Anders Osborne "Peace"

This also arrived in a BKP care package in November with the message, "...in heavy rotation."  I had such a backlog of recordings that this only made the player three weeks ago and now I'm upset with myself for missing out for four months.  This is easily one of my favorite albums of the past half year.

A Swede transplanted to New Orleans in 1990 at age 24, his first big album arrived five years later via a Sony label and I swear I had it in my collection but my index suggests otherwise.  Besides releasing a dozen or so albums since, he's also worked with and/or contributed songs to Keb' Mo', Tab Benoit, Tim McGraw, Kim Carnes and Galactic, to name a few.

As far as this album is concerned, I find that I've made the same observations as many others who reviewed this months ago when it was released. There's a heavy resemblance to Neil Young on the opening title track, performed live here, but skip the first two minutes of buildup...



...and a Whiter Shade of Pale vibe on this track, though it's more apparent on the studio version than here...



You will note the swing from heavy to reflective in the two songs.  This would have been a classic A-side/B-side piece of vinyl back in the day.  The first five song songs are head-bobbing/foot-stompin' slabs and it isn't fair to even consider turning off before the twenty-four minutes are done.  The final five are more the melancholy, meditative variety which were initially difficult to digest after the rockin' first half but became easier, and better, when played on their own.  Since this was a CD and not an LP, there is a track placed between the two varying styles designed, I'm guessing, to separate the two, 157 seconds of psychedelia that had me in the car yelling, "Number 9, Number 9, Number 9."  Try it for yourself here...  As for a couple of observations I made that I didn't read, one is the studio vocals have a Joe Walsh-whine in several locations and a Boz Scaggs-howl on some of the slower tunes.

While finishing this up, I've been wading through some other videos of his and the first half of this record again.  I have to play one more song...



A nice little autobiographical track that made me comment, "Jack Johnson and John Mayer can kiss my ass!"  I won't let another of his records slide through the cracks.  Hope he has new material sooner than later...