Tim O’Brien Covers:
Randy Newman, John Hartford, Jimmie Rodgers, Dylan, Hendrix & more!
…plus bonus covers of the Tim O’Brien songbook!
February 10th, 2010 — 04:16 pm
I’ve been thinking bluegrass all week, thanks to a pair of tickets to this weekend’s Joe Val Festival – an annual mid-winter marathon excursion which we’ve written about profusely in past years. It’s a form that often doesn’t get included in the folk blogger pantheon, save for the tradfolk and oldtimey set, and a tiny handful of Bluegrass specialists, but here at Cover Lay Down we like to define our terms broadly.
In an older sense, of course, our inclusion of the ‘grass is easy to defend: bluegrass is most definitely a folkform, though of a vastly different branch than the revivalist folk which generally defines the term in the popular mind. And though it is one of the newer folk genres – hewn out of old timey and appalachian countryfolk by a young Bill Monroe, and spread outward from there to infiltrate the corners of a culture – modern bluegrass is a broad umbrella, filling in the odd-shaped nooks and crannies between folk, country, and other peripheral forms, its sound ranging from countrified all-out newgrass to a gentle and sweet-sounding music bordering on popfolk.
Still, its origin in the band-driven sound generally frames bluegrass performance as a group thing; Joe Val, for example, will feature plenty of bluegrass groupings, but nary a soloist on the mainstage. Rarer is the bluegrass soloist, though there’s certainly room for the singer-songwriter in the ‘grass. And no one has worked harder to bring solo folk performance back to the bluegrass audience than Tim O’Brien. Today, we feature just a small slice of the vast spectrum of covers from this contemporary bluegrass legend – followed by a short set of bonus tracks from other, newer artists covering his own songbook. Ladies and gentlemen: Tim O’Brien.
Tim O’Brien has been around the barn and back again, as far as the Bluegrass world goes. Famous as a founding member of the seminal 70s and 80s contemporary bluegrass quartet Hot Rize and their Western swing alter ego Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers, whose members moved on in the early nineties after a five album run, Tim moved on easily to a strong career as both a highly respected producer and collaborator, and a solo artist trying to capture the full range of folk music, from singer-songwriter work to the exploratory, oft-countrified sound of pop bluegrass.
As a solo artist, O’Brien cites James Taylor and Joni Mitchell as antecedents; though he is generally found in a different section of the CD racks, there’s something to this comparison. O’Brien’s voice is sometimes strained, but it has its own unique beauty, and his adept delivery carries easily from poignant and lonely to playful and proud. His masterful guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin work is stunning in its direct simplicity; as both interpreter and composer, his lyrical tenderness and melodic prowess have an inimitable, easily recognizable style.
Prolific and dedicated to stretching the boundaries of his own craft after 30 years in the business, the Tim O’Brien canon includes over 25 albums in a variety of incarnations as soloist and group member, and each is worth celebrating. O’Brien won a well-deserved Grammy in the Traditional Folk category for his spare, intimate 2005 album Fiddler’s Green; his simultaneous release, 2005 album Cornbread Nation, is a personal favorite, one that moves fluidly through a batch of predominantly trad-song source material, teasing the worldbeat, the folk, the blues, the gospel, and a host of other influences out of oft-shadowed lines where genre blurs, marking his rightful place in the folk pantheon as a name-brand. Cover lovers will also be thrilled with Red On Blonde, Tim’s 1996 tribute to the man whose recordings first prompted him to pick up a guitar at age 12.
I’ve been lucky enough to catch Tim live in several guises: as a sidestage solo act, in duet-mode with his sweet-voiced sister Mollie, and even in full-blown progressive newgrass mode with a revivalist version of Hot Rize, who will next appear together for the unwashed crowds at this summer’s Bonnaroo. Each was a delight. And though even his canon of coverage is far too vast for us to include it all, I’m proud to share a fair sample of his work with folk fans who may have overlooked him. Listen, and then visit Tim O’Brien’s store for much, much more.
- Hot Rize: Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning (trad.)
- Hot Rize: Working On A Building (trad.)
- Newgrange: Handsome Molly (trad.)
- Jerry Douglas w/ Tim O’Brien: Hey Joe (orig. Jimi Hendrix)
- Kathy Mattea and Tim O’Brien: Gentle On My Mind (orig. John Hartford)
- Rob Ickes & Tim O’Brien: Can’t Find My Way Home (orig. Blind Faith)*
- Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott: I Don’t Believe You (orig. Bob Dylan)
- Tony Furtado w/ Tim O’Brien: Man Of Constant Sorrow (trad.)
- The Chieftains & Tim O’Brien: Shady Grove (trad)
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien: Orphan Girl (orig. Gillian Welch)**
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien: He Lifts Me (trad.)
- Tim & Mollie O’Brien: Hush While The Little Ones Sleep (orig. Lotus Dickey)***
- Tim O’Brien: Norwegian Wood (orig. The Beatles)
- Tim O’Brien: Sail Away (orig. Randy Newman)****
- Tim O’Brien: Lay Down Your Weary Tune (orig. Bob Dylan)
- Tim O’Brien: Man Gave Names to All The Animals (orig. Bob Dylan)
- Tim O’Brien: California Blues (orig. Jimmie Rodgers)
- Tim O’Brien: How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live (orig. Blind Alfred Reed)
- Tim O’Brien: House of the Rising Sun (trad.)
- Tim O’Brien: Handsome Molly (trad.)
- Tim O’Brien: Moses (trad.)*****
- Tim O’Brien: Demon Lover (trad.)
Of course, any musician as talented, influential and ubiquitous as Tim O’Brien has inevitably had his share of tribute from other artists, too. Earlier coverage came from the likes of Kathy Mattea, The Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival, and more; today’s bonus tracks include a half-dozen more recent favorites from the next generation of artists performing on and about the lines between bluegrass, folk, country and pop.
- Nickel Creek: When You Come Back Down (orig. Tim O’Brien)
(from Nickel Creek, 2000) - Dixie Chicks: More Love (orig. Tim O’Brien)
(from Home, 2002) - The Duhks: Moses Don’t Get Lost (trad./ lyrics Tim O’Brien)
(from Migrations, 2006) - Casey Driessen: Footsteps So Near (orig. Hot Rize)
(from 3D, 2006) - Heidi Talbott: Music Tree (orig. Newgrange)
(from In Love + Light, 2008) - Mutual Admiration Society: Brother Wind (orig. Tim O’Brien)
(Nickel Creek and Glen Phillips live from a parking lot, 2004; more MAS here)
*previously posted as part of this Grey Fox Bluegrass Fest feature.
**previously posted along with 8 other covers of Gillian Welch’s Orphan Girl.
***previously posted as part of a full set of Coversongs about Sleep.
****previously posted as part of a full post of Oceanfolk Covers.
*****previously posted in a set of Passover Coverfolk.