Joan Osborne

I think of this as my version of a country record, explains Osborne, who admits that, although born and raised in Kentucky, she never really explored the genre until she relocated to New York in the early 80s. Im thinking about this album almost as if a film director decided to make a genre films -- a western, then a romantic comedy, then a detective film. Its a little like taking these genres that have certain constraints built in, then putting your own sensibility into it. Osbornes sensibility -- a restlessness of spirit and an unfettered purity of emotion -- is evident in every nook and cranny of Pretty Little Stranger, her first album of original material in six years. Yes, shes abetted by an impressive list of collaborators and fellow travelers, both in terms of performing (Vince Gill, for instance, provides poignant vocal counterpoint on the hushed Time Wont Tell) and writing (like Patty Griffin, the source of the questing What You Are). But in the end, Osbornes personality and voice are the fuel that helps the album motor so effortlessly down the blue highway shes decided to set out on. In making this album, I learned how difficult it is to be simple, says the singer, who wrote much of Pretty Little Stranger in the basement of the Brooklyn home she shares with her infant daughter before heading to Nashville to record with Grammy-winning producer Steve Buckingham (Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Loretta Lynn). One of the things that I wanted to focus on when I was writing songs for this record, and choosing material to cover, was that a lot of country music is lyrically very direct and very simple. A lot of what Ive written in the past has been more flowery, more abstract. I got a new appreciation for how hard it is to be simple and not be trite. They are by and large really personal songs -- things that have come out of my life and my romantic landscape, she explains. Its kind of liberating to be able to let that stuff go out into the world. Its more honest and more interesting way to do it rather than just make up something that couldve happened to anyone. I wanted to delve into my own experiences with heartache and cheating and all those things that go into good country songs. To me, it was okay to do that at this point in my life. I dont feel I have to be guarded about it anymore.