11-04-2025
‘Rochester made that possible:' Joan Osborne to bring Bob Dylan's hits to JCC stage
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — She says it's a coincidence that her upcoming tour, centered around all of Bob Dylan's greatest hits, comes at the time of the blockbuster success 'A Complete Unknown.'
Blending those classics with classics of her own, Joan Osborne is returning to Rochester once again at the JCC Hart Theater on April 18. News 8 had the chance to catch up with the star ahead of the show.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: Tell me about this upcoming tour. I know it goes off of your 2017 Bob Dylan cover project. How are we bringing it into 2025?
Joan Osborne: It's an interesting time to do it. It's almost like we planned it with the release of this movie that's just gotten so much attention, we actually didn't. It was all planned around the re-release of this Dylan material, because we discovered this recording of one of the live shows that we did in 2017, and it actually sounded really good. I'm normally the harshest critic of my own live recordings, but it actually sounded really good, and we have such amazing special guests on it. We've got Amy Helm on it. We've got Robert Randolph on it tearing up the watchtower, which is a bonus track on the record, and Jackie Green too. So, we've got these amazing special guests, and it all just came together in this really natural way. And the release date just happened to be right around the time that this Bob Dylan Frenzy is now happening, especially in the younger generation.
GB: What made you want to do the project initially, around 2017?
JO: It was something that I had always been thinking about doing. I was inspired by Ella Fitzgerald, who, back in the 50s and the 60s, did this whole series called, it's now called 'The Songbook Series,' where she would pick a different songwriter, whether it was Cole Porter or Lerner and Loewe or all these, you know, classic American Standard songwriters, and do a whole record devoted to their material. So, I always thought that's such a cool idea. Maybe I can do something like that, but choose, you know, more contemporary writers. So we had this opportunity to do a residency at a place called the Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan, which is sort of this legendary cabaret room. And you know, I'm not really a cabaret singer, so I thought maybe this is the perfect opportunity to test this idea out. So, we ended up doing a full two-week residency and doing nothing but Bob Dylan songs. And we got such great feedback from the audiences and the press was very calm. So, we thought, all right, this is a way to move forward with this, and that's why we chose to do the whole album's work of Dylan material.
GB: I know that you're obviously not short of hits yourself, and you just said that the set list then was strictly Bob Dylan. Will that carry over to this upcoming performance?
JO: Well, it's going to be primarily the songs of Bob Dylan, and that's how we're presenting it, and that's how the promoters have booked it. But you know, we will slide in some Joan Osborne material there, because I think, I think anyone who wants to come and see us live, you know, they're going to have a favorite song or two that they would like to hear from my catalog. So, we're going to try to sort of balance on that tightrope.
GB: Is there one, obviously, 'One of Us' is the song that a lot of people want to hear, but fans that know all the deep cuts, is there one song that carries from set list to set list that you have to include, or you'll hear about it?
JO: Well, the song St. Theresa, it's not a super deep cut, but that's one that people have a really strong attachment to. So, we try to bring that one out, and pretty much every show that we do, and we've gotten a lot of great response from this most recent album of original material called 'Nobody Owns You.' We've got an amazing fan response from that, and for us, it's great to have brand new stuff to play. So, we might dip into that as well. But, you know, that's the beauty of live performance. It's very spontaneous. So, it's possible that we'll pull something out that's even more obscure and that we don't really plan it that well, and it's just going to be off the cuff, so you kind of never know what it's going to be.
GB: You've played in Rochester a couple times. What keeps you coming back?
JO: I've been playing in Rochester probably since before you were born. I really started coming up there before I even had any kind of a record deal, before I even put out a record of my own and my own label in 1991 you know, it's just been an area that has always been really, really supportive of what we do. And, you know, I think maybe the first show that I did up there, I was opening for BB King in a festival outdoors. And, you know, just like a, what a stellar moment for me in my life, in my career, and Rochester made that possible. So, you know, we've been coming back for years and years, and we've got a great fan base up there, people who are either newer fans or have been following us since those early days. So, so it's a bit of a love affair, and we're very happy to continue it.
GB: I was just going to say you have a nearly… I think it is sold out show coming up. How does it feel to still have that connection with the fans after all these years?
JO: Well, I have to say, I'm super grateful for the audience that I have. And, you know, it's a very difficult time in the music business, and I had a super moment of, you know, white hot fame, but that was quite a while ago. But that was never really what I was seeking when I was doing music. And the people whose careers that I really admired and wanted to emulate were people like BB King or someone like Tom Waits, who never necessarily has a big, giant hit, but always has an audience there that they've cultivated over the years, always has people who are interested in what they're doing and come out to see the live shows. So, I feel like that's kind of the best possible place to be, and I'm super, super grateful to all the fans that I have, not just in Rochester, but all around the world who have stuck with me and just seem genuinely interested to continue this connection.
GB: Did you have anything else that you wanted to add about where you are at right now and what's coming up?
JO: I do want to acknowledge that this is the 30th anniversary of the 'Relish' album, which was my first major label record, and that's the one that I think most people know me for, and we are going to be re-recording those songs, and I've connected up with the jazz bass player Christian McBride, who is not only an amazing jazz figure, but he's also the artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival, and he tours all around the world with different bands and he's really sort of one of these lions of jazz who are continuing that tradition. So, he and I have been working on rearranging those songs for relish and re-recording them so that they'll fit into what is now this very broad definition of what jazz can be, and that's very exciting for me. I went to the Newport Jazz Festival last year and was just blown away and inspired by all of the different incredibly unique ways that jazz has sort of unfolded and exists right now. So, I'm excited about that too, and people can look out for that either the end of this year or the beginning of next year.
GB: So, we have the live Bob Dylan album that comes out later this month, right for streaming services, and later this year, we'll see a new version of 'Relish.' How does it feel to go back and listen to those songs with the ear of today?
JO: Well, I mean, some of those songs we don't necessarily perform live that frequently, so it was a little bit of like digging back into the archives. But you know, I think the work that we put into making that record myself, Eric Bazillion, Rob Hyman, and the producer, Rick Chertoff, we spent months and months and months in a way that hardly anyone has the opportunity anymore today to do, but we spent so much time building that record from the ground up and really taking our time. And I think it really shows, I think the songs as they were recorded back then. You know, that record still, I think, you know, it doesn't sound dated, and I think you can listen to it today and still get a lot from it. And I think the songs themselves are strong enough that they can exist in a lot of different ways. And I know people have come up to me and said, 'Oh, we cover your song in my band, things like that. 'So that's really, to me, the mark of something that can stand the test of time.
'Joan Osborne featuring the Songs of Bob Dylan' comes to the JCC of Greater Rochester stage April 18. For ticket information, click here.
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