Thanks to 3rd and Lindsley’s Bluegrass on 3rd series, sponsored by Bluegrass Nashville, audiences can enjoy bluegrass music day and night in Nashville. On Thursday, the Tim O’Brien Band took the stage. Representing WMOT Roots Radio, music journalist Craig Havighurst introduced the band, noting that playing the venue was probably the second-best thing that had happened to O’Brien that week, referring to the announcement that Hot Rize, of which O’Brien was a founding member, would be inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in September.
O’Brien and his wife and singing partner Jan Fabricius, backed by Mike Bub on bass and Shad Cobb on the fiddle, played a number of songs from their most recent album, a duo project, Paper Flowers. O’Brien noted that many of the songs on the album, including the title track, were co-written with Tom Paxton. The pair shared the stories behind the songs, often whimsical—“Blacktop Rag Mop,” a song about the road, followed by “Atchison,” a reference to one two in Kansas they had not visited.
“This Gal of Mine” was a song Paxton brought to the table, about a man who loved his wife—but complained about her constantly. The day after writing the song, Fabricius announced she wanted a rebuttal, adding verses and lines from the wife’s perspective to a charming effect.
They also performed “Great Pile of Puppies, which O’Brien introduced as a song about “the great fear of falling in love—with puppies.” O’Brien described “Back to Eden” as “guilt-free gospel—all of the message, none of the mess.”
In addition to “Maggie’s Farm,” a Dylan Cover and “High Road,” which O’Briend called “a little fiddly tune with words, they played “Thinking Like a Fish” as well as the title song from O’Brien’s prior album Cup of Sugar.
Referring to a change of key from G to B flat “playing the same notes in a different sequence to give the semblance of variety,” O’Brien quipped, “bluegrass music is better than it sounds.” For the noon hour show this week, the enthusiastic audiences confirmed that it sounds mighty good.
