Brothers Osborne - "21 Summer"

[sabre14]

Artist: Brothers Osborne
Single: "21 Summer"
Writers: John Osborne, T.J. Osborne, Craig Wiseman
Album: Pawn Shop
Label: EMI Nashville
Add Date: February 29, 2016

[matty005]

Wonderful follow up! So glad to see this is being released!

[zjames]

Yes, yes, yes! I had a feeling this was coming when they retweeted a fan's tweet mentioning that "21 Summer" needed to be the next single. It's definitely the right choice. "American Crazy" is much too bland and forgettable.

I see this being a big #1 for them. It's being released at a perfect time to be a big summer hit.

[matty005]

Jan 24, 2016 20:55:43 GMT -5 zjames said:

Yes, yes, yes! I had a feeling this was coming when they retweeted a fan's tweet mentioning that "21 Summer" needed to be the next single. It's definitely the right choice. "American Crazy" is much too bland and forgettable.

I see this being a big #1 for them. It's being released at a perfect time to be a big summer hit.

I am a huge summer fanatic (love the warm weather - don't ask me why I live in the North East). But one of the first signs of warmer weather is this board talking about, "summer hits" when songs are released in January/February. :) I agree that this will be a huge summer hit!

[Deleted]

GTFO. I was expecting "American Crazy."

This one has a GREAT old-school feel to it especially in the chorus and will go absolutely wonderfully on the radio next to the likes of Chris Stapleton, Jon Pardi, and Maddie & Tae.

[cerulean]

This song is absolutely fantastic! I agree about the great old-school feeling this has. Didn't think they could beat "Stay a Little Longer" for me, but this one might do it.

I can't seem to get enough of Jay Joyce's production nowadays. I really need to get around to listening to their new album.

[Deleted]

Fantastic choice! This was my second favorite on the album after "Loving Me Back", and I think it's the perfect time to release this! I love how there's a sense of maturity from the male narrator and how he looks back on the time he spent with the girl as good rather than the traditional, "The girl left me as soon as summer ended and now I'm sad" storyline.

[tvoss20]

Yes!

[ethanhunt]

Really liking this one (and love Stay a Little Longer) gonna need to check out the album

[tim]

This is just one of those songs that you know years from now you're going to want to go back and listen to it again and again. This should be a big hit for them going into the spring/summer months. I'm almost gushing over this song it's so good lol.

[jonathanalan]

Perfect!

[zaclord 🌈]

Love this one! Not my favorite on the album (that would be "Loving You Back"), but definitely a great choice for a single since a lot of their album doesn't sound much like other songs on the radio right now. This one should do well for them.

[43dudleyvillas]

This is an early favorite for my favorite melody in a 2016 country single. It's perfect for the tenderness and yearning of the lyric. I also really like the production on this -- phil1996 made a good point in the Pawn Shop thread about "21 Summer" giving him Eric Church "Springsteen" vibes, between the acoustic guitar line and the background "oh"s. But Jay Joyce also does a great job distinguishing the two songs -- the bass line in "21 Summer" feels very throwback and the slide guitar in "21 Summer" gives the song a laid-back, almost Hawaiian feel, whereas "Springsteen" relied more on piano and percussion. It's also a neat, dynamic touch how the outro of the song picks up the intensity and the driving feel for a few bars.

"21 Summer" is definitely one of my favorites from the Pawn Shop album, and probably the song that I preferred as a single (certainly over the blandly and cheaply populist "American Crazy"). I'm going to try not to let the unanimity (so far) in this thread make me irrationally hopeful about how "21 Summer" will do, but my fingers are crossed that it will be a hit.

[Deleted]

Well, this is fantastic. I didn't know if they could top "Stay A Little Longer", but they did. I'm gonna wait until this has an adds date before I start voting for it in the Weekly Pulse Country Chart Thread, but I already know this is going to debut in my top 3.

TJ's vocals on this are simply incredible. And the melody is absolute perfection. This is one of those songs that completely embodies the wistful sound I enjoy so much. I really love the drums and the old school feel throughout the chorus, and I also love the "oh's" right after the chorus.

I wish I could do a better job at explaining just why I love this one so much. It's just hard to put it in words. Every single thing about this song is just right (when it comes to the things I personally enjoy about music and the emotions it can evoke).

I predict this will be a huge #1 for these guys. I can see it being one of the biggest hits of 2016.

[CoJoFan]

Great choice for the second single!

[countryman87]

It will have to have a faster chart run considering how long it took SALL took to reach #1. Its doable that they can get there in 30 weeks or less now they have momentum going for them but anyway a great single choice.

[Deleted]

"21 Summer" will be delivered to radio on Tuesday, February 16. Its official add/impact date is February 29.

