Brothers Osborne - Pawn Shop: testing country’s cosy consensus

This Nashville-based pair have taken their time producing a debut album perhaps worrying that their comment last year that people were “tired of the bullshit” and were “ready for the real substance” might have set them up for a fall.

And if these 11 tracks do not amount to something as ambitious as the “real substance”, they do place TJ and John Osborne in the vanguard of those testing country’s cosy consensus.

Like their buddy Eric Church, there is a definite urban, heartland rock sensibility at the core of blue collar, foot-stomping songs such as Dirt Rich, the clever one-size-fits-all American Crazy and the guitar-drenched Stay A Little Longer.

There are more subtle touches but Pawn Shop is a brash attempt to strike out as something different.

Time will tell if they are the real deal.