Port Saint Joe

Brothers Osborne’s new album, Port Saint Joe, cuts across every fence trying to pen music up. The opening cut, Slow Your Roll, kicks off with John Osborne’s free jazz runs up and down his guitar frets, inviting us into the spacious rooms of the rest of the album. The gentle murmur of the Gulf lap over Osborne’s guitars before TJ’s vocals lead into a funky shuffle that urges us to slow down and “take a little break from the rat race/Pour a little heaven on ice … The Lord’s been talking through the weather/A Sunday sermon in a sundown sky/Don’t think I could say it any better/So, I think I’m gonna take that advice.” In the propulsive rocker of a breakup song, Shoot Me Straight, the singer begs his lover to give him no shit about the breakup: “Make it burn the whole way down/Lay my 6 foot 4 inch ass out on the ground/Yeah, tomorrow I’ll have me one a hard hangover/And one hell of a heartache/So, pour a shot of whiskey/And shoot me straight.” John Osborne’s soaring lead riffs on the bridge recall the scalding, ingenious fretted flights of Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple’s “Lazy” and Gary Richrath on early REO Speedwagon albums. Weed, Whiskey and Willie is a slow burn of a song that blends the sonic echoes of a blues shout with the ache of a languid country waltz. The genius of the song derives from the canny combination of its melodic structure — the country waltz — with its bluesy guitar lines in the bridge. John says, “I wanted to write a song in 6/8 tempo, and I had that melody in my head. Trying to think of a heartbreak song with alliteration, but really wondered what if what the guy wants after a heartbreak are weed, whiskey, and Willie Nelson songs.” The singer’s clear about his needs after the heartbreak: “But don’t take my smoke, my jug of brown liquor, or my country music … My vices and heroes will hold me together while I’m letting you go.” Tequila Again opens with a jingly mandolin and with a melody that recalls the melodic structure of the chorus of Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)?” This tongue-in-cheek tune is a nod-and-a-wink to the beauties of tequila and the singer’s love for her. TJ says, “we wrote it in about 30 minutes on our tour bus. We started writing this and thought it would be fun to write a love song about tequila.” After the opening bars, the singer recalls his first meeting with his lover: “I’ll never forget the first time I kissed her … Had a hell of a time, yeah, we went all night/By morning, she messed up my head/I swore her off, but I’ll be damned/I fell in love with tequila again.” The album closes with a poignant acoustic folk tune While You Still Can, which quietly and intently urges us to embrace life while we still have the chance to do so: “Call up your momma on the telephone/Talk a whole lot of nothin’ 'til the cows come home/And listen.” Brothers Osborne is one of my favorite country bands and Port Saint Joe is an amazing album that I will keep on repeat for a while.