(header photo by Jeff Fasano)
It’s a somewhat unique phenomenon, that moment when an artist with a voice from heaven like Joan Osborne chooses to roll an entire album of covers from a guy who wrote, yes, some of the most incredible songs ever, but well, let’s be honest, never had the most melodious vocals.
But it can actually be a blessing, because when you pair the best lyrics ever with some of music’s most true and fabulous pipes, the results can be memorable. And on her superb 2017 record Songs Of Bob Dylan, of which she is performing a good chunk of on her current tour which hits DC’s City Winery on April 27th, Osborne breathes new life to both Dylan classics and deep cuts, lending a fresh take on many songs that people know by heart. And that was exactly her intention, to give it her spin and not just be a rehash.
“As an interpreter, that’s something you have to work with, your own voice, and your own ideas,” Osborne told me on a brief break from the Songs of Bob Dylan-titled tour. “And if you’re just going to copy what someone else has done, to me there’s no point in doing that at all. Because why wouldn’t anyone just go back and find the original version, if you’re just going to try to make a carbon copy of it? So that was part of the work of getting the material ready, how are we going to find that sweet spot where our range of ideas meets my voice, to really kind of blossom in to something interesting and different.”
With a massively brilliant catalog like Dylan’s to choose from, it’s seems like it would be a daunting task to figure out which will best match your style and presentation. But for Osborne, it was an exhilarating and thrilling experience, that also was premeditated and thoughtful.
“Part of the great thing of doing a record of Dylan material is that you have hundreds, literally hundreds of amazing songs to choose from,” Osborne said. “But that’s also one of the challenges because what do you decide to do? And of course, as a singer you have to pick things that work with your voice, but still that gives you a huge range of stuff to choose from.”
Osborne wanted to be sure she not only paid homage to Dylan’s part-of-our-DNA folk classics from yore, but also some perhaps lesser known Dylan gems, so there was a broad sense of the breadth of his magic.
“So we had a couple of lenses that we wanted to look through when we focused on this material, and one of them was to pick songs not only from the 60’s and 70’s which people tend to be very familiar with, but also to dig into the catalog from the 80’s and the 90’s. And just sort of give a nod to the fact that he has continued to be an incredible writer throughout his career, that he not only was a giant back when, but he’s continued to put out this great work. And then the other sort of rubric that we used was wanting to have songs that people would be familiar with and would know, like ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ for instance or ‘Highway 61,’ but also to do some deep cuts, songs like ‘Ring Them Bells.’ “
Osborne admits that she and her stellar cohorts — guitarist Jack Petruzzelli (Patti Smith, The Fab Faux) and keyboardist Keith Cotton (Idina Menzel, Chris Cornell) — agonized a bit right before they were about to release their take on Mr. Zimmerman in front of the masses, worrying that hey, people might rebel against covering a legend.
“There were definitely some moments in the last day or so before we were about to put this out in front of people, where we were like, is anybody going to like this? Are we doing something really stupid here? Then again, it’s not like nobody else has covered Dylan tunes. He’s got a huge history of all different kinds of people recording his music. So in that sense, you can kind of give yourself permission.”
There are some who say it’s blasphemous to try and cover the great and powerful Oz…uh, Dylan. But Osborne is no stranger to recording other people’s songs, and she relishes the challenge and the experience of putting her stamp on them. And it appears based on the acclaim for both the record and her live performances of the songs, that the Osborne take on Dylan came out just fine, thank you.
“My favorite records are people singing and performing other people’s songs, so I feel like that’s a legitimate thing to do in the way that a jazz musician would. So I tried to quiet the doubts that always come when you’re going to do something new, and just decide to see what people’s reactions were. And thankfully, we have gotten some really great responses from the fans, and from the critics. And so…here we are.”
Joan Osborne with special guest LEA performs at City Winery, 1350 Okie Street NE, Washington DC 20002. For tickets please click here.