Get ready for an unforgettable night of music at The United Theatre in Westerly, when acclaimed singer-songwriter Joan Osborne takes the Black Box theater stage on Thursday, May 29 at 7:30 PM. Renowned for her soul-stirring hit “One of Us,” Osborne brings her powerful voice and unique artistry to Dylanology Live—a concert experience celebrating the timeless music of Bob Dylan. First explored in her acclaimed 2017 album Songs of Bob Dylan, Osborne reimagines Dylan’s classics with fresh emotion and striking originality.
With a catalog of over 50 albums, hundreds of songs, and countless covers by artists across every genre, narrowing down Bob Dylan’s work is no small feat. So how does Osborne manage to distill it all into just 20 tracks?
“The thing with Bob Dylan is that it's a bit of a double-edged sword,” says Osborne, who we spoke to recently. “He has hundreds of incredible songs, which is great, but how do you choose which ones to do? You could do 10 albums and not run out of material.”
“Part of it is just doing a lot of listening, seeing what songs really speak to you personally,” continues Osborne. “At least that's my method. You kind of fall in love with some songs, maybe they seem to be talking about what's going on in your life. Those are the ones that I gravitate towards. And then you also have to find out if you can really do them.”
What sets Osborne’s Dylan covers apart from others is her bold reimagining of the originals, transforming familiar classics into something entirely her own. “These songs are a little bit different from what anybody else has done,” says Osborne. “Certainly, Bob Dylan songs have been covered by so many other people, it's hard to find any song that's been untouched by a cover version. But you don't have to necessarily do the definitive version, you just have to try to do something that is unique to you.”
Finding the right sound in these songs can be a challenge for any performer. “It's trial and error,” adds Osborne. “Sometimes, you go through five or six different iterations before you really land on something that works and does the song justice.”
Meanwhile, with the success of the recent Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Osborne has noticed an uptick in the number of younger attendees at her concerts, the “Chalamet Effect,” if you will. “I’ve actually noticed that there are more young people in the audience than previously. I mean, it's not that we don't ever get young people in our audience, a lot of times parents will bring their adult kids. There was a grandmother, a mother, and daughter group that came to one of our shows recently - I just love that, people sort of handing this music down to a different generation - that that really means a lot to me.”
This year is the 30th anniversary of Osborne’s acclaimed debut album Relish, which included hits “St. Theresa,” Dylan’s “Man in the Long Black Coat,” and the mega-hit “One of Us.” To celebrate the anniversary, Osborne is planning a special release with a jazz legend. “I’ve launched this project with jazz musician Christian McBride; we met last year at the Newport Jazz Festival and got along like a house on fire,” says Osborne.
“I talked to him about what we could do to these songs to move them into this jazz world,” she adds. “We’re going into the studio with that project soon. Hopefully, it will come out by the end of this year, marking the anniversary of the album by rerecording all songs.”
Meanwhile, Osborne is looking forward to the United show where she’ll be fronting a top-notch band, certain to kick things up in Westerly. That band includes Cindy Cashdollar on pedal steel, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and vocals, Keyboardist Will Bryant, and drummer Lee Falco. Opener Nicki Bluhm will also sit in with Osborne.
Don’t miss the show at the United Theatre, Thursday, May 29. Click here for tickets.
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