joan osborne

November 13, 2009

Our Moment with Joan Osborne

by Christine Gerani

We had the pleasure to speak with Grammy Nominated Artist Joan Osborne. Joan is most famous for her 1995 debut, the five-million selling breakthrough album Relish, which was nominated for six Grammy Awards.  Relish gave us the hit songs “One of Us” and “St. Teresa”.  She is a true artist who will be bringing her show to The Staller Center at Stony Brook University on Sunday November 15th.

Christine - Joan, you’ve toured and played with the Grateful Dead, you’ve had hit songs…Tell us; in your music career what has been your defining moment?

Joan – Defining moment, that’s a good question.  I think I would have to say that it was early on before I had any records out and when I was still playing in clubs.  I think for me probably the defining moment was when I could finally make a living playing music in clubs and I could quit my day job to focus solely on the music and support myself.  After that there was no turning back.  I’m a very practical person and up until then I had just thought well I’ll do this for fun and we’ll see what happens.  Then I just fell so completely in love with it that as soon as I could support myself doing music I never looked back.  If I had to choose one moment that would be it.

Christine - That’s a great answer because a lot of people would say “hey I played Madison Square Garden” or other big venues, and for you to say that is very inspiring.

Joan – There’s been a lot of moments that were great too, but I think, just internally for me, that was a moment where I knew that I was a goner, and that I was committing myself to this completely.  Might not have looked like much from the outside but from the inside it was a big step.

Christine – How do you stay so driven?

Joan - It’s a really cool way of life.  It’s not the most financially secure way to make a living.  You work hard and there are certainly a lot of things that are tough about it but, you can say that about just about anything you do.  I’m just really grateful that I get to be with good friends that I love and care about.  I get to make music and travel all around.  There’s still an audience even though I’m not selling millions of records anymore, I still have enough of an audience that come to see me that I can keep doing this.  I have a daughter now and I can support her and bring her on tours with me.  It’s just great.

Of course we all have off nights when we’re tired and don’t feel like we had a spectacular night, but for the most part I feel so lucky that I get to do this for my living.  I think I’m going to be doing this till the day I die.

These guys that I’m on the road with the Holmes Brothers, I’ve known them for about fifteen years or so and they’ve been playing music with each other for forty five.  They haven’t stopped at all either.  Two of them are seventy years old and the other one is seventy five years old and they’re kind of the same, they have the same philosophy. They want to die with their boots on.

Christine - I was listening to your latest CD Little Wild One which is great.  “Sweeter than the Rest” is beautiful.  Can you tell us the story behind “Hallelujah in the City” also – where do you find your inspiration when you’re writing a song?

Joan - I guess I can talk about “Sweeter than the Rest” in particular.  Not all the songs I write have auto-biographical details but that one is specifically about a relationship that I had with someone and at the time when I wrote the song he and I were not speaking and we split up.  It was a very traumatic break up.  We’re speaking now but he didn’t speak to me for 8 years, yet I still felt somehow something of an attachment to him and I still missed him and wondered how he was.  So the song is exploring those feelings about him.

Christine – I understand you are also a fan of Walt Whitman – a famous Long Islander.

Joan – Yes, he was the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper for a long time.  People think of him in lots of ways but he’s one of the great poets of New York City.  I’m a huge fan of his.  I think that the Little Wild One album in particular, even though it didn’t come out right after September 11^th includes a lot of songs on that were sort of begun in the aftermath of 9/11.  I wouldn’t say that it’s a record about that specifically, but one of the things that effected me about 9/11 being a New Yorker, was it really made me appreciate the city again in a way that I hadn’t since I first moved there and it sort of sent me back to some of the old habits that I had; going to an old neighborhood that I’ve never been in before and walking around the street and discovering new parts of the city.  Just sort of soaking up the street life of New York and it really made me understand all over again what an amazing and precious place that is.  Walt Whitman being a great poet of New York City also sent me back to a new appreciation of his work. I was reading a lot of Walt Whitman at the time, writing new songs and just sort of looking to him as an inspiration, as a guide.

Christine – What can we expect at your gig at the Staller Center this Sunday night?

Joan – This is going to be a really special show.  I’m doing this tour with the Holmes Brothers as my backing band.  For people who don’t know about them they are a great American Roots, Gospel, Blues, Country Band.  They are a trio and they amazing singers. They’re older guys that have been around for a long time so they just have this great raw bluesy soulful sound to them.  So they’re doing songs that I’ve written and songs that I’ve covered but in their own very unique way.  It’s going to be a combination that people have not seen before and may not get a chance to see again.  The Long Island show is actually the last night of our tour, so if you’re a lover of roots-y blues-y music this will be a real treat for you.

Christine – Lastly Joan, when you are not touring and writing what do you do on your free time?

Joan – Well I’m a single mom and I raise my daughter and that’s pretty much all I have time for!  She’s my Joy.

Christine - Thanks so much for your time today Joan!

Visit her website at www.JoanOsborne.com

For Ticket Information please visit the Staller Center website!

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