Brothers Osborne / Tyler Braden O2 Academy, Glasgow 22nd January 2025

This was my first time seeing the Maryland-born brothers but I’ve seen pictures and I’ve heard stories about previous shows at venues like The Queens Hall, Edinburgh and ABC Glasgow on their journey to build a loyal, engaged and ever-growing audience. Word has been getting around, even in the rock community, where the band have huge cross-over appeal.

Supporting artist Tyler Braden was a new name to almost everyone in attendance but by the end of his short set, he and his band had won a whole bunch of new friends. Hailing from ‘Slapout’ Alabama, Tyler is a burly, bearded and authentic-looking country boy. He started out as a firefighter before moving to Nashville and he brought a strong deep voice and a pocketful of great songs with him to Scotland.

With the band already on stage, Tyler emerged wearing a ‘Still Game’ bunnet and holding just a microphone to deliver ‘Me or the Dawn’ almost in the style of modern country-rap, as performed by artists like Jelly Roll and Hardy. After that, he strapped on a guitar and rocked-up a more traditional country storm with ‘More Than a Prayer’ and followed that with the hard-driving ‘Thank Me for That’ which might just be his best and most-underrated song.

In between those two, came an important men’s mental health message in ‘Call Me First’ which Tyler was apparently inspired to write by real-life events and repeat listens of The Fray’s ‘How to Save a Life’ and it has become one of his most-played tracks.

In addition to the bunnet, Tyler also shamelessly sucked up to the Scottish crowd with a snippet from our contemporary national anthem ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), thankfully without doing a Shrek accent and he at least had the good grace to find out what “havering” meant in advance. Tyler’s Mom is over here with him and she was right down the front for this show, so he serenaded her with a brief excerpt of Elvis’ (You’re the) Devil in Disguise, which set-up the next song; a great new un-released one called ‘So Long’ which is an angry and bitter “go to hell” song written for an ex: (“it’s been so long, since you said so long….but it ain’t been long enough”). Could it be any more country?

The closing number was ‘Devil You Know’ and this song has been getting a lot of radio play, which certainly helps to raise the profile. When Tyler finished the vocal bit, he waved and walked off to leave the stage to the band (Will Martin: Bass, Dan Crawford: Guitar and Eric Schanie. Drums) for a mini-Freebird instrumental freak-out at the end. He didn’t come back but he will have heard the clapping and cheering all the way back to the dressing room after a job-well-done warming up the crowd. We’ll be hearing more from this guy.

The Brothers Osborne opened their set with some swirling Hammond Organ before launching into their ultimate party-starter ‘Might as Well Be Me’. You can’t help thinking about the Danny DeVito / Arnold Schwarzenegger film ‘Twins’ when you see the titular siblings on the stage. They’re both tall and strong but guitarist John sports that eternal country look with hat, beard, work shirt and boots, while TJ sports a sharper haircut and a more fashionable city slicker look. They both sing brilliantly but TJ takes the lead most of the time with John providing the lead guitar parts and vibes.

Including the brothers, there is a six-piece band in action and for ‘Nobody’s Nobody’ they each have a vocal mic and join in on the harmonies. ‘Shoot Me Straight’ follows that and gives Big John a chance to step on a riser and show his guitar skills. ‘Skeletons’ is a highlight. Lyrically, it borrows a line from Crystal Gayle’s 1978 hit ‘Talking in Your Sleep’ and adds a clever chorus line of “you’ve got skeletons in your closet – and I’ve got a bone to pick with them”.

TJ introduces my favourite of the band’s tracks as “one for the love birds”. Of course, it is ‘I Don’t Remember Me (Before You); and the brothers’ vocal inter-play is Everly-level good. The band’s outlaw country swagger and attitude are on display with ‘I’m Not for Everyone’ and ‘Weed, Whiskey and Willie’. I suppose the Weegie equivalent would be ‘Beer, Buckfast and Boaby’ although it’s not that kind of Willie in the real song – its Willie Nelson. That was followed up with the first of two cover songs that are popular with football crowds in Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ which is a favourite with Gainesville’s Florida Gators. The BO’s version featured on an EP last year.

To emphasise that this is not your grand-daddy’s old country & western, TJ absolutely slays on ‘Stay a Little Longer’ with all its ripping off of T-shirts and hands all over bodies. This song was the absolute roof-raiser of the night and earned a frenzied response and extended post-song enthusiastic ovation from a crowd who were bringing it all night long. Unfortunately, just after they had opened up a can of musical whoop-ass and whipped the crowd into a frenzy, the buzz was killed by an inexplicable cover of Bob Marley’s reggae plodder ‘Three Little Birds’ whose “Don’t Worry About a Thing’ refrain is popular with fans of Ajax Amsterdam among others. I think the idea was to supply some musical ganja to mellow everyone out, and maybe some of the people in America might need it, but frankly, I was there to party and that song was a pooper. Some folks seemed to enjoy a wee singalong though, but I couldn’t help thinking about what we missed out on to accommodate this clunker.

A tasty bit of slide guitar in ‘Rum’ started to build things up again and a throbbing version of ‘Burning Man’ (the brothers’ collaboration with Dierks Bentley) got us back on track before the main set closed with another absolutely classic live masterpiece ‘It Ain’t My Fault’. This was clearly a crowd favourite and folks were absolutely on-point with syncopated hand-claps and a Native American sounding vocal “woah-oh” chant which they kept going long after the song had finished and maintained right up until the band came back on for a 3-song encore.

Lyrically, ’21 Summer’ is like a country take on the Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer of ‘69’ theme and that was followed by ‘Break Mine’ and ‘Heart Shaped Locket’ before we all went noisily into the cold Scottish night. I think the next time we see these brothers here it will be in an even bigger hall – they’ve earned it.