At The Spire Center, Joan Osborne to play a mix of fan favorites and new material

Joan Osborne could be the poster model for "doing it your own way."  The singer, who had chartbusting success with 1995’s “Relish” album and its biggest hit single, “One of Us,” pivoted from that success to craft exactly the kind of career she wanted.

It may not have included more top singles, or million-selling albums, but it has allowed her to pursue the music she loves, with artists she respects. Now, with a baker’s dozen albums of her own, she can look back with satisfaction at a career that includes founding her own Womanly Hips Records; singing with everyone from The Grateful Dead to The Funk Brothers; duets with Pavarotti, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Patti Smith and Isaac Hayes; co-headlining a national tour with gospel-soul legend Mavis Staples; and producing two transcendent albums for some of her mentors, the rootsy soul/gospel Holmes Brothers.

Osborne will headline The Spire Center in Plymouth on April 21.

Her latest album, last year’s “Radio Waves,” was a product of the pandemic – actually, a result of some pandemic housecleaning. It’s a collection of live recordings from her many appearances on radio shows over the years.

“Like everyone else, I was stuck at home during COVID-19,” Osborne said from her Brooklyn home last week. “I got to cleaning out one of my closets and found boxes and boxes full of these recordings, some dating back to the late 1980s. It was a huge archive, and I finally had time to go through it. A lot of it had really high-quality audio, recorded by the radio stations. I still have hundreds more recordings, but rather than do a huge data dump, we winnowed it down to a collection that made sense as an album.”

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Did Osborne like the way she sounded, or find flaws to criticize her younger self?

“I am kind of a tough critic on myself, and if I ever did listen to these before I would hear the one or two missed notes,” she said with a soft laugh. “But now that I’m older, I think I have a better perspective, and something doesn’t have to be perfect to actually be an effective, moving performance.”

Osborne’s previous album, released in 2020, was “Trouble and Strife,” 10 of her original songs delivered in her usual rock ‘n’ soul style, covering a wide range of subjects. From the rockin’ ode to independence “Take It Anyway I Can Get It,” to the story-song title cut about difficult men, to the funky come-on “Meat and Potatoes,” to the Motown groove of “Never Get Tired of Loving You,” Osborne provides a broad palette of relationships, good and bad.

But there are also sharp tunes with topical elements, such as the song about refugees “What’s That You Say?” and the rocker that assails government over-reach in “Hands Off.” Listening to that now, or watching the dynamic video that it accompanies, it seems that songwriter Osborne anticipated the turmoil over the end of Roe v. Wade. Yet these socially relevant tunes deliver their messages metaphorically, so a listener can read into them what they will, and the songs still work as music.

“I learned a lot about how to write about political issues, but not speak directly, from that album of Bob Dylan covers I did,” Osborne explained, referring to “Songs of Bob Dylan” (2018). “He is the master of writing specific imagery that evokes the idea, without being too direct, and he has been doing that for more than 50 years. ‘Hands Off’ may relate to things that are happening today, but it is mostly about the corruption of our politics, about how some people use their power. It could be that it seems so prescient because these things happen again and again in our history.”

Of course longtime fans will recognize that Osborne’s first hit, “One of Us,” was also basically a social commentary, its chorus “What if God was one of us ...” leading to an examination of how modern life so often falls short of Christian ideals. Osborne’s music has always had that spiritual bent and reminds us we can all be better to our fellow men and women.

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“That song, ’One of Us,’ showed, I think, a legitimate way music can rock out and still make a point,” Osborne said. “You don’t want to beat people over the head with it or make them feel they’re being lectured to. Music, in my mind, should be joyful and energetic, and elevate your mood, but also make you think. I definitely want songs with content, about important things, but not songs that are telling you what to think. ‘One of Us’ explored the feelings we all have about how we live our lives, but in a subtler way, which allows you to draw more people in.”

For longtime gospel fan Osborne, touring with Staples must have been a real thrill.

“Mavis Staples is one of my all-time heroes,” Osborne said. “She became even more so once we were on the bus together every day. She’s just such a warm, wonderful person. Her music certainly has a point of view, but is also warm and welcoming, and about bringing us all together, which is something we especially need in these times.”

Launching her own record label early on gave Osborne the independence to chart her own path.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt any pressure to have a hit single,” Osborne said. “I am fortunate to be known as both a writer and an interpreter, so I can work both sides of the street. It’s great to be able to look out over the whole breadth of songs that have been written and decide what works for me.”

