WHAT WE LEARNED FROM…
The Brothers Osborne are full of contradictions. They’re proud country fans who play a full-throttle rock show. They’re part of a world with deep conservative roots, but have spoken out about gun control, featured same-sex kissing in a music video (for single Stay A Little Longer), and were the first major-label country artist to publicly support a Democrat (2018 Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean). They adore the old-school heroes of rock and country, but also draw from pop, funk, grunge, jazz, jam bands and more.
All this comes to the fore on album number three, Skeletons. The follow-up to their introspective, ballad-heavy second, Port Saint Joe, it’s a record built for live shows – “in arenas and beyond,” they tell us – with big songs that showcase their arsenal of licks, tricks and ideas. It’s as tight as they come, but also with the sort of loose vibe and effortless harmonies that make their blood relationship easy to swallow. “In our minds it’s about playing good music,” singer/younger brother TJ says. “It’s not about playing a specific genre. We just wanna fucking play, that’s it.”
They didn’t always plan to start a band together. Initially, upon arrival in Nashville, guitarist John (the eldest by two and a half years) threw himself into every sideman gig going, while TJ played upright bass and wrote songs for other artists. He struggled in the latter department because his own voice on demos “wasn’t generic enough”, and so began playing solo shows, hiring
