As Joan Osborne prepares her highly-anticipated new album for a fall release, the bluesy singer is also busy overseeing the creation of a new quarterly magazine, "Womanly Hips.

Osborne plans to coincide the launch of "Hips" with the release of the new album. The magazine, which takes its name from Osborne's label, is said to deal with topical issues rather than fashion or music.

Blues Traveler's John Popper has already penned his contribution to the first issue of "Womanly Hips," a hilarious essay about his take on the Lilith Fair entitled "If Anything I'm About to Say Offends You, Then You're Really Stupid." Other artists that have been approached about submitting materials for the magazine include Harvey Keitel, Michael Stipe and Janeane Garofalo.

As we previously reported (see [article id="1432958"]"Joan Osborne Expands Summer Plans, Working On New Album"[/article]), Osborne has been working on her new album with Cracker's David Lowery, and a

source close to Osborne indicated that the album was 90 percent complete and that the singer has already amassed some 30 "eclectic" tracks.

Joan Osborne will hit the road in support of her third album with a world tour in 1999.