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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZOSBORNE, Joan(b 8 July '62, Anchorage KY) Singer- songwriter, guitarist. She went to NYU to take a course in documentary film-making, ran out of money and took temporary work, took to the stage one evening on a whim and music took over. She worked the blues-bar circuit in NYC and sold an album Soul Show and EP Blue Million Miles at gigs on her own Motherly Hips label, earning enough to keep her on the road: the sub- Nashville songwriting wasn't there yet, but the sexy phrasing was; standout track was a cover of Captain Beefheart's 'His Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles', and her 'Son Of A Preacher Man' was more than a rip-off of Dusty Springfield's. Suddenly she emerged with her own words on Relish '95 on Mercury/Blue Gorilla, co-written with prod. (and Blue Gorilla boss) Rick Chertoff and his friends Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian of NYC band the Hooters: Relish went top ten, incl. no. 4 single 'One Of Us' (shock-jock Rush Limbaugh missed the irony in 'If God was one of us/Just a slob like one of us', assuming that the youth of America were turning to religion). Her stuff is a unique and unselfconscious combination of gospel, her Catholic background and backwoods blues; Early Recordings '96 compiled her early work. |