Heritage & Legacy: Tim O’Brien (2024)

Heritage & Legacy: Tim O’Brien (1)

Artists,

Steve Goff

West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, (WMHOF) Class of 2013

Blending bluegrass, folk, country, rock & roll, soul, blues and gospel, Wheeling’s Timothy Page O’Brien has helped to modernize country music’s string band and bluegrass tradition for more than forty years. The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist has served as a bridge and a transitional figure between the sounds of the West Virginia hill country and the modern styles of bluegrass and Americana. In 2010, O’Brien was hired by Mark Knopfler to join his band for a five week tour of the US and Europe. Each night Tim was featured as the co-singer of “Sailing to Philadelphia ”, a glorious song from Knopfler’s 2000 album of the same name. James Taylor had sung the part on the original recording. And each night, after that song, Mark Knopfler would introduce Tim as either “A master of American folk music”, or “a true Renaissance man of country music”. While both of those descriptions are true, they only hint at O’Brien’s rich, diverse, and still evolving career.

Tim O’Brien was born in Wheeling, WV on March 16, 1954. He and his sister Mollie, two years his senior, were musical sponges, absorbing everything they heard. She was the leader and helped Tim develop his taste in music. In 1963, Mollie discovered Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and she was singing Dylan’s song in folk Masses as part of her Catholic Youth Organization activities. An eleven year old Mollie chastised nine year old Tim for not knowing who Dylan was. Her brother was a quick convert and Dylan fan for life.

In February of 1964, Mollie and Tim watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Mollie quickly became a member of the Beatles’ fan club sponsored by local Wheeling station WKWK. Tim listened to his AM radio at night, searching for Beatle music on the airwaves. Learning that the Beatles were scheduled to perform at the Civic Center in Pittsburgh, on September 14, 1964, Mollie and Tim sent off for tickets and got their mother to drive them to the event. Mollie later admitted they never understood a single word sung by the Beatles, but the concert ignitedTim’s decision to become a guitar player.

He got his first guitar for his twelfth birthday and his family was amazed at how fast he learned his instrument. Within a few days he was strumming tunes, and a year later he was playing along with Chet Atkins records. From that early age he worked at his music, played in every kind of band, and performed any time he got invited. He joined Mollie in participating in the folk Masses at Wheeling’s St. Michael’s Church. This gave Tim and Mollie an opportunity to sing together beyond their household, an unexpected training ground for two future roots-based musicians.

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Despite Tim’s earliest exposure to pop, rock, and folk music, the pivotal moment that eventually spurred his future course as a performer of country music occurred in 1967 when at age thirteen, he saw Arther “Doc” Watson in a feature about a folk festival shown on a Pittsburgh PBS TV station. For Tim, seeing Doc Watson was a moment of “Wow!” and “A-ha” at the same time. He had been playing fingerstyle guitar, but Doc Watson was “doing a flat-pick thing”. Tim decided to try and figure out flat-picking for himself. He succeeded and found a hero for life in Watson.

Another turning point came when he began listening to a weekly country music radio show, The Saturday Night Jamboree on WWVA. Finding that the show was broadcast from the Capitol Music Hall in downtown Wheeling, Tim became a frequent audience member and saw performances by Jerry Lee Lewis, Buck Owens, Roger Miller, Charlie Pride, Dick Curless, and Merle Haggard. From his biography

Traveler

Tim recalls, “I’d go to the Jamboree and buy the cheap seats, $2.50 for the balcony seats.” The Merle Haggard show of December, 1970, stood out. Haggard was not only doing his usual honky-tonk and barroom tunes, but for this tour he was featuring his fiddle playing. He was touring to promote his new album ofWestern Swing music,A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World: Bob Wills. O’Brien has said, “That show inspired me to play the fiddle. I thought it was cool, as in ‘That’s the violin, but that is swinging and it’s country’. Merle Haggard was a badass on fiddle that night.” And so another stringed instrument was added to his musical arsenal.

After graduating from Wheeling’s, Linsly Military Institute High School in 1974, Tim spent a year at Colby College in Maine, and then relocated to Colorado where his career really started to take off in 1978 when he helped organize the band Hot Rize, who quickly became one of the most popular acts in bluegrass. Their name was derived from the special “Hot Rize” ingredient in Martha White Flour, a longtime sponsor of Flatt & Scruggs on the Grand Ole Opry. Hot Rize and their zany alter-egos, “Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers”, managed to walk a fine line between folk, country, pop, jazz, and bluegrass, and surprisingly, rarely alienated anyone in the process. The band stayed together until 1990, winning the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Entertainers of the Year that same year Along the way O’Brien wrote hits such as “Untold Stories” for the band and for fellow West Virginian Kathy Mattea, with whom he dueted on the 1990 Country Top Ten single “Battle Hymn of Love”.

