**1/2 Joan Osborne

LIVE RECORDINGS

(Mercury)

Stevie Nicks minus the depressants mixed with a half-scaled fierceness of Tina Turner's soul -- that's the punchy sound of this live compilation. This CD was recorded with an acoustic-guitar-driven band in New York City club Delta 88, where Osborne got one of her first regular gigs. An occasional slight whisper of the waitresses, the clanging of beer glasses, and the audience's sporadic clapping add to the "liveness."

The lyrics are less impressive. "His Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles," is a cliché'd love song, about . . . well, a man with blue eyes. Other love-angst songs aren't about anything more than love sucking. The slightly deeper "What You Gonna Do" was recorded at a Rock for Choice benefit in Brooklyn; it's a "you go girl" song about a woman and the way she takes strength from her losses. But the sound here, a raw leap away from the ever-tacky "What If God Was One of Us," is sure to debunk your negative Joan Osborne vibes.

-- Loren Epstein