This ad was in a CRS email this week:

[sabre14]

Like I said in the "T-Shirt" thread...that February release schedule is loaded with high profile releases. I'm positive there will be casualties as a result but I definitely do not think it'll be "21 Summer" will be one of them -- radio loves this duo right now and they're coming off a big #1 (MB) single. I also think the song itself screams huge hit and it should match the success of "Stay A Little Longer."

The jam-packed single release schedule usually happens around CRS, but man.

[rsmatto]

I had a little fun with photoshop to create cover art for this single.

Might be some of my best 'work' in a while (knowing that I didn't create the logo or photo).

[sabre14]

The Highway has started to play this one. Sounds soooooo good on the car radio.

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2016 21:02:33 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

The Highway has started to play this one. Sounds soooooo good on the car radio.

I was lucky enough to hear "21 Summer" premiering on a local station tonight at 8. I agree, it sounds really good on the radio...but of course I expected nothing less!

This is my favorite radio single right now. I absolutely love everything about it...the vocals, lyrics, production. It's pretty much perfect.

[sabre14]

"21 Summer" is the most added song on Mediabase this week with at least 46 adds on impact day. Over 50 stations total.

"Stay A Little Longer" got 42 adds on impact day if you're curious.

[robenglund]

Feb 29, 2016 15:39:00 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

"21 Summer" is the most added song on Mediabase this week with at least 46 adds on impact day. Over 50 stations total.

"Stay A Little Longer" got 42 adds on impact day is you're curious.

Glad to hear this is off to a great start. I can't get enough of this song. Can't wait to hear it on the radio. 

[sabre14]

These two need to have their own radio show. Their interviews on The Highway have been gold.

This just missed the Mediabase top 50 this week, landing at #51.

[sabre14]

Article in Billboard about "21 Summer":

It’s fuzzy, ethereal and mysterious, a sound so hauntingly unique that it practically defines Brothers Osborne’s new single, “21 Summer.”

Ninety seconds into the three-and-a-half minute performance, the opening melody from the chorus is reprised by a melancholy sonic stew. It’s a jumble of five voices, layered in tandem with an electric guitar and slathered with reverb, and the other-worldly sound cements the complex ball of emotion in the lyrics’ grateful heartbreak.

“It’s that eerie nostalgia that you can’t quite put your finger on,” guitarist John Osborne says. “It’s about looking back on a time in your life, regardless of how a previous relationship went. Whatever went wrong seemed to drift away and you only remember the glow of it, and the beauty of it and the importance of it.”

The ghostly “21 Summer” is resurrected from another part in the brothers’ development. Written around the end of 2011, it’s the oldest song on their debut album, Pawn Shop, which EMI released Jan. 15. As a result, that hazy signature in “21 Summer” could be considered the starting point for the entire album, since it was also the starting point for the song. It was a guitar riff in its original incarnation when John played it for his brother, vocalist T.J. Osborne, and songwriter Craig Wiseman (“Live Like You Were Dying,” “Boys ’Round Here”) at Wiseman’s Big Loud Shirt offices on Music Row in Nashville.

The riff was intriguing, though where it was headed wasn’t immediately obvious. “It’s never clear right off the bat,” says T.J. “Most people that write songs are emotionally all over the place, so you can kind of really pick from a palate of different feelings. Really the first battle is to just kind of get everyone on the same page of what you want the message to be.”

There was something nostalgic about the melody, and the theme soon became fixed around the memory of an old flame. “I can guarantee where it started — you’re kind of looking back on one of those crazy chicks you dated,” says Wiseman. “I talk about my old days when I was in bands, and you don’t talk about that stuff very long before crazy chicks come up.”

The woman in “21 Summer,” though, isn’t just a crazy memory. She’s more a signpost in the singer’s emotional development. The first verse establishes a couple random bits of culture — a blue Chevrolet, a song they shared — that trigger an appreciation for her role in the guy’s life. He doesn’t know where she is anymore, but John found the right words to address her at the start of the chorus: “I hope you find the storm that you were chasin’.”

They alluded to the physicality of the relationship — “the night that you slipped off those cutoff jeans” — but Wiseman also thought they should grab something specific to the Osbornes to make it a little more personal. As they discussed the brothers’ history in Deale, Md., on the coast of the Chesapeake Bay, Wiseman interjected “the sound of high-tide thunder,” a short phrase that spoke volumes about their past.

“We grew up right on the water, and when we would stand out there on the water’s edge, we would watch the storm come in and the lightning,” recalls John. “That, attached to all of the loves and stuff that you grew up with, I was like, ‘Wow.’ That was one of the most powerful images I’ve ever heard.”

