It's "cardio day" this morning and I'm here again early this morning with my coffee, my motivation to sweat and this Buddha and the Blues album by Anders Osborne.
Since I'm back at the gym, I've tried to look up artists and bands that I've haven't thought about since, well, the last time I frequented the gym. I this case, it was back in 2014 when I last thought about, much less listened to an Anders Osborne album ... and it was awesome.
In referencing his new album, Buddha and the Blues, singer-songwriter and guitarist Anders Osborne references the duality of existence. His own existence, one that began in Sweden and migrated to the U.S. in his teenage years, has been one of creative success, personal struggles with addiction, and a nearly uninterrupted cycle of albums and tours. Having taken up residence in New Orleans for over three decades, Osborne has become a fixture of the Crescent City's musical community, regularly performing at Jazz Fest, both properly and in late-night appearances, including for several years ongoing with Dead Feat.
Yet, Osborne's latest recording (2019) effort takes him further back to the roots of his musical inspirations- the singer-songwriter era of Southern California in the 1970's- and to a recording studio in a small arts village of Ojai, north of Los Angeles, working with session vets such as Waddy Wachtel (Warren Zevon, Keith Richards), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty), and Bob Glaub (Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt), as well as producer (and drummer) Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Mark Knopfler).
One disclaimer though: If you're looking for the kind of intense confessions and shredding guitar solos that you heard on American Patchwork and its follow ups, this probably won't be your kind of Anders album. He is, for the most part, in an upbeat frame of mind here, the guitars are built more on textural layers than firebrand solos, and the first words he speaks on the album—"intimate and warm"—clue you in on what he's after. Indeed, the advance single Traveling With Friends is one of the few flat-out joyful songs in his catalogue; it's about the reassurance that such travels can provide for other parts of your life.
The songs don't avoid darker topics, from substance abuse to Donald Trump, though the musical context is often more reassuring (and Trump deservedly gets the one angry outburst on the album, Smoke & Mirrors). Escape is as frank as any of Osborne's substance-related songs, but its chorus, an exuberant Yeah! is framed by a Harrison-esque slide guitar—the song is ultimately about the triumph of getting free. The title track, which offers the two directions one's outlook can take, has another touch of George Harrison in its lyric ("Life flows in any which way we choose"), but the graceful melody is Osborne's own.
Definitely a mellower listen than I was planning on hearing, but still pretty awesome nonetheless.
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