Anders Osborne—Ash Wednesday Blues

In those immortal lines, "slow ride, take it easy," the whole Anders Osborne groove is encapsulated in a few words. Running from the start, a new, happier, less inebriated Osborne makes New Orleans music and makes it good. He sings about drunken nights, gives us giddy infatuation expressed in a polysyllabic bit of silliness, laid back love songs based on Keb’Mo’s plinking a fine banjo ("Stuck On My Baby"), deep funking grooves which pour with the molten iron of Jonny Lang’s acerbic and biting guitar and a hungover post-Mardi Gras lament that is the title’s inspiration. Partners in crime include Davell Crawford’s keys, Cyrille Neville’s percussion, Kirk Joseph providing a bottom deep as the Miss on his Sousaphone or Leon Medica’s bass. The feel is as deep and moving as the Mother of Waters. Funky, spiritual, true love and Dixieland soul, drunken slow mo second line tales of misfortune and chugging NOLA good times. It’s all there for you to taste, just like Anders Osborne’s adopted city.—Mark Gresser