Right Hand Man (live) - Joan Osborne

@ Hard Rock Las Vegas 1996 From the #1 album of 1995, as picked by Entertainment Weekly. With Osborne, many easy comparisons come to mind: Sheryl Crow with soul, Bonnie Raitt with longing in more than just her heart. Yet none of those analogies do justice to this Kentucky-born hip-shaker's remarkable debut. First, there is the voice: rich with a brick-oven smokiness, powerful yet never show-offy, a deeply spiritual and sexual instrument that can leap from an after-glow purr to a head-thrown-back wail. The music that accompanies her is just as stick-to-the-ribs earthy, dipped in roadhouse soul, folkish hymns, barroom rock, and blues, without sounding like House of Blues nostalgia. The only things shaky about Relish are the junkies, prostitutes, suicidal depressives, and sinners who populate Osborne's songs. But one listen to her comforting, uplifting voice and you know they'll eventually be okay too.