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Joan Osborne at The Birchmere

Photo by Bill Kelly

Joan Osborne
The Birchmere
Alexandria, Va.
April 4

If Joan Osborne’s show at the Birchmere was any indication, she may be the best-kept secret in music.

From the moment Osborne strutted onto the stage, dressed in a funky short-sleeved black blouse, dark jeans and knee-high boots and launched into “I’m Qualified,” she owned the room. In fact, she turned the usually somewhat laid-back club into a throbbing, fiery hub of raw sexuality that only a confident, sultry vocalist signing the blues can truly ignite.

As she moved through the set that included blistering versions of such blues standards as “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” written by Nick Ashford, Valerie Simpson and Jo Armstead and made popular by Ray Charles, and the Muddy Waters’ standard “I Want to Be Loved,” the audience members continually yelled out whoops and often stood to dance and sway notably as the band launched into Slim Harpo’s “Shake Your Hips.”

Performing a set heavy with new songs is usually a misstep for artists, but drawing on most of the songs on her just-released album “Bring It On Home” was electrifying.

Major credit must also go to her stellar band – that also played on the new release – the Spin Doctors’ Aaron Comess on drums, guitarist Andrew Carrillo, bassist Richard Hammond and keyboardist Keith Cotton, who also accompanied Osborne on a few numbers without the other players.

Although Osborne cut her vocal chops on the blues as a young girl – imitating the stylings of Etta James, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters and other blues legends whose sounds moved her – she didn’t feel her voice was nuanced enough to do them justice when she was younger.

Well, they sure do now. It’s often been said that women can’t pull off a truly sophisticated, sexual vibe until they’re over 40. Anyone who wants proof of that need only turn to Osborne and her sizzling performance.

Her songwriting also has taken a turn to the blues as evidenced by two original songs she debuted: “This is Where We Start” and Work on Me.” Although Osborne is decades younger than many of her blues idols, the songs arguably sound as if they were pulled from one of the masters’ catalogs.

A moving moment came when Osborne performed a rendition of her 1995 break out single “One of Us.” Rather than perform the somewhat faster tempered pop version, Osborne gave it a slower, more soulful feel that underscored although she’s grown musically she still embraces her past.