1 	Pontchartrain	4:47
2 	Life Don't Last That Long	4:37
3 	Lafayette	3:58
4 	Cape Cod	6:10
5 	Wind	4:47
6 	All There Is To Know	3:57
7 	Can You Still Hear Me	3:17
8 	Move Back To Mississippi	6:21
9 	Burning Up Slowly	3:45
10 	Tchoupitoulas Street Parade	4:55
11 	Big Talk	5:43
12 	From Space	6:09
 
Bass – Carl DuFrene
Bass [Upright] – James Singleton
Drums – Brady Blade, Johnny Vidacovich
Drums, Percussion – Tony Leone
Guitar [Additional] – Scott Metzger
Keyboards, Vocals [Additional] – Ivan Neville
Piano, Organ [Wurlitzer], Organ [Hammond B3] – John 'Papa' Gros*
Producer, Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards – Anders Osborne
Saxophone, Flute – Rex Gregory
Strings – Stevie Blacke
Trombone, Flugelhorn – Mark McGrain
Vocals [Additional] – Tiffany Lamson

Anyone who has experienced Anders Osborne in concert knows he can burn it up with guitar shred fireworks like Neil Young and Crazy Horse on an inspired night. Not surprisingly the trilogy of impressive — some may say career defining — albums he released on Alligator starting in 2010 highlighted that aspect of his talents. But Osborne has split from the label and the first indie release on his new imprint makes a clear sonic break with those discs too.

Instead of growling guitar rave-ups, Osborne sinks into a comfy, bittersweet and introspective vibe. Opening track “Pontchartrain” with barely there heartbeat-like tom-toms, a laid back circular guitar figure and Osborne repeating “I am a burning man” with wistful resignation, sets the stage for the remaining 11 selections. They follow a similar formula albeit with different, often beautifully layered instrumentation that includes subtle horns, reeds, keyboards and on the exquisite ballad “Cape Cod,” an overdubbed string quartet which makes the song arguably Osborne’s most sensitive and lovely composition.

Clearly Osborne is in reflective mode, even when the pace picks up in the low boil funk of “Wind” and the swampy crawl of “Move Back to Mississippi,” the disc’s toughest and most gospel inspired moment. He laments for a lover, now in heaven with a bluesy guitar break on the heartbreaking and emotional “Can You Still Hear Me?” made even more sensitive by strings that delicately swell at the song’s end. On the self-explanatory “Burning Up Slowly” we feel his angst trying to understand the flow of life set against sparse guitar, bass drum backing that along with his yearning voice is all the song needs to get its message across.

A cornucopia of top Louisiana session pros such as drummer Johnny Vidacovich, Ivan Neville and Brady Blade are credited but not with which song they contribute to. The closing spoken word with sparse, jazzy backing “From Space” brings in Rickie Lee Jones to add vocals on the disc’s most poetic, unusual and avant-garde piece that seems to be at least partially narrated by an alien.

How this will be received by Osborne’s fans who may be expecting something a bit more demonstrative based on his previous output remains to be seen. But give the singer-songwriter credit for shifting direction to follow a muse that is very much in evidence on this stirring set. ---americansongwriter.com

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01 – Away, Way Too Long [00:03:04]
02 – Back Together [00:05:24]
03 – Lonely Love [00:04:40]
04 – Dyin’ Days [00:04:10]
05 – Shining (Spacedust) [00:04:33]
06 – Brush Up Against You [00:07:16]
07 – Annabel [00:04:01]
08 – Katrina [00:05:01]
09 – Kings and Peasants [00:05:40]
10 – Many Wise Men [00:04:39]
11 – Junco Parda [00:04:48]

Anders Osborne – guitar, vocals 
Luther Dickinson – guitar, vocals
Cody Dickinson – drums, vocals

It’s a roots rock bonanza for fans of that American sound as North Mississippi Allstars and Anders Osborne have teamed up for a new album, Freedom and Dreams – and a tour in support of the disc.

“Freedom and Dreams is extremely honest and captures N.M.O.’s relaxed chemistry so well, most of these songs did not even have a proper count off or beginning,” says Allstars guitarist-vocalist Luther Dickinson in a new press release. “We were interested in combining Anders’ singing and songwriting with NMA’s groove and aesthetic to create something unique that neither of us could do without the other — a type of modern Southern folk rock.” Luther, along with brother Cody, are the sons of legendary record producer and musician Jim Dickinson, known for his work with the likes of Big Star, the Replacements, the Rolling Stones and Ry Cooder, just to name a few.

That enthusiasm was shared by Osborne, who said, “I loved every minute of this recording session! Surrounded by such an amazing group of people, filled those four days with non-stop creativity, love and good food! And the record came out sounding just like it! So good. Touring with N.M.O is going to be the perfect way to celebrate our friendship and musical connection. I can’t wait to share this with everyone!”

