New York, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) - Much of Joan Osborne's new album 'Little Wild One' (September 9; Womanly Hips / Plum Records / Saguaro Road /
Music Allies) grew out of her experiences living in New York over the past twenty years. Osborne says, "Life unfolds in the open here, on the streets and in city squares. It's inspirational for a writer."
"It's a place-specific album," she says. "I was reading a lot of Walt Whitman [while writing 'Little Wild One'] and thinking about his spiritual view of what a city can be." The opener "Hallelujah In The City" unfurls "on the Riverside Drive, on the Red Hook night, in the churches of Brooklyn, underneath the Chelsea lights, in Battery Park and up in Morningside Heights." Other NYC references abound, from "To The One I Love," which takes place "in a hotel room up above the lights of Tompkins square" to "crossing Brooklyn ferry" in "Sweeter Than The Rest."
In the album's coda and another highlight, "Bury Me On the Battery," Osborne sings joyfully, "I'll be smiling brother, when they lay me down, 'cause I lived my life in New York town."
Osborne also saw the city anew this decade. "I think we were all newly grateful for the experience of the city after September 11," she says.
Osborne has reunited with producer/writers Rick Chertoff, Rob Hyman, and Eric Bazilian on her new album 'Little Wild One.' The team last worked together on Osborne's breakthrough, debut album 'Relish,' which sold five million copies worldwide and yielded the smash hit "One Of Us" as well as six Grammy nominations.
