If God was one of us, He clearly would want a dramatic ending to this year’s Three Rivers Arts Festival.
Obviously, I spoke too soon in my Spin Doctors review from last week — the tradition of bad weather during the annual festival continues despite its new venue in Downtown’s Arts Landing. Sunday was the final night of the event, and headlining on the Dollar Bank main stage was singer-songwriter Joan Osborne.
But things didn’t go as planned.
As severe weather swept across the region and the National Weather Service issued a battery of watches and warnings late Sunday afternoon, the Arts Festival posted a message on social media saying that festival activities were on pause. Osborne was scheduled to take the stage at 7:30 p.m., but the newly opened Arts Landing looked essentially abandoned at about 7 p.m., with the exception of arts and food vendors packing up their stands.
But as storms turned to drizzles and more people with camp chairs and umbrellas filtered back into the park, the festival organizers announced that the show would go on — at 8:15 p.m.
For the modest crowd that showed up for the free concert, the show was worth the wait (and the on-and-off raindrops throughout). Osborne played a mix of original songs from her nearly four-decade-long career and covers from her recent release, “Dylanology Live,” a project full of renditions of Bob Dylan songs.
Her willowy, expressive voice fit ideally to Dylan’s odd cadence and legendary lyricism. She and her band opened with “She Belongs to Me,” translated into a mellow groove as a fresh wave of rain showered the undeterred audience members. She followed that with a twirly cover of the epic “Highway 61 Revisited,” heavy with thumping percussion and haunting keys courtesy of Will Bryant.
“Hello, the few, the proud, the Pittsburgh music fans!” she said to the crowd. “We really appreciate you guys coming here.”
“Shooting Star” was a showcase for the sincerity of Osborne’s vocals and Bryant’s gorgeous keys, coming from another chapter of Dylan’s varied catalog. In contrast, “High Water (for Charley Patton)” was ominous and anxious, pulling assertive chords from guitarist Jack Petruzzelli.
Continuing on the Dylan theme, she said, “We weren’t planning on doing this song, but I feel like under the circumstances, it makes sense.” That song was “Buckets of Rain,” which was quiet and gentle enough that the increasing precipitation made its own percussion as it pattered on umbrellas and windbreaker hoods.
Osborne ended the Dylan set with “Love Sick,” a song that felt like whiskey and cigarette smoke in a dark bar, especially with her purring voice and Petruzzelli’s growling guitar.
“We’re going to take a detour now from the Bob Dylan material and we’re going to play some Joan Osborne songs,” she said to whoops from the crowd. “That was the reaction I was hoping for. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t cool with that.”
She kicked off with “So Many Airports” from her 2023 album “Nobody Owns You.” It made a nice stylistic transition from the Dylan songs, maintaining a mellow feel with a slight bluesy edge. She sang wistfully about her memories of being a touring musician.
The album’s title track followed, with the singer explaining that she wrote it as a passing-on of “hard-won wisdom” to her teenage daughter. “A teenage girl, so interesting and so smart and so perceptive and so funny and so loving … to everyone but me,” she joked.
The song was earnest and a little folky, laced with acoustic guitar and studded with some of Osborne’s most interesting vocal moments of the evening.
Noting the 30th anniversary of her hit record “Relish,” Osborne played a quartet of tunes from its track list. She kicked off with “Ladder,” a sprightly song with a dancey beat that got the still-engaged crowd clapping and swaying. “Right Hand Man” was the most rock song of the set with a distinct Sheryl Crow feel and some enchanting attitude from Osborne.
“I was a sassy little thing back then,” she laughed at the song’s end.
Then there was the Spanish-influenced “St. Theresa” that had Osborne dancing around onstage and sustaining some beautiful high notes.
But then, as the dripping skies turned the rain into a fine mist, she began the song everyone had been waiting for: the massive 1995 hit “One Of Us.” But this version was much softer, guided by Bryant’s keys and diffused by the golden stage lights. It felt almost like a hymn with Osborne’s reverent delivery.
It may have been a rocky night weather-wise, but Osborne still rocked it. Now it’s time to look forward to another great musical lineup — and more inevitable early-June rainstorms — at the 2027 Three Rivers Arts Festival.