Kim Ruehl: What possessed you to go [into the studio this time] by yourself?
Tim O'Brien: I do that a lot, from day one I’ve always played a lot solo. But when I make record, that’s the chance when you can try something you’ve always imagined, you know? So I’ve always sort of stayed away from [making a solo record]. I’ve put a solo track here and there on other records. It was a little scary because I didn’t know how people would like it, but I like it. The audiences like it.
I’ve heard you collaborate a lot with other people...
Yeah I play with a lot of people. I usually have a band, I have two or three guys playing with me a lot of the time. And then I did a duo with Darrell Scott for about three years. Same with my sister. She and I traveled together, just the two of us, but yeah [playing solo] is real comfortable and real normal to me. I feel naked, but you kind of get the freedom to do whatever you want.
Coming from the last two records, which were very traditional, did you consciously try to move away from that? There is some traditional-sort of stuff here...
This stuff sounds kind of traditional, but it’s not a conscious move away. It’s just time to do a songwriting record. I had these two folk records that came out at the same time. Before that was a songwriter record. But I’ve always been a combo of various things. It’s kind of hard to say what I do. The last one before these last two was all original songs, but I had a band that has sort of a Celtic and a bluegrass thing. You know, strings and all that. I don’t know what I am. [laughs]
Well you’ve got the bluegrass jacket. A lifetime member of the bluegrass museum, it sounds like I’m a museum piece. I was on the board of trustees at the bluegrass museum for about three or four years.
So yesterday, there was a talk about where traditional music is, if new music coming out now can even be considered traditional. You seem to have a foot in both the traditional and contemporary [folk] worlds.
Yeah, I can't distinguish, I can’t draw a line there. I don't see a line between traditional music and new music, really. I've always believed you can't recreate what went before, completely. You're going to put something into it that you unconsciously do....it’s still not going to sound the same. And you're playing to a different audience, it's a different world. That, plus the fact that you can’t do anything new. Really, you can't really do anything that's not influenced by what went before. You can’t be completely new....so I don't really see a line there. Musical genres are there for people to have a handle to hold onto it. Mostly, music is out there in the air and you can't say what it is. It's nice to have a handle, a title, a place to put it in the record store, that kind of thing. A shelf, if you have a section for traditional music.
I suppose my music is much more traditional than most things. It all depends on where you are in the circle. Some people think it’s radically modern, some people think that's not modern music, that's bluegrass. That's Woody Guthrie....you know, it just depends on your perspective. I somehow found the people that like it and I like doing it.
What about the political songs on here?
They're kind of like comments. They're not really—I hope they're not preachy. I don't think that really works out. My favorite political songs are like John Prine or Woody Guthrie, where it's kind of funny. They find a way to poke fun at stuff and, between the lines, you get the message. I think it sells a lot better.
I don’t know where these [songs] fall. I think they're kind of funny. One of them is funny. But, I think the artist's job is to kind of report what’s going on. I put them all in a row at the end of the record, because some people don't like [political songs], so I figured they could enjoy the first part of the record. [laughs]
When you make a record, do you think about how you want people to receive it?
I try to get a bunch of songs that'll be a good package with enough variety. You never know where the writing's going to come from. I wanted some kind of country song, like a real weepy country song. And then I balanced it with a happy country song.
In Nashville, where I live, people will write what they call one-on-ones. The person singing the song is singing to some other person, usually their love interest. It's usually we're breaking up and we couldn't work it out and I'm so sorry, or it's I'm so happy to meet you and we're happy together. There are not very many songs like that [on this record], there's two of them—the happy song and the sad one. At 53, my songwriting is not about that so much. It's more about where I am and where we are in the world, what's important. The first song's about love. "Where Does Love Come From?" That's one of my favorite songs, but it's not about you and me, it's not that at all. It's like, what is [love] about? The songs are just about whatever I’m interested in.
The second one, "Hoss Race," is kind of about addiction, I guess. About getting your fix and being addicted to gambling. The guy [in the song]'s so excited, but I've never even been to a horse track. There's a famous song by Bill Monroe, called "Molly and Tenbrooks." It's actually a much older song....1890s, I think. Or 1880s. I think it was in Louisville, the race. But it's sort of that perspective of that song, except one guy just bets on the winner....
I set out to write things and I don't know what's going to come out. I just hope it's good.
page 2: Tim talks more about what makes a good song
