soldier for the IRA, and the Still-Unsolved Rochester Brink's Heist."
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Joan Osborne to perform in Rochester NY. Here's when
