Song:Megna's
Album:Chameleon
Tim O'Brien has elements of country, bluegrass and folk in his music. It makes him interesting but difficult to market. Like a lot of roots music artists, he now records on his own label and sells CDs on his website. He was born Mar. 16, 1954 in Wheeling, WV. Hey, that's my birthday too. He started listening to country music on a radio show called Saturday Night Jamboree. When he found out it was broadcast from a local theatre, he started attending the shows. He learned to play guitar and banjo as a teen. O'Brien had several bands in the 70s until he formed Hot Rize with Pete Wernick, Nick Forster & Charles Sawtelle in 1978. O'Brien was the lead singer and they stayed together for twelve years. They even had an alter ego honky tonk group called Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers and also recorded under that name. O'Brien decided to go solo when Hot Rize split up. He met country music superstar Kathy Mattea in 1990. She had already recorded some of his songs and asked him to appear on her 1990 hit The Battle Hymn Of Love. This led to O'Brien signing with RCA. But they turned down his first album and O'Brien signed with the bluegrass label Sugar Hill. He recorded there until 2005. Chameleon is his latest CD on his own American Proper label. Megna's is about a fruit & vegetable stand O'Brien recalls from his childhood. Tim O'Brien continues to tour and his songs continue to turn up on other folks records. Here's Tim O'Brien performing Megna's at the 2008 Rice Festival in Fischer, TX.
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