Track Listing

1. Pretty Little Stranger
2. Holy Waters
3. Brokedown Palace
4. What You Are
5. Shake That Devil
6. Time Won't Tell
7. Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends
8. Who Divided
9. Till I Get It Right
10. Dead Roses
11. After Jane
12. When the Blue Hour Comes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41690 in Music
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com
Though Joan Osborne has referred to this as "my version of a country record," the music is likely to find more favor in coffee shops and on NPR than with honky-tonks and the Grand Ole Opry. It conjures comparisons with Rosanne Cash's artistry after her country hitmaking days, as if Osborne came to Nashville to make the sort of music that Cash left Nashville to make. While it may not achieve the commercial success that Osborne enjoyed with her popular breakthrough, "One of Us," it's the most consistently compelling album of her career. Produced by Steve Buckingham (Dolly Parton), with harmony support from Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, and Rodney Crowell, Osborne mixes six strong originals with six choice covers, rarely overpowering the material through displays of vocal technique, as she occasionally has in the past. Much of the material deals with the aftermath of relationships (including one with a woman on "After Jane"), with results ranging from a mixture of resilience and vulnerability on the title track through the insistent groove of "Who Divided" and the eternal optimism of "Till I Get It Right." There's also a folkish rendition of the Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Palace" that Osborne makes her own, and some live-wire slide guitar from Sonny Landreth on "Dead Roses." The closest she comes to classic country is a bittersweet reading of Kris Kristofferson's "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends," while the closing balladry of "When the Blue Hour Comes" (with co-writer Rodney Crowell on harmonies) is pure heartbreak. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews

The Minimal Funky Joan
There's a direct connect between what Joan did on the Funk Brothers' "Standing in the Shadow of Motown" film and this new album.

It's bare.

No frills.

Backbeats to die for, even on the so-called country tunes.

And thankfully, none of the over-production by engineers that compromised her several previous works. (Send the orchestra home, thanks.)

Actually, I wish Joan would just sing the phone book, or Dixie cotton field slave songs, or just scat any Robert Johnson guitar riff - "a capella."

That would be the ideal venue for this woman's roots soulful spirit.

Less is always more with Joan.

The music industry moguls have to be truly reviled for not promoting her when she had her moment....

But this new CD is testimony that Joan's still one of us....

When is the tour behind this album happening?

Tepid set from stellar artist
I hate to give this a negative review because by many standards this is a decent recording. The songs are adequate, the arrangements are solid if uninspired, the song choice is at least thoughtful, and Joan can sing out of the phone book and still sound good. But...this is so far below what she's capable of and what she excels at that it is a serious disapointment to fans of the swampy back woods blues of "Relish", still one of my favorite CD's. There's nothing here to rival "St. Teresa", "Ladder", "Spider Web", "Right Hand Man", or even "One of Us" which I never need to hear ever again.

Where'd Joan go?
I really miss the intensity of Joan's voice on previous albums. This is more thoughtful, pensive. Less heartbroken or fired up. I always catch myself thinking about her earlier music, "how does so much soul & heart come out of such a tiny little woman?" The gritty voice, the emotion, the imperfections.

Well, not to knock this CD, it's good stuff, just not what I love about Joan's music.