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He then spent time on Sugar Hill Records releasing both solo albums and albums recorded with his sister Mollie, who is now a well respected blues and folk singer.

Tim won IBMA’s 1993 and 2006 Male Vocalist of the Year Award. In 2013 Tim O’Brien was inducted into the West Virginia Hall of Fame.

In closing, I’ll leave it to his biographers to sum up West Virginia’s Tim O’Brien. “The true measure of Tim O’Brien’s genius is his abiding and energetic pursuit of the next musical adventure. He truly has been a traveler, in his wide-ranging and ceaseless explorations of the vast American musical landscape, whether that means the next instrument to play, song to write, songwriter with whom to collaborate, style in which to perform, musician or musicians with whom to play, or setting in which to do so.”

*Source: Traveler: The Musical Odyssey of Tim O’Brien. By Bobbie Malone and Bill C. Malone*

RECOMMENDED LISTENING – by the author.

ALBUMS

1. Hot Rize: Traditional Ties –1986. This is the first album Hot Rize recorded for Sugar Hill, and it is arguablytheir best effort ever, capturing their skill for both traditional material, originals (O’Brien’s “Walk the Way the Wind Blow”, which became a Top 10 Country hit for Kathy Mattea), and progressive bluegrass (Keith Whitley’s “You Don’t Have to Move the Mountain”). Featured: “Walk the Way the Wind Blows” -Live.Hot Rize – Walk The Way The Wind Blows (youtube.com)

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2. Tim O’Brien: Red on Blonde – 1996. This Grammy nominated record may be the best album of Bob Dylan covers, ever, and that is saying a lot. The repertoire covers decades and styles in one giant stroke. The playing is impeccable. “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” and “Maggie’s Farm”. Featured: “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Subterranean Homesick Blues (youtube.com)

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3. Tim O’Brien & Mollie O’Brien:Away Out on the Mountain – 2006. Tim has been singing with his sister Mollie since they were in junior high school. She is two years his senior. Her soulful voice finds a perfect harmony with her brother’s clear-as-a-bell tenor. Their blended family harmony is exquisite. Featured: “Wichita”.Wichita (youtube.com).

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4. Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott: We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This – 2012. The second effort by Tim and Darrell Scott is a live duo recording compiled from two shows in Asheville, North Carolina in 2005 and 2006. The music is great and the album title is witty and sly. Featured: “Climbing Up a Mountain”. Climbing Up A Mountain (youtube.com)

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5. Tim O’Brien: Cup of Sugar– 2023. O’Brien’s latest record might just be his best. After recording more than 25 albums, this is the first that consists entirely of songs composed by Tim O’Brien. Here’s the title track as sung live with Jan Fabricius. I hear a bit of John Prine’s humor and style in this timely song about getting along with your neighbors.

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6. Tim O’Brien: “The Polling Place” 2018. I love this single released in a 2018 as part of a “Get out the vote” campaign. Still pertinent. Check your politics. Lighten up. GO VOTE! Tim O’Brien: The Polling Place (2018) New Bluegrass! (youtube.com)

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*************************************************************************

Tim O’Brien’s Irish Roots and Music.

7.The Crossing – 1999. Tim’s Irish heritage shows up in many ways in the music he plays and the songs he writes. On The Crossing they are on full display as he writes of his ancestors making the journey to American and ultimately, West Virginia. Here he uses the WV State Motto as a song title and sentiment as to how it felt to finally be free in mountains. **Bonus: This is a live version played in Ireland while on a world tour. Note his references to West Virginia as he introduces the song. Live at Campbells Tavern / County Galway, Ireland. “A Mountaineer Is Always Free”.

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8. Tim O’Brien: Fiddler’s Green – 2005. Tim O’Brien won a Grammy for this album featuring Irish roots music. Featured: “Look Down That Lonesome Road”.

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____________________

Steve Goff is a past President of West Virginia Writers, Inc.; and his record reviews have appeared in national music publications such as Goldmine, Stereo Review, and Hit Parader. An avid music collector, he is still hanging onto over 8,000 pieces of recorded music, 6,200 of which are on poly-vinyl.

Heritage & Legacy: Tim O’Brien (2024)

FAQs

What is the historical context of Tim O Brien The Things They Carried? ›

Tim O'Brien: It's a book that centers on Vietnam and a platoon of soldiers. In one sense, it's about the Vietnam War, but it's also about storytelling, how stories rule our lives, how they're told and retold as we look for an elusive truth.

