Personnel: Joan Osborne (vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion); Rick DiFonzo (acoustic & electric guitars); William Wittman (electric guitar); Larry Campbell (fiddle); Wade Schuman (harmonica); Chris Palmaro (electric piano, Mellotron, organ); Andy Kravitz, Sammy Merendino (drums, percussion); Rick Chertoff (percussion); Leo Osborne, Catherine Russell (background vocals).
Recorded at Big Blue, Katonah, New York and The Crawlspace, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
RELISH was nominated for the 1996 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year. The single "One Of Us" was nominated for 1996 Grammys for Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. "St. Teresa" was nominated for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Joan Osborne was nominated for Best New Artist.
"Spider Web" was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Joan Osborne cut her teeth on the Greenwich Village club circuit, and with her major label debut, RELISH, she confidently shows off the fruits of paying her dues. Osborne's music starts with a raspy vocal style that is stock for the musical bouillabaisse that she cooks up.
Osborne's roots lie in Kentucky and like Janis Joplin, another southern songbird, she has a voice that easily goes from a sexy growl to a sassy purr. Aided by Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman of Hooters fame, Osborne mixes in distinctive covers (Bob Dylan, Sonny Boy Williamson) with her own offbeat originals. A snippet of an Alan Lomax field recording of Nell Hampton's "The Airplane Ride" prefaces the theological musings of "One Of Us," which wonders whether God may be an anonymous being shuffling along as one of the faceless masses. Omar Hakim's drumming paces "Spider Web," a song about a world where Ray Charles can see.
Though Osborne loves to delve into religious mysticism, she isn't afraid to cut loose with frisky abandon. "Right Hand Man" is a randy romp with a love-starved Osborne looking for lust, while "Let's Just Get Naked" uses a plodding fuzz guitar as a backdrop to suggest a way to avoid ennui instead of filling a burning need.
- Format: Vinyl
- Genre: Pop
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