Tim O'brien

Tim O’brien is back after a sold-out concert in 2009. Though he first won renown as a member of one of bluegrass’s premiere bands, Hot Rize, O’Brien has been doing solo performances for a long time, and when pressed for antecedents, he offers up figures like James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.
“The folksinger with a guitar is a sort of an unassailable icon,” he says with a laugh. “Dylan, Woody Guthrie–what can you say. And I remember that when I heard the first Doc Watson album, I thought, what does he need a band for? This guy has got it all. But what happens is that when you go into the studio, you can play with a band and get the juices flowing and maybe do things that you might not be able to do on the road. So there’s a temptation to go that way. But this time, I thought, let’s just bring it inside.”