Anders Osborne Duo + Damon Fowler – 8pm $30/35

8pm $30/35

Anders Osborne https://www.andersosborne.com

On his 17th full-length album, singer-songwriter Anders Osborne describes Picasso’s Villa, “a condensed story about living in America between 2018-2021, the fears, confusion, deep joy and peace achieved through true friendship, family, community, hours of meditation and detachment from ego.

Bewildered, the first track released from the album, is an impressionistic reflection on four decades of American politics and culture, from the Reagan era through the digital world of the twenty-first century. Osborne says, “Bewildered began as an exercise in historical observation but it was engaging in a fun way to deep dive into the stories of the past that created instant cultural shifts. All these basic human rights issues have been made into divisive political issues. But at the core of everything is the bewilderment of suffering and the basic human longing for bliss. We are all playing a divine, eternal game with Brahman, this world’s duality prevents good nor bad from prevailing. We are bewildered and beguiled by love and fear.”

The song Dark Decatur Love, describes a time in Osborne’s early twenties when he was living and working down in the French Quarter of New Orleans, “I was feeling very sentimental and missing my youth. It brought me back to a very romantic time. There were five or six years in the lower French Quarter where we had started our own little scene of artists, pool sharks, and dancers that all congregated together there. All we thought about every day was being ourselves — trying on different costumes to discover who we were, seeking for truth in the darkest places. It was a joyful exercise in reminiscing in a beautiful way.”

The song Le Grand Zombie is Osborne’s response and tribute to the passing and influence of his friend and New Orleans legend Dr. John. The title song of Picasso’s Villa evokes the lives and work of legendary as a vehicle to express some of the contradictions of a musician’s life (Osborne is also a prolific painter himself). “Picasso’s Villa attempts to describe the music business and the jester like role performing musicians have. We’re a currency used, adjudicated, negotiated, transacted, valued and sometimes discarded.”

The album was recorded in New Orleans with an all-star cast of backing musicians, including guitarist Waddy Wachtel, drummer Chad Cromwell bassist and Bob Glaub. Sonically, the album captures a balance between the heavy, Crazy Horse-inspired rock present in Osborne’s live shows, while simultaneously leaning into the more contemplative singer-songwriter roots that inspired his music from the very beginning. “My process is so rough and free form,” Osborne explains, “but on this record, we managed to capture all that dirt with the right amount of polish on it.”

For Osborne, who has been in a twelve-step program for fifteen years, “The biggest change in getting sober was the focus on meditation and prayer, just looking more inward. When I’m sleeping in 140 different beds a year, eating unhealthy foods, the meditation is what keeps me centered. Holding myself in that sacred space for a while is what makes it possible for me to do all this.”

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Anders Osborne was born in 1966 in Uddevalla, Sweden and at a young age knew that he spoke the language of music and poetry well. He fell in love with everything from Vivaldi, Chopin and Black Sabbath to Robert Johnson, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Cat Steven’s to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. “Blues connected everything together for me,” Osborne recalls. “The early rock, the R&B, the jazz, the singer-songwriters. Blues was like a thread running through everything.” He began playing in open D tuning which gives his fretwork a signature sound and feel. “I first heard Open D on Joni Mitchell’s Blue, and my fingers just fit the tuning.” Osborne travelled around Europe in his late teens and in 1986, when he was nineteen years old, he visited New Orleans. He fell in love with the city, and never left.

Osborne released his first album Doin’ Fine in 1989 and as would be the case on is future releases, he wrote virtually all of the material. His songs have also appeared on recordings of other artists including two he co-wrote with Keb Mo for the latter’s Grammy winning Slow Down, and Tim McGraw’s number one Country hit Watch The Wind Blow By. Others who have recorded Osborne’s songs include Brad Paisley, Aaron Neville, and Trombone Shorty.

After living and performing there for almost four decades Osborne has become a fixture of the New Orleans musical community. Guitar Player called him “the poet laureate of Louisiana’s fertile roots music scene.” New Orleans’ Gambit Weekly has honored Osborne as the Entertainer of The Year. OffBeat named him the Crescent City’s Best Guitarist on three occasions, and the Best Songwriter twice. He has appeared at Jazz Fest for 35 years and will perform at the festival again in 2024.

In addition to his solo shows, Osborne has performed with the North Mississippi All Stars with whom he recorded the album Freedom and Dreams in 2015. He has also toured with and played with Toots and the Maytals, John Scofield to The Meters, No Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Stanton Moore Phil Lesh, Jackie Greene Bonnie Raitt, Dr. John and Taj Mahal. Osborne appeared as himself in an episode of the HBO series Treme and he has taught a course about art and the music business at Tulane University. Since 2019, Osborne has collaborated with Steve Earle at the annual Camp Copperhead songwriting camp.

Osborne works closely with the “Send Me A Friend” foundation and through writing music for New Orleans Children’s Museum. He has additionally worked closely with Million Strong, Love Rocks NYC, Stand Together, Trombone Shorty Foundation and Phoenix.

+ Damon Fowler