Tim O'Brien (musician)

Tim O'Brien (born March 16, 1954 in Wheeling, West Virginia) is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and mandocello. To date, he has released more than ten studio albums, in addition to charting a duet with Kathy Mattea entitled "The Battle Hymn of Love", a #9 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts in 1990.

History

At the age of 12, he first heard a Bob Dylan record, played by his sister Mollie, afterwards deciding to take up music. Throughout his teens, he taught himself to play guitar, violin, and mandolin.

As a boy of the 1950s he had his ears wide open to the country and bluegrass melting pot on the local WWVA show, as well as the Beatles on the radio. In 1973, he dropped out of Colby College to pursue music professionally. He wrote to his mother at the time, saying, He eventually moved to Boulder, Colorado in the 1970s and became part of the music scene there.

In Colorado he met guitarist Charles Sawtelle, banjoist Pete Wernick, and bassist/ vocalist Nick Forster, with whom he formed Hot Rize in 1978. Over the next twelve years, the quartet earned recognition as one of America's most innovative and entertaining bluegrass bands. Never straying too far from a traditional sound, Hot Rize stood out with fresh harmony singing,...
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