BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Sure, singer-songwriter Joan Osborne is best known for her 1995 version of the soul-searching song “One of Us,” with its refrain of “What if God was one of us?”
But Osborne's 30-year career also has been a romp through soul, R&B, blues, country — and even rock, with Trigger Hippy, her rock band with former Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman.
So her newest album, “Nobody Owns You,” may seem a surprisingly serious step into personal places.
The disc, released in September, explores such topics as Osborne's feelings about the status of American cities and her heartfelt maternal advice for her teenage daughter.
Osborne will bring those songs, as well as others throughout her career, to a show at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 3, at Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.
“This record was really much more of a personal album than anything that I’ve done in the past."Singer Joan Osborne
“This record was really much more of a personal album than anything that I’ve done in the past,” Osborne said in a recent phone call from a working vacation in central Mexico.
She said much of the inspiration for “Nobody Owns You” came from going “through a very tumultuous year in my personal life” in 2022.
“My mother is showing the unmistakable signs of Alzheimer’s and I’m watching her sort of mentally disappear,” she said. “And I ended a 15-year romantic relationship.
“So there just was a lot going on in my world personally and I thought either I and try to ignore this and try to write a bunch of songs about something else, or I can just really dig in and see if I can take all of this turbulence and turn it into something musical.”
Mothering through music
But Osborne said perhaps the biggest impetus for the album's vantage point came from her relationship with her 19-year-old daughter.
“My daughter is now grown and left home and I’m really feeling sort of the grief of that and also … she’s a teenager, so she doesn’t really listen to anything that I say right now,” Osborne said with a laugh.
"Because I couldn’t tell her that stuff directly, I ended up putting it into some of these songs, and in particular the title song, ‘Nobody Owns You.’"Singer Joan Osborne
“And yet I feel like there’s so much I want to tell her as she’s stepping into the world and becoming more independent, becoming a young woman.
“So because I couldn’t tell her that stuff directly, I ended up putting it into some of these songs, and in particular the title song, ‘Nobody Owns You.’”
Osborne admitted that putting a spotlight on herself in her songs was unusual.
“I would say that I haven’t been, I guess, willing to be that open. But I just felt like, at this point in my life, I’m 60 now, and I don’t know what I’m trying to hide or what’s the big deal, you know?” she said with a laugh.
“We’re all humans and we all have these emotions that run us around and break our hearts. And I just felt like there wasn’t any reason to be coy about it anymore, and I felt willing to explore that part of myself on this musical terrain.
“I just felt like, as a person who writes songs and sings, that there was an opportunity for me to write something that was about me, but also could be relatable to many, many other people.”
'Mean something 20 years from now'
“Nobody Owns You” continues a trend of Osborne seemingly finding a more authoritative voice in her music.
Her previous disc, 2020's “Trouble and Strife,” also contained personal observations, but had a clear political bent — also new territory for Osborne.
“That, for me, again was a way to use whatever small platform I have,” she said. “And I don’t kid myself that I’m some hugely influential person, but, you know, I can do things that any citizen can do to respond to a moment where it seems the country is careening out of control.”
"It was engaging with the current moment and saying the things that I want to say, but also not lecturing people and doing it in a way that was energetic, and also could mean something 20 years from now, or 30 years from now.”Singer Joan Osborne, about her album 'Trouble and Strife'
“And I can do the things that any citizen can do, but I also have this platform, and I can try to use it to talk about things that are bothering me and to talk about political things.
“And not in some sort of a way of lecturing people, but trying to sort of learn the lessons that I learned from singing a lot of Bob Dylan songs. Where he’s able to write a political song but it’s not necessarily about some specific thing — it’s more about human nature and how that plays out in a political arena."
Osborne said she admired Dylan's ability to “write a song in the ‘60s and you hear it again now and it sounds like he’s writing about what’s happening right now.”
“I’m really trying to get to that place with the songwriting on that record,” she said. “So it was engaging with the current moment and saying the things that I want to say, but also not lecturing people and doing it in a way that was energetic, and also could mean something 20 years from now, or 30 years from now.”
Influenced by Dylan
Osborne concedes her most recent writing was strongly influenced by delving deeply into Dylan for her 2017 album “Songs of Bob Dylan.”
The irony may be that the album, while offering such well-known strong Dylan statements as “Masters of War” and “Highway 61 Revisited,” also includes some deep-catalog chestnuts such as “Dark Eyes” from the 1985 album “Empire Burlesque” and “Ring Them Bells” from 1989's “Oh Mercy.”
"He’s got so many amazing songs, you could do 10 records and then some of great Bob Dylan songs and still not run out of material."Singer Joan Osborne
“That was both the wonderful thing about it and the difficult thing about it, is that he’s got so many amazing songs, you could do 10 records and then some of great Bob Dylan songs and still not run out of material,” Osborne said.
“So it was a challenge to decide what songs to do. I had a few sort of guiding principles: I didn’t want to do only songs from the 1960s — I wanted to touch on things from all throughout his career because he made many wonderful records that are not as famous as, say, ‘Blood on the Tracks’ or something.
“But they’re still full of incredible songs. An album like ‘Oh Mercy’ is just stunningly beautiful, but even Bob Dylan fans don’t necessarily know about it.
“So I wanted to really delve into things from throughout his career, and then I also wanted to do things that were maybe not as well known.
“And choosing a song like ‘Dark Eyes’ and then also balancing things that people were more familiar with, but that I felt like I could put my own personal spin on and bring something fresh to them.”
'A pretty good one, you know?'
It could be argued that Dylanesque influence also is evident in “One of Us,” the song that put Osborne on many listeners' radar.
The song was written by The Hooters guitarist Eric Bazilian, who also wrote or co-wrote eight of the 12 tracks on Osborne's debut album “Relish.” It's an examination of both spirituality and society — asking the listener, what if God was a “stranger on a bus trying to make his way home?”
In a little more than a year, it will be 30 years since the song was released.
"If you have to be known primarily for one song — that’s a pretty good one, you know?"Singer Joan Osborne, speaking about her hit "One of Us"
The album sold triple-platinum and song was nominated for Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance — among five nominations that year, including Best New Artist.
Osborne said she now is writing a proposal for a memoir,” and so she has “been thinking a lot about just the whole entirety of my career and thinking about that song in particular.”
“And, you know, it’s interesting because it sort of became this tent pole that, I think, really catapulted me into a place where people knew about me who didn’t know about me before,” she said.
“And that’s audiences, that’s concert promoters and that’s also other artists. I got invited to do a lot of great things after the success of that song which I never would have been invited to do before.
“So I feel a lot of gratitude toward having been able to do that song and have that kind of moment in the sun. I feel like I’m still reaping benefits from that.”
Osborne also said with a laugh, “If you have to be known primarily for one song — that’s a pretty good one, you know?”
“Not that there’s anything wrong with a booty-shaking party song,” she said — and she's done enough of those to know, as well.
“But it’s something that really seems to connect with people and doesn’t tell what them to think, but asks them to examine their own thoughts and feelings and their own spirituality.
“And I feel like that’s a pretty powerful thing for a pop song to do.”
