Tim O'Brien (b. March 16 1954 in Wheeling, West Virginia) is an American bluegrass musician. O'Brien plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and mandocello and is an accomplished vocalist. At the age of 12, he first heard a Bob Dylan record, played by his sister Mollie, afterwards deciding to take up music. Throughout his teens, he taught himself to play Guitar, violin, and mandolin. In 1973, he dropped out of Colby College to pursue music professionally. He wrote to his mother at the time, saying, "I'm heading west. I know 200 songs now, and I figure if I keep learning more I should be alright". He eventually moved to Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s and became part of the music scene there. In 1978, he became a founding member of the bluegrass group Hot Rize. Hot Rize had its own offshoot band called Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers. The band would walk off stage, change clothes, and reappear as a different band (O'Brien assumed the mantle of "Red Knuckles"), with its own songs, fictional back story and odd costumes. In 1990, Hot Rize disbanded as a regular touring and recording band. O'Brien, who had already recorded several albums without Hot Rize, embarked on a solo career. He briefly signed to RCA records, recording an album with them called "Odd Man In", before being dropped. Sugar Hill records eventually released the album, and O'Brien has not signed to a major since. His only memento of the occasion is a life size "Nipper" the dog figure, which he has left in the rain for the past 15 years.
Most of O'Brien's recordings are available on Sugar Hill Records. O'Brien currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2005, O'Brien won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album for Fiddler's Green. In 1993 and 2006, O'Brien was honored with the IBMA's Male Vocalist of the Year award.
Contents |
Discography
- Hard Year Blues (1984)
- Take Me Back (1988)
- Odd Man In (1991)
- Remember Me (1992)
- Oh Boy! O'Boy! (1993)
- Away Out on the Mountain (1994)
- Rock in My Shoe (1995)
- Red on Blonde (1996)
- When No One's Around (1997)
- The Crossing (1999)
- Real Time (2000) with Darrell Scott
- Two Journeys (2001)
- Traveler (2003)
- Cornbread Nation (2005)
- Fiddler's Green (2005)
See also
- The soundtrack for the film Cold Mountain (2003)
Album notes
- Red on Blonde is O'Brien's tribute to Bob Dylan and a reference to Dylan's 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.
External links
- Tim O'Brien, Official web site
- Tim O'Brien at All Music Guide
- Tim O'Brien at MusicBrainz