Why does O Brien say that stories are important? ›

O'Brien uses storytelling as solace and as a means of coming to terms with the unspeakable horrors he witnessed as a soldier.

How is Tim 0 Brien's chapter Good Form an example of postmodernism? ›

Tim O'Brien's "Good Form" chapter is an example of postmodernism because the chapter makes references to itself. This is a strong characteristic of postmodernist literature.

What does O Brien learn about himself? ›

He has learned that he is not a coward and that he can face his fears. He returns home as a changed person because he has a new understanding of himself. At the story's close, O'Brien almost jumps ship to Canada, but doesn't because he realizes that he would be running away from his problems.

Why were The Things They Carried banned? ›

Because the book focuses on actual events during the Vietnam War, the violence tends to be graphic and disturbing. The school board member was in for a fight--people petitioned against the banning of the book, and more than 1,000 people argued for hours and hours about the group of books up for ban.

Why did Tim o brien go to war in The Things They Carried? ›

Tim O'Brien decides to go to Vietnam because he couldn't find the resolve not to or, in his own words, because he “was embarrassed not to.” In “On the Rainy River,” O'Brien contemplates running away to Canada after he is drafted.

Was O Brien good or bad? ›

O'Brien is a villain, or an antagonist, in "1984." O'Brien tricks Winston into thinking he is a rebel, and Winston opens up to him. O'Brien then arrests Winston, before torturing him in the Ministry of Love. O'Brien successfully breaks Winston. The government and Big Brother are also antagonists in the novel.

Why is O Brien ashamed of his story? ›

Even though O'Brien believes he's doing the "right thing" – which would be fleeing the States and not fighting in a war he despised – he can't shake the shame that he would bring to himself and his family for what they would see as his lack of bravery, patriotism, and courage.

What was one meaningful quote from O Brien? ›

"The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness."

What techniques does Tim O Brien use in writing? ›

O'Brien arranges facts in a way that almost matches what really happened, but is just a bit off. Characters that weren't at certain spots in the real-life war, or who survived in real life but die in the book, are rearranged. Things that happened in one spot in reality might happen somewhere else in the book.

How would you characterize Tim o brien? ›

He populates the novel with real names, as a means of sharing the emotional truth of his experience even when he can't stick to the bald facts. Tim O'Brien is an active, caring, engaging young man who has to grow up fast and face atrocities. He sees his friends die and suffer, and he remembers.

What are some important things about Tim O Brien? ›

He attended undergraduate school at Macalester College and graduated in 1968 where he was soon drafted into the army to serve in the Vietnam War. These experiences in Vietnam served as a common topic of his later writing. After returning from Vietnam, Tim O'Brien returned to earn his graduate degree at Harvard.

What true identity of O Brien is revealed? ›

O'Brien seems to be a co-conspirator and friend to Winston Smith until the third part of the novel, when he is revealed as a zealous Party leader who had been closely watching Winston for years. O'Brien represents the Party and all of its contradictions and cruelty.

What is O Brien's message? ›

O'Brien's aim in blending fact and fiction is to make the point that objective truth of a war story is less relevant than the act of telling a story.

What does O Brien argue reality is? ›

He claims that it is only existent within the mind. In other words, "it's all in your head." O'Brien essentially says that the outside world does not contain anything real until the mind perceives it, and the mind should not perceive it until given permission by the Party.

What theme does O Brien develop in The Things They Carried? ›

The primary theme in The Things They Carried is the burdens that everyone carries, specifically, in this case, the men fighting on the ground in the Vietnam war. The things that they carried were both physical, like their equipment, and metaphorical, like the weight of their emotional battles.

What was Tim O Brien's purpose in writing The Things They Carried? ›

O'Brien's purpose in telling The Things They Carried is twofold; to tell a war story, and to explore the purpose of storytelling itself. Beginning with "How to Tell a True War Story," O'Brien begins examining misconceptions and truths surrounding the experience of war and the telling of stories about it.

What point of view is The Things They Carried by Tim O Brien? ›

The majority of the stories in 'The Things They Carried' are written in first person peripheral point of view.

What is the setting of The Things They Carried by Tim O Brien? ›

The Things They Carried is primarily set in the country of Vietnam, during the Vietnam War. While Americans were involved in the war from 1955 to 1975, the specific characters in the stories are shown in Vietnam from roughly 1969 to 1971. Vietnam is a Southeast Asian country bordering Cambodia and Laos.

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