Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne - Joan Osborne Sings Grateful Dead Songs, Volume 1 (2006)

Singer-songwriter Joan Osborne had the honor of singing lead vocals with the Dead, the successor band to the Grateful Dead, in 2003. However, she didn't sing lead all that much, and did more backing vocals, because the band still had Bob Weir as a member, who had been one of the two main lead vocalists for the entire duration of the Grateful Dead's existence. By 2006, she was lead vocalist again for the related band Phil Lesh and Friends. This time, she did a lot more of the lead vocals. It also so happens that all of the band's concerts from this year have been made available with soundboard quality. So I've gone through those and picked out all the songs where Osborne sang lead. That resulted in four albums. Here's the first one.

Before I go further, I should explain why I've specifically sought out the songs sung Osborne. The Grateful Dead and successor bands have had many excellent lead vocalists over the years, most especially the two main originals, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir. But those vocalists were known more for having character than technical prowess. Osborne, in addition to being a successful singer-songwriter in her own right, has one of those special voices, a diva voice, if you will, that can expertly sing just about anything. So it's quite something to hear Grateful Dead songs sung by someone of her caliber, while at the same time one got the instrumental prowess of bassist Phil Lesh and his band mates.

Speaking of band mates, in 2003, in addition to Lesh and Osborne, the band consisted of Larry Campbell (guitar, violin, slide guitar, mandolin, and vocals), Rob Barraco (keyboards and vocals), and John Molo (drums), and either John Scofield, Barry Sless, or Trey Anastasio (guitar).

The songs are generally Grateful Dead originals or covers closely associated with the band. "Nobody's Girl" is a rare case of an original written after the Grateful Dead came to an end in 1995.

The songs are in chronological order of the concerts they occurred in. The range here is from February to June 2006. You can find the exact details in the mp3 tags, as usual.

This album is an hour and 15 minutes long.

01 All Along the Watchtower (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
02 Caution [Do Not Stop on Tracks] (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
03 Sugaree (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
04 Nobody Girl (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
05 He's Gone (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
06 Cosmic Charlie (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
07 Mr. Charlie (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)
08 Death Don't Have No Mercy (Phil Lesh & Friends with Joan Osborne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15950784/JoanO_2006a_JoanOsbrneSngsGrtefulDdSngsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Osborne is from her time with Phil Lesh and Friends in 2006, but I don't know the exact details.