ANDERS OSBORNE

American Patchwork

Alligator

By Linda Cain

Anders Osborne is not a blues artist. Rather, he is an artist who has suffered more than his share of the blues. Blues fans can appreciate a musician who channels his pain and passion into his music. The fact that this musician also is a first class guitarist, singer and songwriter makes Osborne’s latest CD all the more compelling.

The aptly titled American Patchwork stands as an allegory to Osborne’s troubled life. Like a pair of tattered jeans that are held together with patches, the Swedish born artist has had to repair the holes in his life on more than one occasion.  It’s also symbolic of the Katrina experience that devastated the lives and homes of Osborne’s fellow Louisianans.

The music on Patchwork is very much a part of the healing process for this award-winning, New Orleans-based artist, who has nearly thrown it all away more than once. The troubled musical genius, who has been in and out of rehab, is back with a vengeance to make music after a self-imposed hiatus. His intense, live shows are becoming the stuff of legend. He plays like his life depends upon it, which perhaps it does.

The all-original music on Patchwork was inspired by Osborne’s rediscovering the soundtrack of his youth, or what is now called “classic rock”. The influence of Jackson Browne, Steve Miller, Neil Young, Bad Company and other artists of the early ‘70s infiltrate Osborne’s music.

“Call On Me,” with its lush harmonies, is a gentle acoustic ballad about longing that is clearly an homage to Jackson Browne. In fact, Osborne name-checks Browne on the tender tune that displays his nimble finger-picking on guitar.

“Acapulco” opens with a slide guitar played in George Harrison’s style and moves into a Jackson Brown-ish melody and harmony on the chorus.  On “Got Your Heart,” you can hear the bass line of Steve Miller’s “Space Cowboy”.

Osborne’s melodious, emotive guitar work on the chorus of the snappy “Meet Me in New Mexico,” is straight from Gerry Rafferty’s ‘70s love song “Right Down The Line.” And “Love Is Taking Its Toll,” with its thumping beat and rip-roaring, distorted guitar, sounds like Bad Company meets Neil Young.

While Osborne is clearly channeling the ‘70s, he isn’t being entirely derivative; rather he uses these influences as a jumping off point to create highly charged, emotional music with lyrics that are very personal and confessional -- a catharsis, if you will.

A case in point is the desperation of “Darkness At The Bottom.” Osborne’s guitar explodes, defiantly spitting out notes as the band burns behind him, getting hotter with each passage; the rhythm section grows more frenetic as the guitarist’s despair intensifies. Like Lowell George’s “Whiskey and Bad Cocaine”, Osborne’s biographical  song about hitting bottom chugs along like a runaway train that can’t be stopped until  the engine burns out.

“On the Road To Charlie Parker” shares a similarly, self-destructive theme, in which Osborne compares his “living on the edge” behavior to the doomed jazz legend.  The song opens with a Deep Purple-ish organ while Osborne plays some grungy, menacing Neil Young guitar.

“Echoes of My Sins” is his confession song. A contrite Osborne bares his soul and admits his guilt to a funky, strollin’ New Orleans beat with a churchy organ and uplifting, choir-like vocals:

But as my hands lost their grip/ All I could hear from deep within/ Was the thunder of my guilt/ And the echoes of my sins

The artist’s self-examination throughout the album proves to be powerful stuff -- lyrically, musically and emotionally – that draws the listener in deep, while engaging them with catchy, familiar sounds of the ‘70s.

A musical chameleon, Osborne has spent time in Nashville as a songwriter and penned a Number One hit for Tim McGraw. He’s worked in various capacities, as a session guitarist, producer and songwriter for artists like Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, Keb Mo, Tab Benoit and Galactic. He also has released ten CDs since 1989 and his songs have been featured in several films.

 On American Patchwork, Osborne seems to have pulled the various parts of his life and career together to create a crazy quilt of music and stories, filled with tragedy, loss and redemption. The vocal and musical styles run the gamut from gentle folk rock to scorching grunge to bouncy New Orleans’ beats and reggae rhythms.  The troubled artist stitches it all together to create a pastiche of passion that is pure artistic genius.

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