Joan Osborne Breakfast In Bed CD

Personnel: Joan Osborne (vocals, background vocals); Joan Osborne; Jack Petruzzelli, Brandon Ross (guitar); Quida Pickle, Melissa Reiner (violin); Cameron Stone (cello); Gary Schreiner (harmonica); Greg Osby (saxophone); Lauren Sevian (baritone saxophone); Peck Allmond (trumpet, trombone); Steve Huffsteter (trumpet); Jock Ellis (trombone); Ivan Neville (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Clavinet, background vocals); Eddie Bayers (drums); Tor Hyams (programming); Chante Frierson (background vocals).
Recording information: Brooklyn Recording, Brooklyn, NY; One Four Studios.
Following up on her earlier album HOW SWEET IT IS, BREAKFAST IN BED continues Joan Osborne's unexpected second career as a gifted re-interpreter of vintage soul and R&B tunes of the 1960s and '70s. Unlike many artists who would hew closely to the familiar versions of these songs, Osborne is fairly loose with her reinterpretations. This is for the better, because Osborne's passionate delivery of well-known tunes --Hall and Oates's "Sara Smile" and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," among others--transform the familiar songs into new and interesting performances. Osborne's handful of original tunes sound impressively at home in their surroundings, especially the outstandingly slinky torch song "Eliminate the Night."
Finally, Joan Osborne has come to her senses and recorded a soul record. Ever since she performed in Standing in the Shadows of Motown -- those performances are tacked on here at the end -- one thought that Osborne (the most gifted vocalist of her generation and a singer who understands the nuance of phrase, time, and elocution) would return to her own roots as a soul, R&B, and blues singer, the one not often heard by mainstream America but who was evidenced on her first two self-produced recordings on her Womanly Hips label. That didn't happen right away. She recorded the faux-Americana set Pretty Little Stranger, which did not offer listeners her voice but rather her refined restraint on a rather forgettable collection of songs. Even her first attempt at soul covers, 2002's How Sweet It Is, held to very modern production techniques and, despite her ability to make the material shine (check her reading of Thom Bell's "I'll Be Around" or Barrett Strong's "Smiling Faces Sometimes" for proof), the rest of the album imploded on itself. Breakfast in Bed is closer -- much closer -- but not there. Osborne splits the album between soul classics and self-penned tunes in the vernacular of that music. First the good news: she allows her voice some room here, and can get inside the material when she's not intimidated by it. She also sticks closer to the slicker Philly soul side of the fence rather than Stax/Volt or Motown (though she does cover Eddie Hinton's "Breakfast in Bed").
To her credit, she picks tunes that have already been defined by the original artists who recorded them. This is both a plus and minus. She digs deep into Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" and Hall & Oates' "Sara Smile," and even Blue Lovett's "Kiss and Say Goodbye," and expresses the discipline and quiet power in her voice. Elsewhere, however, on such stalwart monolithic tunes as "Breakfast in Bed" (is anybody ever going to forget Dusty Springfield's version? It's almost holy), "Midnight Train to Georgia," and Charles McCormick's "Natural High," she shies away from deeper emotions, such as the alternatively more desperate, bittersweet, or erotic seductiveness that the aforementioned three tunes call for. In other words, Osborne doesn't go as far as listeners know she can in delivering them. For evidence, check out the abandon and sensual power of "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" or the celebratory eroticism in "Heatwave," which she did with the Funk Brothers. Granted, these last two were recorded live, but it's the voice that gets the material across. That said, some of Osborne's originals, such as "Cream Dream" (featuring that Stevie Wonder harmonica line, a B-3 played by INo Depression (p.102) - "The album is ripe with savvy picks and a trio of soulful Osborne originals..."