Acoustic mainstay Tim O’Brien gives C&I readers a first listen to his latest track, “Doney Gal.”
After taking a dip into the country scene, Hot Rize founding member Tim O’Brien gets back to his traditional bluegrass roots on his upcoming album Tim O’Brien Band, available March 15. A nod to traditional music’s often-eponymous band names, the record focuses on precision and quality.
O’Brien won a 2014 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for The Earls of Leicester, so expectations would naturally be high — and the album doesn’t disappoint. The songs are whip-smart and exciting.
Album highlights include the cowboy ballad “Doney Gal.” Driven by O’Brien’s signature acoustics (in addition to singing, he plays guitar and fiddle), the song flows with violins and therapeutic harmonies.
“This traditional song is born of the close relationship between a cowboy and his horse,” O’Brien says. “The late Buck Ramsey was an RC, a real cowboy, who worked cattle on large Texas ranches through his school years and beyond, but he was also a gifted musician. From the age of 24, when he was paralyzed from the waist down after a riding accident, he concentrated on his music and poetry. I met him just once around 1995. It was 1 a.m. in a hotel room in Elko, Nevada, during the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and I was jamming with him and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Buck sang ‘Doney Gal’ that night and Jack sang ‘Buffalo Skinners’ and I was forever changed.”
Get an exclusive first listen to “Doney Gal,” below.
For more information on Tim O’Brien, visit his website. To preorder his upcoming album, click here. Photography: Courtesy Michael Weintrob.