Tim O’Brien is hitting the radio tour this week, promoting his new CD, Chameleon, just out on the Proper American label.

He appeared this past Monday on The Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour (video available online) and will be the guest on today’s (3/29) edition of Blue Plate Special on WDVX-FM in Knoxville, TN.

The new CD has Tim on his own in the studio, accompanying himself on a variety of stringed instruments (banjo, bouzouki, fiddle, guitar, mandolin) on 16 of his new compositions. Audio samples are available on Tim’s web site.

If you would like to catch Tim’s show on WDVX later today, tune in to 89.9 FM in and around Knoxville, or listen live online at WDVX.com at 1:00 p.m. (EDT).

Our UK correspondent, Richard F. Thompson, put together this report on an important event we missed last fall.

In November the legendary folk/bluegrass singer, songwriter and activist Hazel Dickens was honored as one of the inaugural inductees into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony at The Cultural Center in Charleston, West Virginia.

Belatedly, I submit this tribute and report of the evening’s activities ……….

Considered one of the most influential and powerful artists, male or female, in the world of Americana music, Ms. Dickens was presented with her award by her longtime admirer, Alison Krauss.

Born in the coal-mining region of West Virginia (Mercer County), Ms. Dickens moved to the Baltimore area while in her late teens. There she found friendship and musical compatibility with local area musicians like Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard. Dickens, Gerrard and Seeger along with Tracy Schwarz and Lamar Grier recorded an album released an LP under the name of the Strange Creek Singers. Later, Hazel and Alice worked together as a duo. They recorded four ground-breaking albums before they went their separate ways in 1976.

Subsequently, Ms. Dickens has released several solo albums that have presented what has been described as “her uniquely personal amalgam of old-time string band sounds, bluegrass, protest songs, and classic country.”

Her music is renowned for the way in which she has spoken up for the impoverished, like the coalminers of her own and nearby states. Songs such as Working Girl Blues, Black Lung, and Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There speak typically of her feelings for the cause of those who have suffered or are suffering hardship in their lives, like many of the Dickens’ family members themselves.

Her music was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary Harlan County, U.S.A., which depicted the tensions surrounding a coal miners’ strike in rural Kentucky. Her poignant songs, such as Mama’s Hand, Few Old Memories, West Virginia, My Home and You’ll Get No More Of Me, have been widely recorded by other artists.

In 1993 Ms. Dickens was presented with the International Bluegrass Music Association [IBMA] Award of Merit. Three years later she won the IBMA Song Of The Year award after Lynn Morris recorded a superb version of Mama’s Hand.

In 2001 Hazel Dickens was awarded a Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest official honor bestowed on traditional musicians by the U.S. Government. (more…)

BBC Four will be airing a new series of the Transatlantic Sessions beginning this month. The show brings together musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, from the US, Ireland and Scotland. The various musicians will perform both solo and in various combinations.

The first episode is set to air on Friday, September 21 and features Jerry Douglas, Eddi Reader with Tim O’Brien, and Julie Fowlis with Donal Lunny.

The series is broadcast with stereo sound in a widescreen format.

For more information, and the broadcast schedule, you can visit the BBC Four website.

When Hollywood stars and friends of comedian (and banjo player) Steve Martin accepted his invitation to a dinner party at his Los Angeles home on July 28, no one was expecting anything other than some good music, and good times together.

When the guests arrived - including film luminaries like Tom Hanks, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy and Carl Reiner - they realized that they were actually to be the guests at Martin’s surprise wedding to Anne Stringfield, his girlfriend of the past three years.

A reunited Hot Rize was on hand to provide the bluegrass music, with original members Tim O’Brien, Pete Wernick and Nick Forster joined by David Grier on guitar. They not only entertained after the wedding dinner, but also provided the music for the ceremony itself.

O’Brien sang his song Romance Is A Slow Dance to start the ceremony, and played the traditional Irish air, Sheebeg and Sheemore on fiddle for the processional. Wernick played a jaunty version of Cripple Creek on the banjo as the newlyweds recessed.

After dinner, Martin introduced Hot Rize for a short set, during which he joined them on stage with his banjo, performing his tune The Crow, and a double banjo version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

Congratulations to the happy couple. A marriage consecrated by bluegrass music is bound to take, yes?

