Anders Osborne Again

Anders Osborne knows how to make an entrance.
The first note of his new album's first song abruptly puts listeners into a groove.
“American Patchwork” is a comeback album from someone who has never gone away.
“I'm connecting a little bit with my early teenage years of Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Eagles,” said Osborne, who began recording albums in 1989. “Records that every note, every session seems to have a purpose. Not just loosely jammed and improvised, which I've done for a few very stream-of-consciousness records. That's what I've been doing for a couple of records.”
Many of the tunes, including opening track “On the Road To Charlie Parker,” reveal a troubled past and life heading in a new direction. While parallels can be made to hurricane-battered New Orleans, the Swedish guitar player's home for 25 years, most of the messages are personal.
“It's definitely a record he made after refocusing himself and reapplying himself to his art form and his career,” said Stanton Moore, who played drums and co-produced the album. “(Osborne) never really went away but he's really reapplying and refocusing himself, and it's beautiful to be a part of and watch because he's such a talented artist. I can't wait for people to start hearing the record and seeing what happens once it gets out there.”
While his emotions bleed out of his album, Osborne didn't want to talk about his troubled times.
“I prefer not to get into it right now about exactly what I've been through because it's been rehashed a lot of times,” he said. “If you can forgive me for that, I'd really not like to talk too much about that, if that's OK.”
If imitation indicates respect, Osborne is one of most highly regarded singer-songwriters in music.
His songs have been covered by Jonny Lang, Tab Benoit, Kim Carnes, Brad Paisley and Tim McGraw, whose version of “Watch the Wind Blow By” was a No. 1 song on the country chart.
“American Patchwork” is Osborne's first album with Alligator Records, which mostly features blues players.
“Anders is a profoundly passionate artist whose music is rooted in the blues, but also goes in rock and Americana directions,” said Alligator President Bruce Iglauer. “Like his home city, he's recovered from some dark times, and the album is filled with the joy of a man who is rebuilding his life and career.”
Osborne doesn't mind being put in the blues category.
“The way I play, being influenced by jazz and Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and (John) Coltrane, you know a lot of the Blue Note stuff, is so beautiful and precious to me but I also am a huge fan and influenced tremendously by that singer-songwriter era in the '70s when I was a teenager — Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Eagles together with Zeppelin and Sabbath. That made this big impact. But somehow, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, that rural blues that to an extent originates from this area, that always seems to lay on top of it.”
But Osborne chose two other artists to describe his sound.
“The closest I can come to is an Allman Brothers version of Ry Cooder,” he said. “I like to kick it hard and I like to improvise with jazz that I grew up with. It's just not how I play, I don't know why. When I play without thinking and just go with the flow and let God take over, it sounds country bluesy. So I don't mind being pigeonholed. Whatever people hear is what they hear.”