Cortaro, AZ resident, musician, and citizen of the world Jamie O’Brien has made the rounds, from residing in England and Germany to the U.S. Southwest by way of Pennsylvania. Since his states-side arrival in Pennsylvania in 1989, the Brixton English-Irishman O’Brien found a fan base with old time group Medicinal Purpose and by the mid-90s was performing Celtic-inspired material with the Laune Rangers across the eastern seaboard’s mid-Atlantic region. He now tours the U.S., especially Hawaii, and Europe.
On this 18 track CD, O’Brien is chasing something personal. As a roamer, he says in his bio, “Over time, I’ve traveled from place to place, country to country. I’ve always felt at home wherever I was, but kept looking over the hedge at the next green field.”
O’Brien sings life stories that are at times painful and touching, with a round, kind tenor which would sound at home with Peter, Paul and Mary. The haunting Alison, so good that two versions are on the disk, features Tucson trumpeters Dillon Barr and Jon Villa, and great backing vocals from Dede Wyland. Mother Bird, featuring excellent guitar work by O’Brien and Tucson’s Phil Borzillo, will raise the hair on your neck, in a good way.
The album is O’Brien’s latest since his 2007 Celtic disk Many’s the Mile, Love.
On Thursday, May 5 at 6pm, Boondocks Lounge, 3306 N. 1st Ave., hosts the CD release party that features multi-instrumentalist/collaborator Paul McKeown and mandolin player Henry Koretsky travelling from Pennsylvania to Tucson to join together with Tucson musicians who also worked on the project.
More details at ReverbNation.com/jamieobrien.
