Joan Osborne
Joan Osborne may be best known for the quirky, God-imagining 1995 hit “One of Us.” But if you saw her singing with the Funk Brothers in the movie “Standing in the Shadows of Motown” or heard her new album “Bring It on Home,” you know that this Kentucky-reared woman has a way with blues and R&B. On her third (and best) album of vintage blues and soul covers, she sounds sassy, smokey and deliciously soulful. She can handle the nuances of the slow, smoldering “Broken Wing,” the shouting fervor of the roadhouse boogie of “Roll Like a Big Wheel” and the down and dirty blues of “Shake Your Hips.” Jon Bream