Both acts have been routinely heralded by critics and fans for staying true to their roots while looking ahead to what the future holds. In addition to the album, the two acts will be hitting the road from Feb. 18-April 11. Dubbed the North Mississippi Allstars and Anders Osborne Present N.M.O. tour, the 25 dates will feature separate sets from Osborne and the Allstars, as well as a joint venture onstage.

Freedom and Dreams just hit the streets (Feb. 17) via the band’s own N.M.O label. It was produced by Mark Howard and recorded at Dockside Studios in Louisiana.

As Dickinson so succinctly states, “N.M.O.’s primitive modernism agenda strives to combine Mississippi country blues guitar with hard danceable beats, making blues relevant and palatable to a new generation.” --- diffuser.fm

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1. Peace	6:47
2. 47	4:44	
3. Let It Go	4:35
4. Windows	4:59
5. Five Bullets	3:10
6. Brush Up Against Me		2:37
7. Sentimental Times	4:53	
8. Dream Girl	4:23	
9. Sarah Anne	5:43	
10. I'm Ready	4:08	
11. My Son	4:47

Anders Osborne (vocals, guitar, piano)
Carl Dufrene (vocals)
Jason Mingledorff (clarinet, tenor saxophone)
John Gros (French horn, piano, Hammond b-3 organ)
Eric Bolivar, Brady Blade (drums)
Warren Riker (percussion)
Justin Tocket, Susan Cowsill (background vocals)

Blues guitarist Anders Osborne switched gears musically earlier this year with the release of the semi-acoustic six-song EP Three Free Amigos. Eschewing the hard-charging, guitar-driven blues-rock thunderstorm of his 2012 album Black Eye Galaxy, Osborne's Three Free Amigos was like a sun-drenched morning after the rain cleared out. By contrast, he guitarist's Peace alnum manages to walk a fine line between the two recordings – cloudy afternoon music, as it were – Osborne delivering a highly autobiographical set of songs that build upon his trademark roots 'n' blues sound to incorporate elements of funk, psychedelic-rock, even scraps of reggae that evoke memories of the 1970s.

The title track opens the album with a bang, a shimmering cymbal riding low beneath oscillating guitar drone before a doom-laden dark rhythmic groove worthy of Black Sabbath kicks in. Actually, Osborne's fuzzy, buzzy fretwork sounds a lot like Neil Young, as do his measured vocals, which float into the song on an acoustic guitar strum. The song's biographical lyrics are delivered rather low-key but hide a deceptive edge only hinted at by the guitar, the singer's inner turmoil as brilliantly expressed as anything penned by such similar roots-music oriented wordsmiths as Young, John Fogerty, or Lowell George. The instrumental break is mesmerizing in its complexity, blues influences hanging over the lyrics more so than the music.

The sprawling, loose-limbed "47" is similar lyrically to "Peace," Osborne delivering his breathless vocals over a jaunty, reckless rhythm that drives the song forward like a perpetual motion machine, but it's with "Windows" that the guitarist fulfills his rock 'n' roll fantasies. With a strident guitar strum and wailing vocals, Osborne blends a bluesy vibe with an exotic rock soundtrack, the confessional lyrics telling a story that mixes classical mythology with Grateful Dead references, the finality of the chorus strengthened by the haunting vibe of Jason Mingledorff's bleating sax. Osborne's wiry solos sting like a 90-pound wasp, rolling off his fingers with no little urgency themselves, jumping headfirst into the blustery hard rock dirge that is "Five Bullets."

Osborne's "Five Bullets" is both the most political song he's ever penned, as well as one of the most emotionally powerful, the music driven by a rattletrap circular riff that pounds home the seriousness of the lyrics with the subtle grace of a runaway jackhammer. Lest readers forget, hard rock was born of the blues, and there's plenty of blues in the unseen tears cried here, albeit lost amidst the muscular arrangement and bludgeoning soundtrack. "Five Bullets" leads, seamlessly, into the chaotic intro of the mostly-instrumental "Brush Up Against Me," an industrial cacophony grinding along, casting a shadow across odd vocals, blasts of horn, the occasional guitar lick, and who knows what else is hidden in the mix? When Osborne's brief folkie vocals kick in against a madcap backdrop, it's quite jarring, but then the music devolves into territory only a demented genius like Eugene Chadbourne might explore.

