(Modern Electric Blues) Anders Osborne - American Patchwork - 2010 [ALCD 4936 - Irond CD10-K133], APE (imagе+.cue), lossless

recorded in the fall of 2009 at studio in the country, bogalusa, in the great state of louisiana.

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Anders Osborne and friend Stanton Moore (Galactic) produced the album, with co-production by Pepper Keenan (of Down). Each track is delivered with soul muscle and contains unforgettable melodies. The ten original songs on American Patchwork are among the strongest Osborne has ever written. With musical assistance from Moore on drums, Keenan on percussion and guitar, and Robert Walter on keyboards, American Patchwork is a bright new chapter in Anders Osborne’s remarkable journey. According to Osborne, “This is the healing, the patching back together, of a man scattered to the wind, broken and in pieces. The rebuilding of my home, a city under water and in ruins, friends lost, my community in disarray, all carefully patched and made whole again by the power of my America, and its endless source of inspiration to me. This is my American patchwork.”
Since 1995 Osborne has released a series of successful albums for major and independent labels to wide critical and popular acclaim. His music mixes blues, soul, funk and R&B into a signature sound and style. Osborne is as well-known and well-loved for his songwriting as for his blue-eyed soul vocals and jaw-dropping guitar playing. Two songs co-written by Osborne appear on blues great Keb Mo’s Grammy-winning 1999 release, Slow Down. Osborne’s compositions have been covered by artists as diverse as Brad Paisley, Tab Benoit, Jonny Lang and Kim Carnes. Country superstar Tim McGraw scored a #1 hit with Anders’ song Watch The Wind Blow. His song What’s Going On Here appeared in the 1996 feature film Fled. Most recently, Osborne, along with Ivan Neville, wrote and will perform the title track for the upcoming Kate Hudson film, Earthbound.

--Alligator Records

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Anders Osborne has two distinct musical personalities: one is a blistering, unhinged slide guitar bluesman inextricably linked to his adopted home of New Orleans; the other is a literate, poignant singer/songwriter. He has only balanced them once before, on 2001’s brilliant Ash Wednesday Blues. The rest of his records, fine as they are, have leaned more heavily on one side or the other. American Patchwork, Osborne’s debut for Alligator, finds that balance again, but goes deeper, wider. His songwriting has reached an entirely new skill level, no matter the manner -- or volume -- he chooses to display it. Produced by Stanton Moore (Galactic), Osborne, and Pepper Keenan, it features only the guitarist, Moore’s drum kit, and the great Robert Walter on keyboards. American Patchwork is a journey of hope but the road there is often rough, rowdy, personally treacherous, and deeply emotional. It opens with a cacophonous roar inside the heart of darkness. “On the Road to Charlie Parker” is a song about heroin’s ability to reduce genius to raw junkie need, a personal reminder spoken in a mirror, and a word of warning to others. Osborne’s guitar is maniacally distorted against Moore’s thundering crack and Walter's wailing B-3, but it grooves seductively. “Echoes of My Sins” is a distinctly N.O. shuffle as Osborne offers confession and an individual brand of deliverance. It's a rock melody with dynamic reflex of gospel; the rhythm comes from reggae and Crescent City R&B. “Killing Each Other” is a funked-up rocker about the horror of violence -- physical and emotional. On "Acapulco," Osborne’s slide sings as sweetly as his voice; it longs for a fresh start somewhere else; it’s a country song soaked in the loneliness of life's regrets. “Darkness at the Bottom," a thrashing blues screamer, would not have been out of place on Chris Whitley's Din of Ecstasy -- in the red and soulful. “Standing with the Angels” is a rock elegy for a fallen friend, more poetic and moving than anything Osborne’s written. “Love Is Taking Its Toll” is the dirtiest, nastiest, most distorted blues here, its lyric poignant, its sentiment obvious, and its volume louder than God. The set winds down with the shimmering, Caribbean-inflected “Meet Me in New Mexico,” one of two beautifully written love songs here. “Call on Me” is the album’s lone acoustic number. It longs for home and the beloved so badly, it aches. American Patchwork testifies that self-destruction, violence, and selfishness can all be transformed; that life, however damaged, wounded, or even wrecked, is still precious and full of possibility. These songs are metaphors; they're personal in nature, but they extend beyond the rebirth and redemption of an individual to a city, a society, and hopefully a nation.
--Allmusic

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