Brothers Osborne – Watertown
The album opens and closes on the same dot on the map. The only difference is volume.
Watertown is Brothers Osborne’s fifth studio album, and it is named for home: Deale, Maryland, the little water town on the Chesapeake that raised John and TJ Osborne. Anybody who grew up in a place like that knows this record already. It is the drive back down the road you swore you were done with, past the same houses and the same pier, carrying everything you have done since you left. Not the postcard homecoming. The real one.
Track one kicks the screen door in. “Born and Raised Hell” features Cody Johnson, and it is exactly what the title promises: hell-raising as a hometown sport, with John’s guitar doing half the confessing. It is one of two collaborations on the record, a first for the brothers on a full-length album. Loud, loose, and not one bit sorry about any of it.
Producer Jay Joyce is back behind the glass, and the fit is like a worn-in pair of boots. TJ Osborne doesn’t sing down to the low notes. He lives there. That baritone is the floor everything else stands on, and Joyce is smart enough not to polish the rough off it. Honest verdict: this is a very commercial record. It is also very Brothers Osborne. With this band, those have always been the same thing.
The middle of the record is where the writing earns its keep. “Doors” is the clever one. Life as a hallway of them, every door a new phase on the other side, and John’s solo at the bridge is the sound of one swinging open. “Bottle It Up” is the catchiest tune here, an attempt to bottle up a summer day and keep it, pecan pie and an acoustic guitar solo, and it follows you out to the truck whether you invited it or not. It is also an outside cut, written by Dan Isbell, Josh Kear, and Paul Sikes. The brothers cut outside songs for the first time on this record, and “Bottle It Up” argues they should have done it sooner. “Tough Kid,” featuring Stephen Wilson Jr., is the second collaboration, about a kid who learned to keep his chin up and his feelings down. That one sits with you a while.
One wrinkle worth naming: ahead of the album, the brothers put out shorter alternate versions of several songs as “Sellout Edits,” trimmed down for modern listening habits, with the full versions offered through their fan club. Cutting a song short to suit the feed is a little like cutting off a good story before the punch line to save time. These songs earn their minutes. The full record is the way to hear them.
By the last track, the hell-raising is over. A grandmother is gone, her ashes ride out on the tide, and the same boy who raised all that hell is asking to be buried in the ground that raised him. “Watertown,” a solo write from John, closes the record the way the opener promised: same town, same brothers, a whole life of living in between.
Most records end. This one comes home to be buried.
Find more information here on their website: https://www.brothersosborne.com/
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: Show Review: Brothers Osborne w/Ruston Kelly at the Anthem in DC
Musicians on the album are TJ Osborne on vocals, acoustic guitar and hand claps; John Osborne on electric guitar, resonator guitar, acoustic Guitar, tambourine, hand claps and background vocals; Jay Joyce on electric guitar, programming, keys, juno, B3, omnichord, percussion, bongos, tambourine and background vocals; Jason Graumlich on electric guitar, lap steel, hand claps and background vocals; Shaun Richardson on acoustic guitar, banjo and hand claps; Cal Knowles on bass, marimbula and hand claps; Johnnie Smith on B3, Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Juno, synth bass, misc. keys and hand claps; Adam Box on drums, tambourine and hand claps; Bobby Louden and Jaxon Hargrove on hand claps; Jason Hall on hand claps and background vocals; Emma Grandillo, Kristen Rogers, and Lucie Silvas on background vocals; Cody Johnson on vocals on “Born and Raised Hell”; and Stephen Wilson Jr. on vocals on “Tough Kid.”
The album was produced by Jay Joyce and recorded by Jason Hall at Neon Cross Studio in Nashville, TN. It was mixed by Jason Hall and Jay Joyce with assistance by Bobby Louden and Jaxon Hargrove. Production coordination was given by Court Blankenship. It was mastered by Andrew Mendelson at Georgetown Mastering (Nashville, TN). Cody Johnson appears courtesy of Cojo Music / Warner Music Nashville.