10 Country Albums John of Brothers Osborne Thinks Everyone Should Own
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The post 10 Country Albums John of Brothers Osborne Thinks Everyone Should Own appeared first on Consequence.
Crate Digging is a recurring feature that takes a deep dive into music history to turn up several albums all music fans should know. In this edition, John Osborne of sibling duo Brothers Osborne chats through his go-to country records.
John Osborne, fifty percent of sibling duo Brothers Osborne, is having a great morning the day we speak. Not only have he and his brother T.J. been nominated for Vocal Duo of the Year at the CMA Awards, he’s also scored his first solo nomination — this time for his production duties on an Ashley McBryde record. His phone is blowing up with texts, he explains, so he has notes prepared for our conversation.
In rounding up 10 albums John considers essential in his musical journey, from his “desert island” records to those that showed him that country music could be a little badass, it becomes clear that he’s truly a musician’s musician. He remembers hearing specific fiddle solos and guitar riffs; there are harmonies he returns to decades later that surely helped shape the sounds he explores with his brother.
John and T.J. are just days away from the release of their fourth studio album, a self-titled effort arriving this Friday, September 15th. “It’s certainly a departure for us, sonically, but it’s still very much my brother and I,” he says. “The bones of the project are still inherently the two of us, so if you loved what we did before, you’ll love what we do now. If you didn’t like what we did before, yeah, you probably won’t like what we do now.”
His own priorities come through in the albums he highlights. “When I look at these, I see a bunch of artists that weren’t trying to do anything other than make music that they love. And that doesn’t happen a lot, strangely,” he observes. “At the end of the day, my favorite albums are the ones where an artist’s intention was to make the best music that they can make, and that shows itself on every album on this list.”
Read through John’s thoughts on the ten albums below, and catch Brothers Osborne’s full album out this Friday.
Darrell Scott – Theatre of the Unheard
A lot of people reading this might not know of this writer/artist/brilliant musician. But he had written a lot of big country songs back in the late ’90s and early 2000s, the most notable one being “Great Day to Be Alive” by Travis Tritt. I came across some demos of his through a friend and did a ton of digging on this guy and found this record.
And it would be a desert island record for me. The writing is unbelievable. He sings his ass off. He plays most of the instruments on it, and it’s a really special, unique listen. It’s an album that I put on all the time, and every time feels like the first time.
Patty Loveless – The Trouble with the Truth
The Trouble with the Truth was produced by Emory Gordy Jr., her husband, and I think it’s just a masterpiece. I mean, there isn’t a weak song here. I love Patty Loveless’ voice, but the playing on this record is insane. The very first song is called “Tear-Stained Letter,” and it sounds like a Zydeco band with one of the most incredible slide guitar solos in the middle of it. It’s just phenomenal front to back.
Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
I got into Lucinda in my mid-twenties, maybe a bit later than other people did, but I just remember the kickoff of this album — the guitar intro on “Right on Time.” And then hearing Lucinda sing was unlike anything I’d ever heard before.
I was so accustomed to hearing vocals that were overly produced and overly perfect, and here’s this singer who sounds like she’s just talking to you the whole time. She sounds like she’s communicating directly to you. It’s an album I could put on front of that at any time of day and just be enthralled.
Merle Haggard – A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or, My Salute to Bob Wills)
I’m a huge fan of Merle Haggard. It was really hard to pick my favorite Merle Haggard album, but the one I love most is a tribute album that he did to Bob Wills. I love Western Swing, and I love Merle Haggard, and I love that album. It’s just great. It’s Merle paying tribute to one of his greatest heroes, and Merle himself also plays a bit of fiddle on the record, which is pretty unusual in his career.
Willie Nelson – Sings Kristofferson
You know, it’s Willie singing Kristofferson songs. Here’s the way that I describe it to people: You have one of the greatest storytellers singing songs by one of the greatest story writers. You could tell Willie really loves these songs and makes them his own. It’s just so heartfelt from the top to bottom.
There’s a very classic Kristofferson song called “Sunday Morning Coming Down” that Johnny Cash covered, but Willie Nelson’s version is my ultimate favorite.
Alan Jackson – Everything I Love
In my teens, I was obsessed with grunge music, but my family listened to country music. Everyone in our area listened to country music, but I was just obsessed with Seattle and West Coast grunge. And then I remember hearing Alan Jackson, and realizing, as a snobby musician, that country musicians play their asses off. Alan Jackson in the 90s would just let his musicians play.
My favorite Alan Jackson record is called Everything I Love, and there are two songs in there that were never singles that I always repeat. One is called “Walk on the Rocks,” which is a beautiful song from a father that is sung to a son. The other song is “Between the Devil and Me,” which is a Harley Allen song. Alan sings his ass off and it’s just an amazingly powerful song and the production is insane.
Dwight Yoakam – This Time
Another singer that we grew up listening to a ton was Dwight Yoakam, and Dwight Yoakam was played in our household as much as any other artist growing up. Still, to this day, there’s no one like him. He was certainly the rebel of his time, and one of my favorite albums of all time is called This Time. It sounds like nothing had, and nothing has sounded like it since. That album made me such a huge fan of Pete Anderson, who was the guitar player in his band at the time, and it’s just a stellar album by one of the most incredible artists that country music has ever seen.
The Chicks – Wide Open Spaces
I remember hearing “Wide Open Spaces” on the radio, and I can still remember where I was. I remember being driven home from driver’s ed — I had my driver’s license at the time, and I remember being in the car with my friend, listening to country radio, and the song “Wide Open Spaces” came on and my ears perked up. I wondered, “Who is this band? Who is this singer? She sounds so unique.” And those harmonies are amazing, and it’s got a very bluegrass-centric sound to it.
Immediately, the next album I bought was Wide Open Spaces. I listened to that front to back, and I became such a massive fan, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. For a while there I annoyed my friends because that was the only record I played for about six months. All their records are amazing, so it was between that one and the Fly record, because Fly is absolutely nuts, but Wide Open Spaces just has such a special spot in my musical heart.
Alison Krauss & Union Station – So Long, So Wrong
The next one is a bit of a cheat. It’s technically not country, it’s bluegrass — but talk about an album that is, in my opinion, literally, sonically perfect. I put on this album now and it rivals anything that’s ever been put out. It was very sonically forward for an acoustic band; for a bluegrass band. The harmonies are outrageous, and it’s just all of the best musicians in bluegrass music making a very progressive acoustic record, which they’ve always done, but I feel like this was the beginning of their journey.
It kicks off with the song “So Long, So Wrong,” and it’s so clear, you can hear everything about it, from the sound of the pick touching the strings to the breath in the vocals. The soundscape that they made is just outrageous. There’s a mandolin player that played on that album named Adam Steffy, and listening to that album in particular is what made him still, to this day, my favorite mandolin player.
Lee Ann Womack – There’s More Where That Came From
One of my favorite vocalists of all time is Lee Ann Womack. In 2005, country music was shifting, and it was teetering into a much more commercial, overproduced sound, and she put out a real country record. The album kicks off with “Twin Fiddles,” which is one of my favorites because it sounds more like triple fiddles. Top to bottom it’s a masterclass in country playing, country writing, and country singing.
It’s an album that I don’t think was maybe one of her most successful albums as an artist, but it makes my top ten, so that’s how important it was to me. At the time, I was dating a girl that worked at her management and she got me a signed album; the vinyl was signed by Lee Ann Womack, and I’ve since met Lee Ann and I know her now, but I’ve never told her that because I’m way too embarrassed.
10 Country Albums John of Brothers Osborne Thinks Everyone Should Own
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