Where Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s current LP Anyway You Love was a departure, alternating funk with earthy Americana, this EP of offcuts feels like the next record the band’s original lineup would have made. It’s the return of the cosmic cowboy. Two-fifths of the way through the strutting “New Cannonball Rag,” Adam MacDougall’s synth melts down; the bass tone gets skronky; the guitars flange. As the sounds grow increasingly weirder, the band shifts further and further into the heavy. The roadsick love ballad “Shadow Cosmos” features MacDougall on piano with Barry Sless adding pedal steel. “Roan County Banjo” is the classic CRB cowboy song: a laid-back groove, then the Moog whistles and drips in, Neal Casal’s guitar blares, Robinson sings of outlaws and honey and shares his sage wisdom. Then, “From the North Garden” is a Marin County raga with guitars and bass repeating the melodic pattern, flute and sitar tones weaving the tapestry, and some ghostly background singing that sounds suspiciously like Meg Baird. It’s psychedelic trope—but here it feels refreshed and transportational. Once that trip subsides, we’re left with “Sweet, Sweet Lullaby,” which opens with acoustic strumming in a texture that recalls Dylan’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Robinson and Casal sing harmony, MacDougall is again on the piano and Sless is back on steel. This band speaks a tonal language. Robinson barred the B3 organ at its formation, so that even when the modes are simple or old-fashioned, the musicians are forced to avoid sonic clichés. That does keep things interesting.