Joan Osborne at Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis (30 Sep 2023)

The single was certified Gold and earning three Grammy nominations. The song was so popular, even Prince covered the song on his album Emancipation in 1996.

Since then she’s been busy being a voice for women in rock, co-headlining the Lilith Fair in 1997, and actively supporting Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

She shifted to covering songs she loves, a cover-lover album Bring It on Home in 2012, and an entire album of Bob Dylan songs called Songs of Bob Dylan in 2017.

This is important to note, as a lot of songs on her set were cover songs.

Osborne’s latest album, Nobody Owns You (Womanly Hips Records) is a return to form for original songs… and they are very good, at least what I’ve heard live. “I Should’ve Danced More” is fantastic, it’s a song about some regrets she may have had. She should have danced more, she should have loved more, etc. The message is clear, do what you love while you can now.

I think the song is a reflection of what happened to all of us in 2020 when the pandemic hit and we lost the ability to gather and celebrate music. In some ways, Osborne seemed so genuinely happy to be back on stage, playing live music again. She’s joined on stage by a pianist and guitarist (Jack Petruzzelli) … which she was very playful with back-and-forth guitar playing on “Trouble and Strife”.

She thanked the audience at the Dakota for being so quiet, you can hear a pin drop. Someone in the audience shouted, “It’s Minnesota!” which Osborne replied, “Oh I know! I’ve played here before, I don’t want you guys to exert yourselves!”

Of course, her most famous song, “One of Us”, was saved as the penultimate song. The quiet crowd suddenly exploded with massive audience cheers and claps.

Osborne’s latest Nobody Owns You is out now on Womanly Hips Records.

Remaining tour dates: