A profile of rising rocker Joan Osborne stands out as the most memorable feature I wrote for The Ticker. I had met the blond belter through the rock community in the early '90s when I was fronting my own band, Shipwrecked Daughter.
Joan was dating our sound
engineer and often
came to our recording
sessions. We, in turn,
went to see her perform
at venues like
Wetlands and The
Cat Club. The singer
had a voice like Janis
Joplin and a fanatical
following who hung on her every note.
I could tell her star was on the rapid rise.
When she got her record deal a couple of years later, I made a point of tracking her down to interview her. I hadn't been in touch for some time—after all, she'd moved up in the music world and I'd quit the business to go back to school. It took persistence to find her.
When I finally got her on the phone, she was cool and agreed to meet. I showed up at her East Village apartment and we yakked for hours. She played some of her new tunes and filled me in on her future plans. I filed my story for The Ticker. As an aspiring journalist, I was especially proud to land the high-profile interview. Not long after, her debut record zoomed up the charts. Her hit single, "One of Us," made her an instant star.
Writing for The Ticker was a great way to gain experience and to get clips. The paper gave me a great foundation for my future in the news business.
—VALERIE BLOCK ('92)
