REVIEW: From deep inside, Joan Osborne sings

Published 8:29 pm Tuesday, April 27, 2010

It struck like thunder and lightning.

Local folk singer-on-guitar Jonathan Kingham had just completed his low-key and highly personalized take on life’s intimate moments for the opening act. Then, bright lights lit up the stage; strings, drums and keyboards hit and held a long, loud note; and out walked Joan Osborne. The audience at the Edmonds Center for the Arts went crazy — why, I had no idea.

I mean, Osborne’s “One of Us” placed in the top 10 in the mid-1990s. She has since toured with Motown’s backup band and the Dixie Chicks, sung with the Grateful Dead and associated with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Bob Dylan. All of which looks good on paper but translates to a career that peaked and was on the way down.

Not so.

Lyrics like “returned my man to his wife, a 45-packin’ mama, and I ain’t gonna do that again” get your attention.

Off-the-cuff remarks that put guys in the audience in their place when they shout out suggestive comments say something. “No snappy banter tonight,” Osborne shut down a loudmouth who was out of line, “I feel like singin’.”

I’m talking about a 40-something with a husband and child who grew up in Kentucky and went to the music scene in New York City when she came of age; a small-town one-of-a-kind that kept her small town when she went to the big city.

Osborne sings soul, rock, folk and country. She sings about love, God, heartbreak, good times and bad as known and lived among the working class place where she sings from, which is deep inside. This lady has seen it all, probably done a lot of it and certainly come to terms with herself.

Think Bette Midler, tell it like it is cleaned up. Think Mick Jagger holding a long drawn out vowel sound but muted. Those give you some idea of the savvy and style that Osborne brings to stage.

Her “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” was as tender as it gets; “Breakfast in Bed” was a masterpiece of two lovers’ contentment the morning after.

As for that top 10 hit, the questions from “One of Us” — titled from the refrain, “What if God was one of us?” — still resonate.

There is a reason Joan Osborne still draws. She sings from a place everyone knows.

Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.