“I was absolutely knocked out by the intensity, focus and passion. It completely blew me away,” say Alligator Records’ founder Bruce Iglauer of  American Patchwork, the new album by Anders Osborne. Iglauer signed Osborne, and the album produced by Osborne, Stanton Moore and Pepper Keenan will be out April 27.

“I could see he was very focused,” Iglauer says. “It’s quite an amazing record, because of the emotional span. It goes from very edgy and dark, and then there are beautiful romantic ballads. It’s quite an emotional trip this record takes you on. We’re primarily a blues label and there’s a blues rawness in him – it’s as if the songs are being torn out of him, there’s no holding back in the singing.” Anyone who saw Osborne’s set at OffBeat‘s Best of the Beat will agree with Iglauer. It was the set of the night.

Today Verve Forecast Records announced that it has signed Trombone Shorty and Orleans Ave., and the label will release Backatown April 20. The Ben Ellman-produced album features guests including Lenny Kravitz, Marc Broussard and Allen Toussaint, who appears on Shorty’s cover of his song, “On the Way Down.”