#hot rize

[ltc-henry-blake]

When I see those western skies

Sunshine on the open plain

Blue sky across the mountain range

When I'm free that's where I'll be

[krispyweiss]

Tim O’Brien Adds Making it to 70 to Impressive Résumé

Tim O’Brien has a fat bluegrass résumé and now he can add made it to 70 to his accomplishments list.

Born March 16, 1954, the multi-instrumentalist O’Brien rolled on to the bluegrass scene with Hot Rize in 1978.

His song have been recorded by Nickel Creek, Garth Brooks and the Chicks and O’Brien’s made records with Darrell Scott, the Earls of Leicester, Mark Knopfler, Sturgill Simpson, Aoife O’Donovan and others.

Between all this, O’Brien’s found time to make more than 20 solo albums - Cup of Sugar arrived in 2023 - on which he combines fun-loving novelties with ardent calls for social justice.

Not super-well-known, O’Brien is worth seeking out. Whether on wax or on stage, his performances remain powerful and retain the power to make audiences think, and have a good laugh while doing so.

3/16/24

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: Hot Rize Untold Stories

The combo of vocalist/fiddler/mandolinist Tim O' Brien and banjo player Pete Wernick was never stronger than on Hot Rize's 1987 release Untold Stories. Never as "progressive" as some of their peers (New Grass Revival, the Seldom Scene, Country Gazette), Hot Rize were able to hold on to the trappings of traditional roots music without ever letting it sound stale or too "old-timey."

- Zac Johnson

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Tim O’Brien - “Bear”

“Bear” lumbers forth like the titular character from his den, spring-slim and looking for vittles, on the second single from Tim O’Brien’s Cup of Sugar.

Acoustic, featuring guitar, mandolin and banjo and propelled with light-touch percussion, the track is as infectious as a bear is frightening as O’Brien sings:

I’m a bear, he cried/but I’m more than that/there’s something you need to remember/I’m an integral community member/I’m neither tame nor feral/you ignore me at your peril/I’m a bear

Part novelty, part serious social commentary, “Bear” follows “Little Lamb Little Lamb” ahead of Cup of Sugar, which arrives June 16 and is already sounding sweet.

Grade card: Tim O’Brien - “Bear” - A

5/11/22

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Robbie Fulks - Bluegrass Vacation

Robbie Fulks opens Bluegrass Vacation on the front porch singing about “One Glass of Whiskey.”

Forty-five minutes later, he’s moved to the back porch to declare, “Old Time Music is Here to Stay.”

In between, Fulks, joined by a batch of multi-generational and multi-instrumentalist friends including Sam Bush, Sierra Hull, Ronnie McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Alison Brown and Jerry Douglas among others, play a modernized, country-bluegrass hybrid that swings from comedic gassers like “Longhair Bluegrass” to such serious weepers as “Angels Carry Me” and “Mama’s Eyes.”

As such, emotional and musical whiplash are part of Bluegrass Vacation’s all-inclusive package. The album is therefore ripe for a listener’s game of cherry-pickin’ o’ the favorites. But whether one prefers novelties or serious songs, the instrumental “Silverlake Reel” is bound to make everyone’s playlist.

Grade card: Robbie Fulks - Bluegrass Vacation - B-

5/3/23

[krispyweiss]

Tim O’ Brien and Jan Fabricius at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Ohio, April 20, 2023

Playing as a duo at Natalie’s Grandview, Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius sounded like your uncle and aunt might if they entertained the family sitting around the campfire outside the cabin.

But this hootenanny was happening on the bar-side stage in the Columbus, Ohio, restaurant/music hall and O’Brien, the former Hot Rize multi-instrumentalist and singer, is a world-class, Grammy-winning bluegrass musician, while your uncle likely is not.

Still, the familial vibe was strong enough to cause O’Brien to jokingly thank his kin for attending the show.

Eschewing amplifiers and playing guitar and fiddle (O’Brien) and mandolin (Fabricius) into mics and singing together in a shared microphone, the husband-and-wife music team delighted the small-but-appreciative crowd of around 80 concertgoers with covers (including their revelatory, uptempo, down-home take of Bob Dylan’s “Señor”), and selections from 2021’s He Walked On and the forthcoming (and superb) Cup of Sugar. As headliners, O’Brien and Fabricius had more time than when they last visited central Ohio in November 2022 opening for Chris Smither.

And they made good use of it.

There was no encore - “Why waste time?” O’Brien said - as the self-deprecating couple hit their stride on night two of a five-show run.

“Last night we were rusty; tonight we’re burnt out,” he said early on.

Both lies as O’Brien and Fabricius locked into mountain harmony and melody from the holler across 18 songs and 90 minutes of music.

Halfway through, O’Brien busted out his fiddle - playing, he said, is “like collecting stamps, it’s not for everyone” - and wowed the now-pin-drop-quiet attendees with the solo, gospel stomp “Working on a Building.” After singing his heart out, O’Brien reunited with Fabricius for the traditional instrumental “Rye Straw” before digging into Cup of Sugar’s “Diddleye,” which seems destined to be a beloved cover a few decades hence.

O’Brien returned to six strings on the homestretch, which featured several songs from Cup of Sugar including lead single “Little Lamb Little Lamb,” the rambunctious “The Pay’s a Lot Better Too” and “The Anchor,” which finds O’Brien longing for a time when the Fairness Doctrine and Walter Cronkite helped Americans have a shared sense of what is real.

“And that’s the way it is, April 20, 2023,” O’Brien said as the song - and the concert - ended.

Grade card: Tim O’ Brien and Jan Fabricius at Natalie’s Grandview - 4/20/23 - B+

4/21/23

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Tim O’Brien - He Walked On

Bluegrass, reggae, jazz, classical, folk, spoken-word and country music all are represented on Tim O’Brien’s He Walked On.

And with songs that take on religion (“When You Pray (Move Your Feet)”); digital misinformation (“Pushing on Buttons (Staring at Screens)”); immigration (“El Comedor”); the working-person’s plight (“Five Miles in and One Mile Down”): and Thomas Jefferson’s slave children (“Can You See Me, Sister?”), the record is an aural rendering of America, 2021.

Though it occasionally veers into the overwrought - as on the title track - or Sunday-school material - the decades-old “The Same Boat, Brother” - He Walked On is just as often cerebral and celebratory as the former Hot Rize multi-instrumentalist plays mandolin, fiddle, guitar, mandola and mandocello backed by a rhythm section.

O’Brien’s cover of R.B. Morris’ “That’s How Every Empire Falls” is a lovely tribute to John Prine - who made it famous - and post-9/11 America. The original “See You at the Funeral,” meanwhile, embraces family with a jovial back-porch party.

Bury the old ones, marry the young, laugh and cry and catch up some/takes about a week to get it all done, we’ll see you at the funeral, O’Brien sings.

The stylistic and lyrical ping-ponging can make He Walked On a challenging listen, so some thoughtful editing would’ve been welcome. But O’Brien had a lot to say and rather than spreading it out and making a couple of records out of it, he, for better or worse, opted for this sprawling, 50-minute collection.

Grade card: Tim O’Brien - He Walked On - B-

9/8/21

[poisonbat]

this hot rize panel is good