Joan Osborne included a Bob Dylan song, “Man in the Long Black Coat,” on her 1995 debut album, Relish. And after singing Dylan songs in a series of shows at Café Carlyle in New York, she released an album with the same theme, Songs of Bob Dylan, in 2017.

Her new album Dylanology Live — recorded at The Tarrytown Music Hall in 2018 and featuring both signature Dylan songs (“Highway 61 Revisited,” “Masters of War,” “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35”) and less widely known material (“Spanish Harlem Incident,” “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” “High Water (For Charley Patton)”) — includes guest appearances by Amy Helm, Robert Randolph and Jackie Greene. And she is promoting the album with a tour on which she will again perform Dylan songs, but with different musicians.

At The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, June 6, she will be joined by singer-guitarist Anders Osborne (no relation), singer-bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, steel guitar and dobro player Cindy Cashdollar, keyboardist Will Bryant and drummer Lee Falco. (At some other tour stops, Anders Osborne won’t perform, but Nicki Bluhm will.)

I talked to Osborne on May 22 about the album, the tour, the 30th anniversary of Relish (which yielded her biggest hit, “One of Us”) and more.

Q: The album was obviously recorded with one group of musicians and the tour features another group, so I’m assuming it’s going to be a totally different show.

A: It’s going to be a different show. We are going to do some of the stuff that was included in the last show and is on the album, but I felt like, rather than try to re-create a moment in a live show, which is very difficult to do, I thought, “Well, let’s just have fun with it and see what these other guests want to do, and let’s explore it a little bit more deeply.”

Q: Have you ever done shows with the group of musicians that is going to be in New Jersey?

A: I haven’t done shows with them as a band, but I’ve worked with each of the individuals in different situations. We had our first rehearsal last week as a band, and it was really amazing, and it’s going to be such a great show. I’m so excited. The amount of talent on the stage is really phenomenal.

Q: What was it about the rehearsal that made it so amazing?

A: It’s not just going to be me singing the whole show. So listening to them and their amazing interpretations of this music, as singers, was really great. And then also, you know, them just being incredible players. I mean, these are musicians who have worked with David Bowie and Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. They are the top, top level of players. So just to sort of stand back and watch them and listen to them do their thing is really exciting.

Q: Besides the fact that you like them all individually, was there some kind of dynamic you are trying to create by putting this particular group of musicians together?

A: Well, I like the mix of the younger guys and the older players. I like the fact that all of these people … what we say for musicians is that they have big ears. So everybody listens to everybody else. It’s not just people who are up there trying to go for their moment of glory and show all of their chops. We’re still feeling our way to becoming an ensemble but everyone was listening to everybody and it came together very, very quickly, just in the course of a five-hour rehearsal. So I have amazing hopes for what it will be next.

Q: The album, of course, has songs like “Masters of War” and “Ballad of Hollis Brown.” Are you drawn to material from Dylan’s protest era because of the politics of the current time, or does it really not have so much to do with that?

A: At the time that we recorded this album, it was 2018, and that was very much on my mind: how to meet that moment as an artist. What can you say in your work about what’s going on in the world and what can you do to express yourself and your own opinions using music? I think this time, my thought is more that, you know, our job as musicians is to bring the joy. I think people are discouraged and worn out by all the crazy stuff that’s going on in the world right now. And I think music’s job is to help people renew themselves and rejuvenate themselves, and hang on to a sense of joy of being alive and also to create a place where people in communities can come together. Those people might not necessarily agree with each other about politics, but to be in a physical space and see your neighbors out enjoying this very basic experience of live music, I think is really valuable right now, when we’re so alienated from each other.

Q: Of course, the movie “A Complete Unknown” came out and, I think, exposed a lot of people to Dylan. Certainly, around the time it came out, there was a lot of discussion online, with people posting their thoughts and so on. Is it encouraging for you to see how people have embraced that movie?

A: Well, yeah. I mean, it’s not surprising to me. It’s a Hollywood biopic, and you have this very charismatic star in Timothée Chalamet, and I think he did a good job of presenting how charismatic a figure Bob Dylan was in that time. He was this incredible force that burst onto the scene in this undeniable way. I think the movie does a good job of approximating that, with this giant movie star in the role. So I would say that, yes, I think it’s great that it’s allowing … and very smart, actually, for Dylan’s people to sign on to it and to help out with the project because it’s bringing his music to a younger audience who might not have been aware of him before or might have only known his name and not the music. So I think it’s great in that way. But it wasn’t surprising at all, because I think it’s a very compelling story. And I think the songs in the movie are … you know, it’s great to hear them in that context. Of course, only Joan Baez sounds like Joan Baez, but I thought the woman who played her in the film, Monica Barbaro, did an amazing job. I think Timothée Chalamet did a great job. I think all the performers did a great job with the music.

Q: I understand you’re doing some kind of re-recording of Relish for the anniversary. Can you tell me where that stands and what the idea is behind that?

A: Well, this is the 30th anniversary of the Relish album coming out, and I thought, you know, to do something … I mean, they are going to re-release it and all of that, but I thought this was an opportunity to do something interesting and special with those songs. So I’m going into the studio to re-record the entire album, but I’m doing it with Christian McBride, the jazz bass player, and a group of jazz musicians that he is putting together. I think we’re going to have Omar Hakim on the drums, which is great, because Omar actually played on the first album, too.

I got this idea from going to The Newport Jazz Festival last summer. I had never been to Newport before — not to the Jazz Festival. Of course, I played the Folk Festival, but I had never been to the Jazz Festival before and was really blown away and inspired by the incredible variety and depth of what is considered jazz these days and how far the music has traveled and in what corners it’s gotten itself into. I just thought, “Wow, to be able to re-record these songs and have them live in this world, would be really exciting.” So that was the impetus for the project, and Christian McBride was completely down with it and he’s probably more excited than I am (laughs). So that’s going to be really fun. We’re going to be going into the studio in June.

Q: And then, like, releasing it in the fall? That kind of thing?

A: Probably the first single will come out around the same time that the original Relish album is re-released and then I think the full jazz version will come out a little bit later, according to what works with the jazz label’s release schedule.

Q: Of course, “Man in the Long Black Coat” is on that album. So Dylan has really been kind of a through line, through your whole career.

A: I know, it’s funny. It was certainly not planned, but there’s just something about his material and his songwriting that … I’m certainly not alone in this, but it really speaks to me. And as someone who also writes my own material, it’s very inspiring to just delve into this master and his songwriting in this very deep way by doing these projects that work with his music. And then also as an interpreter, … you know, I love to sing other people’s songs, too, and these are some of the best around. It just gives you so much to work with as a singer.

Joan Osborne will perform at The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, June 6 at 8 p.m. Visit ucpac.org.

For more about her, visit joanosborne.com.

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