Joan Osborne is set to release newest, blues-flavored album, Bring it on Home, on March 27 from Saguaro Road Records.
With this latest effort, Osborne has made an album of vintage blues, R&B and soul songs. Bring it on Home is a collection of some of her favorite classic songs and it also pays tribute to the music she has long loved and drew inspiration from.
“I knew that, someday, when the time was right and my voice was ready,” Osborne said. “I wanted to make a recording like the one you’re holding now.” With vocals that growl and soar, Osborne alternately cries out with heart-wrenching soul and foot-stomping grooves.
“The voices of Otis Redding and Al Green soothed a troubled soul, the power of Etta James and Tina Turner gave me courage, and the depth of feeling of Muddy Waters and so many other great blues artists allowed me to find and express my own depths,” explained Osborne. “When I began to sing in New York City in my early 20’s, I wanted nothing more than to model myself on these people, to inhabit the music as they did in some small way.”
She personally selected the song “Roll Like A Big Wheel” from her own record collection. She also dug deep into John Mayall’s work and came back with “Broken Wings.” The often overlooked Ike Turner-penned “Game of Love” was another treasure Osborne chose to record. Also, during the sessions an impromptu rendition of “Shake Your Hips” made its way onto the album. “Shake Your Hips” is the lead track off of Bring it on Home and listeners can expect to hear it on radio stations in January.
Bring it on Home also includes tracks originally made famous by American blues heroes such as Sonny Boy Williamson (“Bring it on Home”), Muddy Waters (“I Want to Be Loved”), as well as recordings originally released by some of the greatest R&B singers ever including Ray Charles (“I Don’t Need No Doctor”), Al Green (“Rhymes”) and Otis Redding (“Champagne and Wine”).
Bring it on Home was produced by Joan and her longtime music director/guitarist Jack Petruzzelli. It was recorded live in the Waterfront Studios in Hudson, NY by engineer Henry Hirsch (Lenny Kravitz), who used an original 24 track Studer tape machine to recreate the warm and organic analogue sound of the era. Guest musicians include Barbecue Bob Pomeroy (harmonica), Allen Toussaint (piano on his own “Shoorah! Shoorah!”) and vocalists the Holmes Brothers and Rufus Thomas’ daughter, Vaneese Thomas. Jimmy Vivino, Conan O’Brien Show Band musical director, assembled all horn arrangements and also played electric piano on “I Don’t Need no Doctor.”
Bring it on Home tracklisting:
1. I Don’t Need no Doctor
2. Bring it on Home
3. Roll Like A Big Wheel
4. Game of Love
5. Broken Wing
6. Shoorah! Shoorah!
7. I Want to Be Loved
8. Same Love that Made Me Laugh
9. Shake Your Hips
10. I’m Qualified
11. Champagne and Wine
12. Rhymes