Overview

For five decades, as a singer, musician, songwriter, and producer, Tim O’Brien has ceaselessly explored the vast American musical landscape. While Appalachia and Ireland eventually became facets of the defining myth surrounding him and his music, he has digested a broad array of roots styles, reshaping them to his own purposes. Award-winning biographer Bobbie Malone and premier country music historian Bill C. Malone have teamed again, this time to chronicle O’Brien’s career and trace the ascent of Hot Rize and its broadening and enrichment of musical traditions. At the beginning of that career, O’Brien moved from his native West Virginia to the Rocky Mountain West. In just a few years, he became the lead singer, mandolin and fiddle player, and principal songwriter of beloved 1980s bluegrass band Hot Rize. Seeking to move beyond bluegrass, he next went to Nashville. O’Brien’s success in navigating the shoals of America’s vast reservoir of folk musical expressions took him into the realm of what is now called Americana. The core of Tim O’Brien’s virtuosity is his abiding and energetic pursuit of the next musical adventure. As a traveler, he has ranged widely in choosing the next instrument, song, style, fellow musicians, or venue. Written with O’Brien’s full cooperation and the input of family, friends, colleagues, and critics, Traveler provides the first complete, behind-the-scenes picture of a thoroughly American self-made musical genius—the boy who grew up listening to country artists at the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree and ended up charting a new course through American music.

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9780806190624

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Reviews

"""Traveler is a beautiful portrait of Tim O'Brien, known as the 'renaissance man of country music.' This masterpiece by Bobbie and Bill Malone celebrates O'Brien's extraordinary musical career and will be welcomed by his many fans.""--William Ferris, author of Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues ""In this deeply researched and lovingly crafted book, two expert historians give Tim O'Brien's remarkable career the rich treatment it deserves, spotlighting O'Brien's music and illuminating the worlds from which it comes. A fitting tribute to a unique artist.""--Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South ""With Traveler, Bill C. and Bobbie Malone remind us that Tim O'Brien, the bluegrass plus country plus Americana plus Irish folk singer-songwriter, is one of America's greatest-ever musicians. But that was the easy part. Traveler's real gift comes in the great adventure the Malones discover--solo flights and collaborations, hits and misses, traditions upheld and reinvented, families inherited or chosen--in something so humble as the day in and day out of being a working musician. What a ride, what a life!""--David Cantwell, author of The Running Kind: Listening to Merle Haggard"

Traveler is a beautiful portrait of Tim O'Brien, known as the 'renaissance man of country music.' This masterpiece by Bobbie and Bill Malone celebrates O'Brien's extraordinary musical career and will be welcomed by his many fans. --William Ferris, author of Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues In this deeply researched and lovingly crafted book, two expert historians give Tim O'Brien's remarkable career the rich treatment it deserves, spotlighting O'Brien's music and illuminating the worlds from which it comes. A fitting tribute to a unique artist. --Charles L. Hughes, author of Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South With Traveler, Bill C. and Bobbie Malone remind us that Tim O'Brien, the bluegrass plus country plus Americana plus Irish folk singer-songwriter, is one of America's greatest-ever musicians. But that was the easy part. Traveler's real gift comes in the great adventure the Malones discover--solo flights and collaborations, hits and misses, traditions upheld and reinvented, families inherited or chosen--in something so humble as the day in and day out of being a working musician. What a ride, what a life! --David Cantwell, author of The Running Kind: Listening to Merle Haggard

Author Information

Bobbie Malone is the author of Lois Lenski: Storycatcher and coauthor of Nashville's Songwriting Sweethearts: The Boudleaux and Felice Bryant Story. Bill C. Malone is Professor Emeritus of History at Tulane University. He is the author of numerous books on country music history. His doctoral dissertation was published in 1968 as Country Music, U.S.A. and has subsequently seen print in three revised editions. Malone received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984 and Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Music in 2008. He currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, where he hosts a weekly country music radio show.

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