Brothers Osborne Preview 'Watertown' Album With 'Sellout Edits' — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Brothers Osborne will release their new album 'Watertown' on Oct. 23, an LP the duo describes as an allusion to their hometown of Deale, Maryland, and as an answer to the 'perpetual question' of why a pair of Marylanders ended up in country music
- TJ and John Osborne are previewing the album not with full song releases but with short clips tailor-made for social media, sarcastically rebranding the approach as 'Sellout Edits' — a nod to their long-held 'we will never sell out' credo
- 'Watertown' features collaborations with Stephen Wilson Jr. and Cody Johnson, including the opener 'Born and Raised Hell' with Johnson, a pairing TJ Osborne acknowledged likely crosses political lines but was driven purely by respect for Johnson's voice
- John Osborne discussed mental health struggles during the pandemic and personal growth, saying he's 'come to terms' with the anxious pilot light inside him even after the band's success, while TJ said success initially made the creative process harder because there was 'a lot to lose'
- Brothers Osborne reunite with producer Jay Joyce after their 2023 self-titled LP produced by Mike Elizondo; John said he tried producing the band himself but 'hate[d] it' because he was thinking about radio and stacking instead of the song
- TJ Osborne critiqued the modern music industry as increasingly fixed on 'star quality' and intrusive social media access rather than talent, while John called today's artist path a 'lonely island' compared to the communal jam sessions of their early-2000s Nashville friend group with Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, and Charlie Worsham
- John Osborne reflected that their once-tight circle of aspiring friends — several of whom now hold multiple Grammys and No. 1s — rarely sees each other anymore, joking that the old Hotel Villa jam-session photo 'would never have been believed' as a future-superstars picture
Why it matters: By sarcastically labeling their social-media clips 'Sellout Edits,' Brothers Osborne publicly name the tension every legacy artist now negotiates between artistic depth and algorithmic reach — and signal that for them, the compromise is worth making. Their willingness to collaborate with Cody Johnson across likely political lines, combined with TJ's on-the-record critique of an industry now fixated on 'star quality' over talent, positions the Grammy duo as both insiders and reluctant commentators on country music's commercial pressures.
Ask SkimNews
