Joan Osborne
Matt Morris

“There's a guy here in Brooklyn,” starts Joan Osborne, “who sells mix CDs on a street corner. Every time he plays 70s soul groups, everyone within earshot gets a big grin on their face, starts singing along under their breath and the whole atmosphere around him just changes. A lot of the impetus for this record came from those blithe moments on the street. And, yes, I bought more than a few CDs from him,” she laughs.

On her latest album, Breakfast in Bed, Osborne got the chance to make her very own mix, a collection of soul classics and new songs she wrote to fit in seamlessly alongside them. “I love this music and these songs,” Osborne explains wistfully. “When I first started singing with any kind of seriousness, I was involved with the roots music scene in NYC and got a real education in soul, rhythm and blues. Etta James, Howlin' Wolf … it was the same for me back then as it is now. I try to emulate the emotional rawness of their music and wanted to revisit the simplicity of the lyrics and direct style of songwriting.”