How To Play All Night, Brothers Osborne – Main Riff, Guitar Solo, & Lyrics

If you’re a fan of the Brothers Osborne new album Skeletons, you’re probably wondering how to play All Night. Specifically, how does John Osborne get that crazy sound on his guitar? Well, I have answers for you, and despite what others are telling you, the tuning is NOT drop B.

Below, we are going to review some guitar tablature for the main riff and the guitar solo. Plus, in our YouTube video lesson, I will review the chords for the verse and the chorus so you can play the entire song from start to finish! If you want more and would like to support our channel, I have the tablature available for purchase on Sheet Music Plus! Just click here: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/21945595. The sheet music has the lyrics and full tab for all of the lead guitar and rhythm guitar parts! Or you can keep scrolling down for the free lesson.

Gear Corner

OK, to get an authentic guitar tone for All Night, I need to first talk about the tuning. You might think it’s some kind of crazy tuning. At least I did when I first started transcribing this song. There were a couple of clues from other guitarists and YouTube videos I watched, and at first, I thought this was a drop B tuning. So I transcribed some notes and then compared what I transcribed to live videos of John Osborne.  When I watched videos of John, the fingering I had didn’t match the fingering he used. Which completely confused me.

So I was having dinner at my parent’s house the other night, and I was talking to my dad (who’s also an excellent guitarist) and he said, “it might be a baritone guitar.”

Bingo! I tuned the guitar down 5 half steps to a B standard tuning, and there you have it. John Osborne uses a baritone guitar for this song. Now if you’re thinking, “Aw crap, I gotta go buy a baritone?” Good news, no you don’t. I bought a pedal over the weekend by Digitech called Drop, and it lowers the tuning of your guitar in half steps. BAM! So today, I’m using a Digitech Drop pedal to demonstrate how John Osborne plays these licks.

Do You Want A Baritone Guitar?

If you’re thinking, “the Digitech Drop sounds neat, but I really want a baritone guitar,” good for you! I was researching Baritone guitars too! John Osborne is playing what I believe to be a Mario Martin custom T-Style baritone. Mario Martin is a boutique luthier in Nashville, TN, so I would expect Mario’s guitars to cost a pretty penny. But if you’re not willing to sacrifice tone or sound, maybe this is the right way to go. When I looked at baritone guitars to make this post, I wanted a Telecaster style but found nothing on the new market. Hence, the Digitech Drop was my compromise.

Enough Talk, Let’s Play!

Today’s lesson on how to play All Night is broken into 4 parts. The first part will cover the main riff and a quick overview of how to tune your guitar for the song. The 2nd part will cover the chords to the verses and the chorus. Next, we’ll break down the guitar solo and get you chicken pickin’ and rippin’ like a Nashville villain. And finally, I will cover a couple of licks that mimic the keyboard parts.

Main Riff & Tuning

Tuning

This song is used with a baritone guitar, which is in B standard tuning. This is 5 half steps lower than your typical E standard tuning, and if you tune a normal guitar down that many half steps, the strings get pretty loose and floppy.

Regardless of whether you use a bartione, the Digitech Drop, or retune a normal guitar, the tuning is B-E-A-D-F#-B.

Main Riff

This is the hook for the song. If you’re going to know how to play All Night, you’ve got to nail the hook for the song. Now there are (2) variations of the hook. The first variation is the opening line to the song, and it gets played on repeat at the end of the song. Check out the tab below!

Next is the second variation of the guitar lick. It’s exactly the same up until the very last part when John Osborne plays the 3rd fret of his low E string (B string in baritone tuning) and gives it a half bend. You’ll hear this after they sing the first chorus. Here’s the tab!

Chords

Nashville Numbers

The Nashville numbers are easy for All Night. This is essentially a 2 chord song, with a catchy riff. Yes, there are additional chords played during the chorus and guitar solo, but they do not break from the underlying 2 chord structure. The B chord is the home chord for this song, and the 4 chord is an E chord. So it’s a 1-4 or I-IV song.

Verse Chords

The chords used for the verses and choruses are pretty straight forward, but you will notice that these are not your typical cowboy chords. The Brothers Osborne use a combination of power chords and open strings to get a big sound out of their guitars. Below you’ll see that he uses a B power chord on the 7th fret of his E string (remember, this is a baritone guitar so the string names are different!!) and he leaves the low B string open. This creates a droning sound that fills up a lot of space and covers a large audible range. Remember to palm mute these!

Chorus Chords

The chorus adds an E chord to the mix (or an A chord shape from the E standard tuning). Not rocket science here. But at the end of the chorus, they add an extra chord in front of the B chord or the 1 chord. It’s just an A chord, so it’s essentially the 7 chord. Check out the tab below!

And here’s the 7th chord right at the end of the chorus.

Guitar Solo

My favorite part of learning how to play All Night was, hands down, the guitar solo! I got really excited when I first heard the chicken picken and ghosts notes being pulled off rapid fire.

To make this sound, you’re going to need to lay your fretting hand across the strings. Do not fret any notes. Just leave your finger there lightly and allow the string to be muted. Then, using your pick, you strum down and play 3 strings. They will be muted, and are represented by the x’s in the tab below.

Then, you fret the note with your fretting hand. With your right hand, use your middle or ring finger to pluck this note.

The sequence is to pick 3-muted strings and pluck one note. The video demonstration will help you tons on getting this technique down.

The Keyboard Part & Lead Guitar

The last verse of the song combines a neat fingerstyle guitar part on the baritone mixed with a keyboard lick. I’ve tabbed out the keyboard lick and the guitar part so you can learn both.

That’s IT!

Way to go! You now know how to play All Night!! If this was the first song you’ve learned on a baritone, that’s awesome! It was my first on baritone too!

Remember, if you would like to support this webpage, please become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/smellytele! A perk of being a patron? I will make a video lesson specifically for you! If there’s a song you want to learn, but you can’t find a lesson for it, tell me! I’m here to help!

If you’re looking for more modern country lessons, check out our Chris Stapleton lessons on Starting Over and You Should Probably Leave!

Or if you’re more into classic country you can check out our lesson on Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line by Waylon Jennings!

Also, go check out some of our acoustic guitar lessons! If you’re a beginner looking for more simple chords, try Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show or Willin’ by Little Feat! These simple songs are great to learn!

And if you liked the guitar we used in today’s video, check out our full review of the Fender Classic Player 60’s Baja Telecaster!

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And if you struggled with any part of this lesson, leave a comment below! I’d be happy to help you work through one part of the song or another!