Pretty Little Stranger

by Thom Jurek Pretty Little Stranger is Joan Osborne's Vanguard Records debut; it is also her country and Americana record. She's cut soul and R&B, she's sung with Stevie Wonder, the Funk Brothers, the Grateful Dead and Phil Lesh & Friends, fronted the Holmes Brothers (and she's produced their finest record to date), had one of the hugest hits of the '90s (that has been a millstone around her neck ever since), and just dug into just about every area of American music. Country, given its steady high profile popularity in the current consciousness, seems like a logical step. Pretty Little Stranger was produced by veteran and Grammy winner Steve Buckingham. The song selection is terrific. Osborne wrote six of the album's songs, and she covers Kris Kristofferson's "Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends," Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter's "Brokedown Palace," Patty Griffin's "What You Are," Beth Nielsen Chapman's and Harlan Howard's "Time Won't Tell," the Red Lane/Larry Henley number "'Til I Get It Right," and Rodney Crowell's "When the Blue Hour Comes," (co-written with Roy Orbison and Will Jennings; Crowell guests on the track as a harmony vocalist). Other guests include Sonny Landreth, Alison Krauss, and Vince Gill. Those are the particulars. ... Read More...