Joan Osborne Wows Crowd at Sanctuary Concert

Joan Osborne played to an enthusiastic audience at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township on Friday night, leaving few seats unfilled and earning a standing ovation and an encore.

Osborne, who appeared with pianist Keith Cotton, told the packed audience that she wanted to make the concert "a special night" and "a different experience than if you've ever seen me before with the five-piece band." The intimate nature of two performers only feet, and in some cases inches, from the audience, as well as the mature and well-trained talent of Osborne and Cotton, fulfilled those goals.

The set list of the evening included several of her most popular songs, including "Saint Theresa," "Spider Web" and closed with Osborne's announcement of "We're going to do the hit now," referencing her chart-topping "One of Us."

Osborne also previewed some new material that has been recorded for an upcoming album called "Love and Hate." This was the first time Osborne had played these three songs in a concert, she said, and the release date for the album is yet to be determined.

She also took requests from the audience, particularly regarding her Motown repertoire, opening with "How Sweet It Is" and, as an encore, singing "What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted."

Cotton and Osborne, who together wrote the title track for Osborne's upcoming album, joked around and played off of each other musically during the concert, laughing at such technical difficulties as Cotton's keyboard stand lost its bearing and collapsed by several inches in the middle of the song "Spider Web."

Later in the evening, when the two took the stage for an encore, Cotton warmed up the church organ with "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Bach, a staple of every haunted house, before launching into a cover of "To Make You Feel My Love." Osborne cautioned, "We've never played this on a church organ before, so it'll either be really special or really bad."

The audience seemed pretty well settled on the former.

Osborne's opening act was singer Carsie Blanton, who was supported by upright bassist Joe Plowman. Blanton's performance and musical style cannot be described by a better adjective than that the one used by concert chair Scott Sheldon, "whimsical." Her six-song set list was often reminiscent of Norah Jones' early releases, and though not effortless, Blanton's performance utterly charmed the audience. It is, after all, hard to dislike a songwriter who describes one of her songs, the Dolly Parton-esque "Belle of the Ball," as "a feminist manifesto done in the style of Bettie Boop."