Tim O’Brien is offering a free download of The Ballad of Christopher Daniel Gay, a song he recently wrote and recorded, on his web site.

Gay’s tale was taken from the news headlines. He escaped from a South Carolina prison transport in mid-January, and evaded police over a five state manhunt, all in an attempt to visit his dying mother. In the process, he stole a pickup truck, a fully loaded Wal-Mart tractor trailer, and a tour bus belonging to country singer Crystal Gayle.

He was finally arrested on January 26 near the Daytona Speeday in Florida, after attending a race.

This story simply begged to be enclosed in a country song, and it seems that Tim wasted no time in capturing it for posterity. The Ballad of Christopher Daniel Gay is told in a musical style reminiscent of the Woody Guthrie folk ballads of the 1930s and 40s, and concludes with a tip of the hat to the world wide web.

The song can be heard at www.timobrien.net.

We found a link on Pete Wernick’s web site that points to the audio from a recent edition of Etown, the weekly radio show hosted by former Hot Rize bass man Nick Forster. The show included one of the occasional reunion performances by Hot Rize, plus an appearance by Earl Scruggs.

Scruggs’ segment starts off with Rob Ickes leading the band through Foggy Mountain Rock, followed by a version of John Hardy. Nick Forster then interviews Earl about how he came to develop his groundbreaking banjo style, which Earl describes in his typically understated and unassuming manner. He also speaks about the early days performing on the road and on TV with Flatt & Scruggs, and how he came to be associated with The Beverly Hillbillies.

After the discussion, the band returns to play The Ballad Of Jed Clampett and Foggy Mountain Breakdown. The music is fine, of course, but for many Scruggs-o-philes, the interview may be the more enjoyable part of the show.

There is a direct link to the audio on Wernick’s site, or it can accessed directly via the Etown archives. Access to the archives is restricted to registered users on the Etown site, so if you feel that you are “getting over” by using Pete’s direct link, you can register and get the audio from this and other Etown programs.

Speaking of Wernick’s web site and Hot Rize…

Pete now has two bits of sample video up at Dr.Banjo.com taken from the recently released Hot Rize concert DVD, shot in 1987. One is the band performing Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning, and a song from their bus mates, Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers doing One Woman Man.

These are Quicktime files of one entire song each, and may take a few minutes to download or open in your browser.

Tim O’ Brien, bluegrass music’s Male Vocalist of the Year is soon to be inducted into The Wheeling Hall of Fame in his hometown of Wheeling, WV. Tim won a Grammy earlier this year for best traditional folk album with Fiddler’s Green. He also won IBMA’s Song of the Year for Look Down That Lonesome Road from the same CD, as well as the IBMA award for Male Vocalist of the Year.

The induction ceremony is to be held Sunday Nov. 26, 2006 at WesBanco Arena.

I was, of course, very flattered. I rarely perform in Wheeling, so I am unaware of having made an impression there.

Wheeling has lots of low key situations to offer to a young artist. Oglebay Institute art classes with Wes Wagner taught me to think outside of the box. St. Michael Grade School and Linsly in high school provided me with opportunities to challenge myself musically, and to perform and write music, folk masses, musical play and the annual Linsly minstrel shows…

…Even so, it was hard to get on-the-job experience in Wheeling, so I wandered west to the college town of Boulder, Colo., and entered my next phase there,

A very comprehensive history and profile of Tim and his musical career can be found here.

Male Vocalist Of The Year

Award for the outstanding male vocalist based on recorded and in-person performance. The award goes to the individual.

The Male Vocalist Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

Song Of The Year

This award is for any song, new or old, which was released or showed significant chart action within the eligibility period. Any song which has been nominated for this award in previous years is ineligible. The award goes to the songwriter and artist.

The Song Of The Year for 2006 is:

Review past recipients of this award.

In episode #7 of The GrassCast we listen in on a conversation John had with Tim O’Brien during the IBMA event in October. John and Tim talk about the event being in Nashville, and about Tim’s new CDs.

This GrassCast is 9 minutes in length and the file download size is 8 MB.

Direct Download: ep6_tim_obrien.mp3
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