If one were to culminate the incredible ride TJ and John Osborne have been on, it would only take three letters – Bam! Although the Deale, Maryland natives have been working on their craft for decades, it appears that the Brothers Osborne popped out of nowhere last year, stealing our hearts and accolades along the way.
And why shouldn’t they be celebrated – they are, for a lack of better words, incredible. Their third single, “Stay A Little Longer,” secured them their first #1 hit and a Grammy nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance, in addition to an ACM nomination and two nominations for Wednesdays CMA awards. And last night at the 54th Annual ASCAP Awards, the duo were surprised to learn that said single was honored as the Top ASCAP Song of the Year.
Let’s not forget that their entire catalog thus far is unparalleled to anything else in contemporary country. Their debut album, Pawn Shop, is an absolutely stellar pregnancy of traditional and contemporary country, with TJ’s alluring baritone intensifying the music while John invokes the late Chet Atkins with his ability to tell a story through his guitar. If you’ve ever been fortunate to see them live, you’ll know that those qualities are not magic tricks from a production studio – they are incredible showmen, foul-mouthed and invigorating and passionate about everything that they produce. If they weren’t magnetic, they wouldn’t have been recruited to open for the likes of Darius Rucker in 2015, or for Miranda Lambert on her recent Keeper Of the Flame tour.
Now underway on their first headlining tour, the Dirt Rich Tour, the real life brothers are bringing it – “We’ve been touring now for years playing with a lot of other really talented headliners, but this is the first time we’ve been able to come out and have it be our show with our production and bring our crowd,” TJ said during the red carpet before shaking audiences to the core during the live broadcast of Skyville Live. “We’ve done a lot of ground work for this. It’s relieving in some senses and really nerve wracking in others. If we go out there and it doesn’t sell well, that’s all on us. We’re playing in some really cool markets and I think it’s going to be the perfect thing for us to take it to the next level. I feel really positive about it. But it’s been a lot of work – more work than I kind of expected. Having to get new songs prepared, having to get the production and all of that together. It really – in this career you have a lot more to do than just writing songs and recording and performing them. You have to have your hands involved in everything – the look of the show and all of that. It’s been a lot of work so we’re ready to take it on the road.”
But it’s just not the road that is bringing the pressure – with such an impactful first year, the duo have to up the ante looking forward. “People want to hear real country music lately, which is awesome because we love playing really, really country music,” TJ told The Country Note during stated red carpet. “Of course you feel pressure in certain ways. John and I for the longest time were kind of the band that if people don’t know, they don’t have much of an expectation, and they have this element of surprise. They’re like “Oh I didn’t hear of this band, they were great!” Now they are walking into the room and they’re like “Ok, this is the band that just got nominated for a Grammy. ‘This is a band I just saw in..’ whatever. So when you go in there they’re like “you better bring it,” because they are ready to tear your ass up . It’s a high expectation.”
“The cool thing is our music has been riding this line, like there’s a commercial element to it there’s also a cool, hip fresh element to it as well,” adds John. “I think people are expecting us to continue to do that, which is awesome because if they expected us to put out another record of nothing but just right down the middle songs, that’s not challenging. The cool thing is we have the support of our fellow musicians, fellow songwriters and everyone in the business to keep doing what we’re doing and that’s something that we’re forever grateful for. Full disclosure, we suck at doing anything else that we don’t already do. So if we tried to sound commercial or sound like everyone else we would be really, really terrible at it. So fortunately things are working out in a way that we can still sound like us and continue our career.”
And what an undoubtedly incredible career these brothers have in store for them. If you haven’t already purchased a copy of their debut album, Pawn Shop, buy it. And if you get the chance to catch them on tour, get the tickets. You can thank me later.