They made a demo of the song, then cut a fuller version where the original guitar riff was transformed into a vocal hook. That performance wasn’t released, but the Osbornes revisited the song when they aligned with producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Little Big Town).

“The way they had it was almost like a Bon Jovi rock thing, and I thought it didn’t feel believable,” says Joyce. “We turned it more into an almost Crowded House kind of summery vibe, which I think fits it so much better.”

They cut “21 Summer” again at Joyce’s St. Charles Studio in East Nashville during the same session where they recorded “Stay a Little Longer,” with Joyce finding ways to tone down the instrumentation, particularly the sounds from drummer Adam Box.

“Instead of a big, cracking snare drum, he gave our drummer a mallet and a big down-tuned snare drum, which really widened the track,” says John. “When he got through with it, there was so much more depth .”

The key riff, revamped as a vocal in the earlier version, became much more complex this time around with the Osbornes cast as part of a backing vocal group that included their sister, Natalie Osborne; bassist Pete Sternberg; and John’s wife, singer-songwriter Lucie Silvas. The lines were doubled by John’s guitar part, then smothered with echo. The overall effect essentially blended the Osbornes’ East Coast upbringing with West Coast pop influences that have shaped the sound of modern country.

“The approach at the studio was to go for more of a California country vibe — you know, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, J.D. Souther, that kind of thing — which doesn’t get done a lot lately,” says John. “That’s such a big part of our culture in American roots music.”

In an odd twist of fate, Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey died Jan. 18, three days after Pawn Shop was released. “Stay a Little Longer,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Country Airplay chart dated Feb. 6, earned a nomination in the Feb. 15 Grammy ceremony where the Eagles paid tribute to Frey. The next day, EMI shipped “21 Summer” to radio via Play MPE, obliquely carrying on the Eagles’ country/rock influence.

“21 Summer” also carries on a bit of the foundation that was laid with “Stay a Little Longer.” Both songs feature elongated notes in the verses, establishing T.J.’s smoky, languid resonance.

“As a singer, I don’t have a bunch of licks and I’m not going to just knock your socks off,” says T.J. “For me, it’s more about just the tone of my voice and the feeling, so to be able to really emotionally get invested in just a single note and hold it out is pretty important for the value of me as a singer.”

Wiseman was happily surprised when “21 Summer” appeared on Pawn Shop and particularly impressed with T.J.’s ability to capture the multitude of emotions they had carved into it four years prior. “Here we are saying ‘cutoffs,’” notes Wiseman. “I mean, we’re right up in the middle of a bunch of heavily used verbiage, and, man, I am frickin’ on board. I believe him when he says that.”

Now it’s about finding believers in the marketplace. Buoyed by its haunting trademark, “21 Summer” was the general favorite for the second single from Pawn Shop. It popped from No. 50 to No. 45 in its fifth week on Country Airplay.

“Everyone at [the label] was saying this should be our next single, and we polled all of our fans on social media. ‘21 Summer’ got the vote,” says T.J. “Hopefully that’s an indication of what’s to come.”

[sabre14]

I think "21 Summer's" doing well but it should be noted that 1/3rd of this song's audience is coming from KKBQ in Houston. It gained over 70 spins this week and it climbed to #48 on Mediabase, so I still think this will be a big hit for Brothers Osborne but interesting that one station is contributing that much of this one's audience, coming off a #1 MB hit. It might be another lengthy chart climb, though.

[bksouthga]

I like this one. Every so often I run across a song and think, that's been done before, but I don't care. Still like it.

[zjames]

This is selling pretty well for its amount of airplay. It's #361 all-genre according to Kworb (which is very inflated lately due to a lot of Prince and Beyonce songs). It's selling better than many songs with much more audience, like "You Look Like I Need A Drink", "Hole In A Bottle", "Rock On", "Lovin' Lately", "High Class", and "I Met A Girl". All of these songs have at least twice the audience as "21 Summer" while those first two songs have at least 5x the audience of "21 Summer". This is gonna be a slow climb but I think this song is connecting well and should be a top 5 hit for them.

[Deleted]

Despite a mass struggle this week, "21 Summer" will score double digit adds.

I still remain confident that this'll be a huge hit and I actually heard this for the first time, and I thought it was really good. Not great but good for me.

[rsmatto]

Jun 20, 2016 8:36:32 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

Despite a mass struggle this week, "21 Summer" will score double digit adds.

I still remain confident that this'll be a huge hit and I actually heard this for the first time, and I thought it was really good. Not great but good for me.

What's great about the song is that it's not a throwaway summer song either, there's a moody, broody melody and lyric here that will fit any season, which will help it last longer than songs which normally mention summer. More like Garth's "That Summer."