CMT Blog: Archive

Lots of audiences are used to solo performers, but bluegrass enthusiasts? Not so much. Bluegrass is pretty much by definition a band music, but consider Tim O’Brien. He’s been doing the occasional solo show for some years now, but the release of Chameleon, an album on which he’s accompanied only by his own guitar, fiddle, bouzouki, banjo and more, has spurred him to take on more solo shows, and not just at home.

We crossed paths last week at the Fredericia Bluegrass Festival in Denmark, where Tim had arrived from a few dates in Ireland, and his set was both intimate and masterful. While European bluegrass audiences tend to be a little more flexible than hard core American ones, there are plenty of traditionalists here, too. But even so, O’Brien had them all in the palm of his hand as he offered up some old favorites along with plenty of songs from the new album.

The follow-up to a pair of 2006 releases, one of which won a Traditional Folk Music Grammy, Chameleon could legitimately be called the ultimate Tim O’Brien project if it weren’t for the fact that his career and his interests range too broadly for any one disc to merit the title. Whether he’s offering a melancholy love song, a jaunty tale of a racetrack bet, a nostalgic recreation of a street vendor’s cries or a snappy exhortation to “Get Out There And Dance,” it’s a delicious set that sidesteps the stylized reserve that’s so much a part of bluegrass singing, yet never strays too far from O’Brien’s roots in traditional music.

When we parted, Tim was packing up his instruments and getting ready to head for Copenhagen. “You know,” he said with a grin, “the hardest part of doing this is moving all this stuff around.”