Osborne said her next album, due out this summer, will be much more personal. Her mother, 92, is descending into poor health and dementia, and she’s been going back and forth to her family home in Kentucky. At the same time, Osborne’s daughter is 19 and preparing to head out on her own.

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“This record is very personal,” Osborne said. “Some songs look at my relationship with my mom, and how that’s been changing. And then of course I have a daughter leaving home, and as a typical teenager, she doesn’t want to listen to me. I remember being 19, finding my way, and wanting to think you have all the answers. I think she is more self-confident than I was at her age. But I know what it feels like, breaking out on your own, and how you can also be terrified by it.”

The audience in Plymouth can expect to hear some of the new music too. Osborne will be performing in a trio with Will Bryant on keyboards and her longtime cohort Jack Petruzzelli on guitar.

“I’m happy to have new songs to play, and we will unveil a couple new ones,” she said. “This crowd will be among the first to hear them, a sneak preview. I have to say I’m so fortunate to have an audience, and I’m sensitive to what the audience wants to hear, so we will do a lot of the older music too. But I think people also want to hear what an artist is excited about now, and not just some old hits. I love to take them along on this journey with me.”

Happy trails, my friend

This is the last week for Patriot Ledger Features Editor Dana Barbuto, who's leaving for other opportunities, and we just want to take a moment to express our gratitude to the smartest, most supportive and congenial colleague a weirdo music writer could hope to have over the past decade and a half. Of course, any time a potential review or interview with Eddie Vedder was involved, she wanted first dibs, but as long as I got the Southside Johnny, Dave Alvin and Susan Tedeschi stories, we got along just fine. Happy trails, my friend. 

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McNeil’s folk-rocking tune follows that idea to its logical, if perhaps wishful, conclusion, and she’s backed by The Sleepeaters, the band with her longtime accompanist Tim Mahoney and Hanover’s Joe Clapp. McNeil will perform at the VFW in Scituate on Friday night.

Weymouth songwriter Jay Psaros has his latest album, the eight-song “Long Time Coming,” ready for release and is offering special benefits for pre-orders as he crowd-funds a promotional campaign. The album’s official release date is May 26 at Pembroke’s Soundcheck Studios, when he’ll be joined by Scituate’s Ward Hayden & the Outliers and Hanover’s good-time maestro, Aldous Collins.

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THURSDAY: Andrew Bird sings at MGM Grand Music Hall. Redveil raps at The Paradise Rock Club. Wild Child lights it up at The Sinclair. Jabberwaukee, the hottest funky jamband out of Providence, gets down at Soundcheck Studios.

FRIDAY: Bay State-bred bluesman Albert Cummings hits The Spire Center. Country dude Chase Rice at The House of Blues. Fennario jams on some Dead music at The C-Note. The Latin funk of Los Amigos Invisibles at Brighton Music Hall. BT ALC, big band jazz and funk, takes over Soundcheck Studios for a CD release. Duster, the San Jose, California, low-fi quartet, at The Paradise. Mile Twelve invigorates bluegrass at The Narrows Center.

SATURDAY: Joe Henry is acclaimed as a musician, a songwriter and also as a producer for the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Elvis Costello, so his Spire Center performance is a must-see, and he’s bringing Mark Erelli with him. Rishell & Raines, the nonpareil acoustic blues duo, touch down at The South Shore Folk Music Club at Duxbury’s First Parish. Former Red Sox hurler Bronson Arroyo sings at City Winery. Down There Up Here, a bluegrass and roots festival, takes over Club Passim through Monday. Caroline Polacheck sings at Roadrunner. The electronica duo Infected Mushroom is at The House of Blues. Pop singer Spencer Sutherland plays at Brighton Music Hall. New Orleans trio The Nth Power grooves at Soundcheck Studios. Jazz with the Alan Broadbent Trio at Scullers. The American Who delivers their tribute to Pete, Roger and the guys at The C-Note.

SUNDAY: The Joe Perry Project rocks The House of Blues on Sunday, while Swedish popster IonnaLee is at The Paradise. Peter Case sings the blues at Boston Harbor Distillery.

MONDAY: The pop singer Chloe takes over The House of Blues.

TUESDAY: The funk of Scary Pockets at The Paradise, while Rico Nasty raps at Royale.

WEDNESDAY: Canadian rockers Sloan at Brighton Music Hall.

See Joan Osborne

When: 8 p.m. April 21

Where: The Spire Center, 25½ Court St., Plymouth

Tickets: $58.50 to $65

Info: 508-746-4488 or spirecenter.org

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Joan Osborne to play a mix of fan favorites, new material in Plymouth