Solo Chameleon and Wheels of Bluegrass

If you’ve heard Tim O’Brien’s latest album Chameleon, you already know why the Tim O’Brien/Dan Tyminski Band concert on the 17th is going to be special. For starters, O’Brien is performing solo, and that’s something he hasn’t done a whole lot of in his career. O’Brien has always been a band guy, first as the lead singer, primary songwriter, mandolinist and fiddler for Hot Rize, the best bluegrass band of the 1980s, and more recently as the leader of the O’Boys, which has included such stellar musicians as Jerry Douglas and Scott Nygaard. This solo concert presents the essence of Tim O’Brien, the “pure drop.”

O’Brien is an all-around talent—he writes songs, sings, plays a mess of instruments (guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, etc.), makes Grammy-winning recordings and is an engaging, charismatic performer. He’s also one of the funniest people in the music biz, with a dry, droll line of patter that rewards paying attention.

Performing solo is not so much a new thing as a return to basics for O’Brien. “The folksinger with a guitar is a sort of an unassailable icon,” he writes on his website. “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.”

The Coen Brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou? was chock-full of wondrous moments and images, but Dan Tyminki’s voice coming out of George Clooney’s mouth was one of the best. Best known as the longtime guitarist and harmony singer with Alison Krauss & Union Station, Tyminski has stepped out of his sideman role and now leads one of the hottest, most exciting bands in bluegrass. The band’s first album, Wheels, is nominated for a Grammy as Best Bluegrass Album of the Year and has received extensive airplay on radio and satellite outlets.

Tyminski is one of the most acclaimed singers in bluegrass—he’s a three-time winner of the IBMA’s Male Vocalist of the Year award—and he’s universally admired by his peers. Dolly Parton, for example, says, “I feel and believe every word and note he sings. Dan reminds me of what honesty, purity and great singing is all about.”

But there’s more than great singing in the Dan Tyminski Band. Ron Stewart (banjo), Barry Bales (bass) and Adam Steffey (mandolin) are three of the most accomplished pickers in bluegrass and Steffey is the most humorous emcee in bluegrass. Finally, the quintet has so much fun on stage, it’s impossible not to be caught up in it.

This concert will be fun. In these troubled times, who can’t use a little fun?