Just as "Five Bullets" drops wordlessly into the tone poem that is "Brush Up Against Me," so does the latter song roll unexpectedly into the pastoral "Sentimental Times." At a certain age, mortality creeps up on all of us and nostalgia is often used as a weapon to ward off the evil spirits, and Osborne's "Sentimental Times" is a wistful, almost melancholy reminder of the passing years. The singer's vocals have seldom been more expressive, his subdued guitar playing never more elegant, the song hitting the ears like a cross between early Moody Blues and 1960s-era psych-pop tunesmiths like Emmitt Rhodes or Michael Fennelly. The life-affirming defiance of "I'm Ready" matches a bluesy undercurrent (especially in Osborne's guitarplay) with Dylanesque, word-heavy lyrics and pitch-perfect vocals whereas "My Son" is a loving ode to the next generation, a lilting, peaceful acceptance of, and nod to the future.

In more ways than one, Peace is Anders Osborne's "classic rock" album, the artist feeling, perhaps, like a man out of time. The late 1960s and early '70s were an era where blues music casually informed rock songwriting, with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf as big an influence on young rockers as Elvis Presley or Bob Dylan. There's little here that the traditionalist would consider even remotely "bluesy" and yet blues music imbues every performance on Peace, hanging around in the corner of the studio like the ghost of a favored ancestor.

And make no mistake, the songs on Peace are haunted by a lot of ghosts, not only those of the long-dead bluesmen and women that placed Osborne on his life's path, but also by his addictions and renewal, his triumphs and his failures. Peace stamps paid to all of Osborne's past, the album a work of staggering lyrical and musical genius that creeps into your consciousness and forces you pay attention. --- Reverend Keith A. Gordon, blues.about.com

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01 – Send Me A Friend
02 – Mind Of A Junkie
03 – Lean On MeBelieve In You
04 – When Will I See You Again
05 – Black Tar
06 – Black Eye Galaxy
07 – Tracking My Roots		play
08 – Louisiana Gold
09 – Dancing In The Wind
10 – Higher Ground		play

Anders Osborne - Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Harmonica,
 			Percussion, Piano, Producer, Vocals
Carl Dufrene - Bass, Vocals
Billy Iuso - Guitar, Vocals
Eric Bolivar - Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Aria Iuso, Rose Osborne, Sarah Osborne - Vocals (Background)
Stevie Blacke - String Arrangements, Strings

Anders Osborne extended his reach as a guitarist, songwriter, and recording artist on his Alligator debut, American Patchwork, in 2010. It was louder, wilder, and more psychically free than anything he'd issued previously, while retaining his singer/songwriter skills so wonderfully displayed on 2007's Coming Down. Black Eye Galaxy is the culmination of this trilogy, albeit being a startlingly new entity. It seamlessly marries desperate, overloaded, molten hard rock and blues to expertly written songs that grow more tender, accepting, and optimistic by the set's close. Osborne creates something totally his own; genres cease to matter. Co-produced by Osborne, Stanton Moore, and engineer Warren Riker, the meld of sounds is immediate, gripping, sometimes harrowing, and always uncompromising no matter what is being expressed. The primal "Send Me a Friend" is a boatload of riff-and-roar. It's a redefinition of the blues regardless of whether it follows 12 bars. The song is about the complete isolation of addiction; it's a howl of terror and pleading to an unknown God with bludgeoning riffs and a ripping solo. "Mind of a Junkie" begins by crossing Neil Young & Crazy Horse with Wes Montgomery. Its lyrics reveal the cycle of addiction, recovery, relapse, and beginning again, the frustration and dangers and character flaws all expressed honestly and without artifice. Its angular guitar solo moves into a strange, lovely terrain, never leaving the soul of the tune behind. "Black Tar" is a slide guitar screamer; Osborne's vocals, plodding rhythm section, and effects just crackle, break, and crunch, without sacrificing melody in the punishing thud. The title track is a long, haunting, and labyrinthine psychedelic ballad, with gorgeous guitar and rhythm section interplay; it's a wellspring of inspired improvisation. Despite the brief respite of a gorgeous love song in the middle of all this, "Lean on Me/Believe in You," the first half of the record is pure stress, strain, and primal shriek. The set's final four songs are, by contrast, nearly serene, as the country-ish "Tracking My Roots" gives way to the acoustic traveling song "Louisiana Gold." The languid 4/4 love song that is "Dancing in the Wind" sets up the stellar closer. "Higher Ground" is like a gospel testament, but it's personal, not evangelical. With Stevie Blacke's sparse but nearly regal strings and backing vocals by Osborne's band, wife, and children, it's an anthem about the transformative power of love itself. Black Eye Galaxy rises from the depths of an individual's hell transformed via its songwriter's vision to the heights of possibility -- personally, poetically, and musically. It's the most consistent, expertly rendered offering in Osborne's catalog, the place where everything and everywhere he's been as a musician come together in a glorious whole. ---Thom Jurek, allmusic.com

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