3 Folk Voices From the 90s You Can Probably Recognize (Even if You Can’t Name Them)

Some of the best voices in the 90s folk scene aren’t necessarily known by name. Here are a few folk singer-songwriters from the 90s that you are probably more familiar with than you think.

Joan Osborne

While studying film at NYU, Joan Osborne became engulfed in New York’s music scene. By 1991, she had formed her own record label and was releasing her own tunes.

In 1995, Osborne released her first major label album, Relish. “One Of Us”, the album’s single, carried the project to success. It’s still Osborne’s most popular song to this day. “One Of Us” was written by Eric Bazilian, who told Songfacts:

“For me, the song was more about what happens to you when you look at something that has completely changed your worldview, which could be meeting God, it could be meeting an alien, it could be a near-death experience, it could be anything like that. Just how everything you know is wrong, or everything you know is right, and you didn’t know it.”

Paula Cole

Don’t think you’re familiar with Paula Cole? If you’ve ever watched the teen drama Dawson’s Creek, you probably know her better than you think.

Cole graduated from Berklee in 1990 and was signed by Imago Records in 1992. A few years later, she released her second album, This Fire, which produced the hit song “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” Another song, “I Don’t Want To Wait”, which was used as the theme song for Dawson’s Creek, was also released as a single for this project.

Shawn Colvin

Colvin emerged on the folk scene in the 70s and 80s and released her debut album in 1988. That project, Steady On, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. However, it was her fourth studio album years later, A Few Small Repairs, that saw the release of her song “Sunny Came Home”, her most popular track. “Sunny Came Home” earned Colvin two more Grammys, one for Song of the Year and one for Record of the Year.

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