Tim O'Brien (musician)
| Tim O'Brien | |
|---|---|
RockyGrass-2006
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Timothy O'Brien |
| Born | March 16, 1954 |
| Origin | Wheeling, West Virginia, United States |
| Genres |
Country Bluegrass |
| Occupation(s) | singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, Guitar, Fiddle, Mandolin, Mandocello, Bouzouki, Banjo |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Labels |
RCA Sugar Hill |
| Associated acts |
Kathy Mattea Hot Rize Kris Drever Mollie O'Brien New Grange |
| Website | Official Website |
Tim O'Brien (born March 16, 1954 in Wheeling, West Virginia) is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello. He has released more than ten studio albums, in addition to charting a duet with Kathy Mattea entitled "The Battle Hymn of Love", a No. 9 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts in 1990. In November 2013 he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Tim O'Brien was born on March 16, 1954 and raised in Wheeling, West Virginia, the youngest in a family of five children. At the age of 12, he first heard a Bob Dylan record, played by his older sister Mollie, afterwards deciding to take up music. Throughout his teens, he taught himself to play guitar, violin, and mandolin. As a boy of the 1950s he had his ears wide open to the country and bluegrass melting pot on the local WWVA show, as well as the Beatles on the radio.
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.
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 all right."
He eventually moved to Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s and became part of the music scene there. In Colorado, 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.
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Wikipedia