Joan Osborne - The Ardmore Music Hall, Ardmore, PA, 10-3-2020

I think Joan Osborne is great, one of the most talented singers active today.  I haven't posted much from her so far, except for three albums of live covers early in her career. But that's just because I have so many things to post from so many musicians that I have a hard time keeping up. I plan on posting a lot more from her later. But this rises to the top because it's awesome and it's a concert that took place just the day before yesterday.

Osborne released a new studio album of all original material in mid-September 2020, called "Trouble and Strife." I must say, I'm really surprised at how excellent the album is! If you're a fan of her at all, please check it out. In my opinion, her greatest attribute has been her voice. Her songwriting has only been okay, so I've often preferred when she's done cover material. But all the songs on the new album are written by her, with the exception of two co-writes. I'm surprised that she's really stepped up her songwriting, because that's a highly unusual thing to happen to someone 25 years after their debut album!

By the way, one thing I really like about her new album is that maybe half of the song deal with politically progressive themes. She's never been political with her songwriting before, so that's another surprise twist this far into her career. One of the songs, "Hands Off," is all about President Trump. I included it on my recent compilation of songs critical of Trump, "Rock Trump Out."

Anyway, the reason I mention all that is because this concert leans heavily on material from her new album. In fact, she plays every single song from it but one ("Meat and Potatoes," which is unfortunately missed, because I think it's one of the best). Her previous album consisted entirely of Bob Dylan covers, and she does five of his songs from that, plus a Grateful Dead cover ("Brokedown Palace"), and well as two songs from her excellent 1995 debut album. But she didn't play her one big hit from back then, "One of Us."

The concert took place in very strange circumstances. It's not a home concert, but it's very close. It took place with a full band at a club, but the audience is VERY small due to social distancing restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic. At one point she mentions there were only about ten people in the audience! TEN! It sounds like it too. Occasionally, you can clearly hear individual comments by people in the audience when get responded to by Osborne, as if she was playing to a few friends in her living room.

In terms of sound quality, it's excellent, as good as it gets. It was professionally videotaped from multiple angles and put on YouTube, which is where I found it. I didn't have to do much editing, except sometimes adjusting the volume of her between song banter.

If you want to find out what Osborne has been up to musically in recent years, and check out the songs from her new album, this is an ideal way to go. The concert is exactly two hours long.

01 Trouble and Strife (Joan Osborne)
02 talk (Joan Osborne)
03 What's That You Say (Joan Osborne)
04 talk (Joan Osborne)
05 Highway 61 Revisited (Joan Osborne)
06 talk (Joan Osborne)
07 Spider Web (Joan Osborne)
08 talk (Joan Osborne)
09 Whole Wide World (Joan Osborne)
10 talk (Joan Osborne)
11 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Joan Osborne)
12 talk (Joan Osborne)
13 Take It Any Way I Can Get It (Joan Osborne)
14 talk (Joan Osborne)
15 Buckets of Rain (Joan Osborne)
16 St. Teresa (Joan Osborne)
17 talk (Joan Osborne)
18 That Was a Lie (Joan Osborne)
19 talk (Joan Osborne)
20 Hands Off (Joan Osborne)
21 High Water [For Charley Patton] (Joan Osborne)
22 talk (Joan Osborne)
23 Boy Dontcha Know (Joan Osborne)
24 Panama (Joan Osborne)
25 talk (Joan Osborne)
26 Brokedown Palace (Joan Osborne)
27 talk (Joan Osborne)
28 Tangled Up in Blue (Joan Osborne)
29 talk (Joan Osborne)
30 Serve Somebody (Joan Osborne)
31 Never Get Tired [Of Loving You] (Joan Osborne)
32 talk (Joan Osborne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/hEyFm1Jw

The cover art photo is a screenshot from the YouTube video of this exact concert.