Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, United States on March 16th, 1954 and is the Country Singer. At the age of 70, Tim O'Brien biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Tim O'Brien (born March 16, 1954) 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.
Early life
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.
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
He dropped out of Colby College in 1973 to pursue music professionally. "I'm going west," he told his mother at the time. I'm now 200 songs, and I'm sure if I'm learning more, it'll be all right."
He moved to Boulder, Colorado, in the 1970s, and was a member of the Boulder, Colorado music scene. With Dan Sadowsky and the Ophelia Swing Band, he performed in Denver and Boulder, and cut one of his oldest albums, Swing Tunes of the 30's and 40's, in 1977. He met guitarist/bassist Charles Sawtelle, banjoist Pete Wernick, and guitarist Mike Scap, with whom he formed Hot Rize in 1978. With Sawtelle switching to guitar, Mike Scap was soon replaced by Nick Forster on bass. The quartet rose to fame as one of America's most innovative and entertaining bluegrass bands over the course of ten years. Never departing too far from a traditional sound, Hot Rize stood out with new harmony, Wernick's melodic banjo playing, and O'Brien's easy-going rhythmic drive.
In the humorous guise of Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers, the members of Hot Rize would often divide their show between classic and offbeat western music. The band will walk off stage, change clothes, and reappear as a new band (O'Brien assumed "Red Knuckles"), with its own songs, fictional back story, and odd costumes. Hot Rize was the first Entertainer of the Year in 1990, and O'Brien received the IBMA's Male Vocalist of the Year award in 1993.
Hot Rize disbanded as a regular touring and recording band in 1990. However, Hot Rize was joined by award-winning guitarist Bryan Sutton and the band's team members in 2002 to play limited engagements.
O'Brien and his sister Mollie O'Brien reunited in 1984 for a Mother's Day performance, and four years later, the duet album Taking Me Back was released. The album was given 4.5 stars by Chip Renner of AllMusic, who also described it as a "masterpiece." They reformed themselves as an Americana duo in 1986 and released two more albums, Remember Me (1992), and Away on the Mountain (1994). On Sugar Hill Records, the three albums were released.
O'Brien, who had already appeared on many albums before Hot Rize, decided against going solo. He briefly signed to RCA Records, recording "Odd Man In" with them before being dropped. Sugar Hill Records eventually released the album, but O'Brien hasn't signed to a major since. O'Brien appeared on the duet "The Battle Hymn of Love," which peaked at No. 1 in 1990, alongside Kathy Mattea. On the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts, 9 is ranked No. 9 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts.
O'Brien appeared on Kris Drever's second solo album, Mark the Wild Earth, in 2010. At least one instructional video/DVD of mandolin and bouzouki instruments has been released.
In 1999, O'Brien's own record company, Howdy Skies Records, was founded.
Distinctions and awards
- In 2014, O'Brien won a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for "The Earls of Leicester"
- 2013 Inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame
- In 2005, O'Brien won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album for Fiddler's Green.
- In 1993 and 2006, O'Brien was honored with the International Bluegrass Music Award (IBMA) for Male Vocalist of the Year.
- His band Hot Rize was the IBMA's first Entertainer of the Year in 1990.