Stanton Moore’s Groove Alchemy, released earlier the same month, had a strong connection to this one: New Orleans-based singer-songwriter Anders Osborne brought in both the drummer and his keyboardist Robert Walter to play on American Patchwork, which arrived on April 27, 2010. Moore also co-produced.
Yet the music could hardly be more different. The title and the music contained within American Patchwork showed how much Swedish-born Osborne has absorbed and embraced the Home of the Free and Land of the Brave. Those things invite comparisons to John Mellencamp, but Osborne rocks harder. Meanwhile, Moore and Walter’s presence pumped in enough soul to keep this from sounding like rowdy garage rock.
The blues isn’t as explicit as in Osbourne’s earlier offerings, but American Patchwork brought out both his rocking and songwriter sides, while still hinting at those blues.
Whether he’s admonishing the bad habits of others (“On the Road to Charlie Parker”) or his own (“Echoes of My Sins”), Anders Osborne ably mixed in the choicest components of rock, folk, soul and sometimes even reggae (“Got Your Heart”) to create a very American patchwork of styles that makes him as much of a Yank as someone born and bred here.
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