The Indigo Girls-Joan Osborne Connection

By archive-Brian-Ives

October 14, 1999 / 7:55 AM

Fans attending the Indigo Girls' three-night stand at New York's Beacon Theatre earlier this week were treated to a Lilith Fair-style hootenanny, as local heroine Joan Osborne joined the Atlanta duo on stage for a number of songs each night.

Osborne appears on four songs on the Girls' recently released album, "Come On Now Social:" "Go," "Trouble," "We Are Together" and the album's first single, "Peace Tonight." Other guests on the album include Sheryl Crow, Me'Shell N'degeocello, Luscious Jackson's Kate Schellenbach, and Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of The Band (see [article id="1427648"]"Crow, Osborne, Others Join Indigo Girls For New Album"[/article]).

The Indigo Girls and Osborne were part of a large group of artists who traveled to Cuba in March to participate in a musicans exchange program; it was during this time that the Girls invited Osborne to sing on their album (see [article id="1427078"]"Joan Osborne, Chuck D, Peter Buck To Make

Music With Cuban Artists"[/article]).

The Indigo Girls' Emily Sailers told MTV News that it was easy to decide how to make use of Osborne.

"We just thought of a few songs that Joan might sound good on, and, fortunately, she sounded good on all of them," said Sailers. "So we used her for four songs, which is very unusual, to use a guest vocalist for four songs. But her parts were subtle, and they just fit right in, and it was just great for her to do that." [RealAudio]

Osborne is currently working on her next album, the long-awaited follow-up to her 1995 breakthrough album, "Relish." To hold fans over until the album is completed, Osborne recorded "Baby Love" for the recently released "For Love Of The Game" soundtrack (see [article id="1432955"]"Semisonic, Joan Osborne

Pen New Tracks For

Kevin Costner Film"[/article]).

As for the Indigo Girls, they are in the midst of their tour plugging "Come On Now Social." Here's where they'll be in the coming weeks: