Tim O'Brien (musician)
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Timothy O'Brien (born March 16, 1954) is an American
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar,
fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...
,
mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
,
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...
,
bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...
and
mandocello The mandocello () is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paired courses, with the strings in each course tuned in ...
. He has released more than ten studio albums, in addition to charting a duet with
Kathy Mattea Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reac ...
entitled "The Battle Hymn of Love", a No. 9 hit on the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now
Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
) charts in 1990. In November 2013 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.


Early life

Tim O'Brien was born on March 16, 1954, and raised in
Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...
, the youngest in a family of five children. At the age of 12, he first heard a
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
record, played by his older sister Mollie, afterwards deciding to take up music. Throughout his teens, he taught himself to play guitar,
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
, and
mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...
. In high school, he and his sister Mollie, a singer, began performing Peter, Paul, and Mary songs as a duo at church and local coffeehouses.


Music career


Hot Rize

In 1973, he dropped out of
Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, United States. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner ...
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 all right." He eventually moved to
Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...
, in the 1970s and became part of the music scene there. He played bars around Denver and Boulder with Dan Sadowsky and the Ophelia Swing Band and cut one of his earliest albums, Swing Tunes of the 30's and 40's, with that band in 1977. In
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, he met guitarist/bassist Charles Sawtelle, banjoist Pete Wernick, and guitarist Mike Scap, with whom he formed Hot Rize in 1978. Mike Scap was soon replaced by Nick Forster on bass with Sawtelle moving to guitar. Over the next twelve years, the quartet earned recognition as one of America's most innovative and entertaining bluegrass bands. Never straying too far from a traditional sound, Hot Rize stood out with fresh harmony singing, Wernick's melodic banjo playing, and O'Brien's easy-going rhythmic drive. To broaden their repertoire, the members of Hot Rize would often split their show with a set of classic and offbeat country and western music in the comic guise of Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers. Official Website The band would walk off stage, change clothes, and reappear as a different band (O'Brien assumed the role of "Red Knuckles"), with its own songs, fictional back story and humorous costumes. Hot Rize was the International Bluegrass Music Association's first Entertainer of the Year in 1990, and in 1993, O'Brien took the IBMA's Male Vocalist of the Year honors. In 1990, Hot Rize disbanded as a regular touring and recording band. However, after the death of guitarist Charles Sawtelle, in 2002 Hot Rize was joined by award winning guitarist Bryan Sutton and the band began to once again play limited engagements.


Duets with Mollie O'Brien

In 1984, O'Brien and his sister Mollie O'Brien reunited for a Mother's Day concert, and four years later recorded the duet album ''Take Me Back''. Chip Renner of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
gave the album 4.5/5 stars, and called it "a masterpiece." In 1986 they began performing again as an Americana duo, and produced two more albums, ''Remember Me'' (1992), and ''Away Out on the Mountain'' (1994). All three records were released on Sugar Hill Records.


Solo career

O'Brien, who had already recorded several albums without Hot Rize, embarked on a solo career. He briefly signed to
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
, 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. In 1990, O'Brien also charted along with
Kathy Mattea Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reac ...
on the duet "The Battle Hymn of Love", which peaked at No. 9 on the ''Billboard''
Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...
charts. In 2010, O'Brien featured prominently on Kris Drever's second solo album, ''Mark the Hard Earth''. He also produced at least one instructional video/DVD of mandolin and bouzouki instruments. O'Brien joined Mark Knopfler in his Get Lucky Tour between April 8, 2010 and July 31, 2010. In 2024, O'Brien recorded a duet with Bonnie "Prince" Billie for the latter's album ''The Purple Bird''. The song, "Our Home" was released as a single in advance of the album release.


Howdy Skies Records

O'Brien started his own record label, Howdy Skies Records, in 1999.


Style and sound

Although naturally left-handed, O'Brien plays the guitar and other instruments right-handed.


Distinctions and awards

*2014 - Awarded Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for "The Earls of Leicester" *2013 - Inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame *2006 - International Bluegrass Music Award (IBMA) for Male Vocalist of the Year.RECIPIENT HISTORY – IBMA AWARDS
International Bluegrass Music Association official webpage.
*2005 -
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album was awarded from 1987 to 2011. Until 1993 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording. An award for Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, Best Contemporar ...
for ''Fiddler's Green'' *1993 - International Bluegrass Music Award (IBMA) for Male Vocalist of the Year. *1990 - His band Hot Rize was the IBMA's first Entertainer of the Year


Discography


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Tim 1954 births American bluegrass musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American fiddlers American folk musicians Grammy Award winners Living people Musicians from Wheeling, West Virginia American bluegrass mandolinists Guitarists from West Virginia 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American violinists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Psychograss members Hot Rize members Sugar Hill Records artists RCA Records artists Colby College alumni The Earls of Leicester (band) members Singer-songwriters from West Virginia