Telluride Bluegrass #50: Tim O’Brien to Debut “Cup of Sugar,” Main Stage, 6/17!

09 Jun Telluride Bluegrass #50: Tim O’Brien to Debut “Cup of Sugar,” Main Stage, 6/17!

The 50th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival takes place June 15 – June 18. The event is sold out. There is no waitlist. If you are looking for tickets, use the Festivarian Forum to connect with other festival-goers. But tickets are still available for Nightgrass. (Click here.)

Learn more about other Planet Bluegrass festivals at www.bluegrass.com.

Please scroll down to check out to find out more about what’s in store from honorary Telluride homie and Bluegrass legend Tim O’Brien, including two tracks from his latest release, Cup of Sugar.

Go here for more about the history of Telluride Bluegrass. (Back to 2009.)

Go here for more about Tim. (Back to 2009.)

Tim O’Brien, credit Scott Simontacchi.

“I first listened to Tim O’Brien on a road trip in 2004,” explained Grace Barrett, director, communications and partnerships. “My dad played Tim’s album Red on Blonde, and I, previously meh on bluegrass, was absolutely hooked. Tim has been one of my favorite artists since then. He was my introduction to the genre, and I find great comfort in his music. We’re so lucky to have him back year after year.”

Tim O’Brien’s early history is common knowledge around these parts, how he grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, surrounded by classic country and bluegrass music. We may not remember some of the finer points of his life though, such as the fact Tim bagged a liberal arts education following his bliss to Boulder, Colorado, where a burgeoning, eccentric roots music scene was forming. We may not have that information at our fingertips, but Telluriders for sure know what followed: Ophelia Swing Band, Hot Rize, and its alter-ego country swing band, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers, the stuff of Telluride Bluegrass Festival legend.

We all know Tim’s sound by heart: comfy music with an old slipper feel, and an artful blend of bluegrass, folk, swing, plus Irish and Americana stylings, with just a touch of the blues and funk for spice, a sound that has been a central part of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival line-up for 40+ years. (Tim was absent from the Main Stage in ’74, ’77 and ’07 only.)

A sound and style described by The Wall Street Journal as “classic-sounding material stamped with his own perceptive personality.”

The legend, an honorary homeboy, comes to life again on Friday June 17, when Tim performs on the Main Stage in Telluride Town Park. On the menu for Tim’s set, tracks from his brand new release (officially out on 6/16, on Howdy Skies Records.), Cup of Sugar.

The release marks the first time in the bluegrass virtuoso’s 46-year recording career that he has made an album of all original material — songs he’s either written or co-written. Cup of Sugar includes 13 new originals about a bear, a fish, lambs, horses, and some people too — a grave digger, a neighbor, and even Walter Cronkite.

O’Brien is backed by his loyal band mates: Mike Bub, Shad Cobb and wife Jan Fabricius, supplemented by Jamie Dick on drums; Mike Rojas on keyboards; Russ Pahl on steel guitar; and Cory Walker on banjo.

Bluegrass icon Del McCoury lends his signature guitar and tenor vocal on “Let the Horses Run.” Co-writers include Ronnie Bowman, Jonathon Byrd, Shawn Camp, Jan Fabricius, and Thomm Jutz.

Cup of Sugar, more from Tim:

L to R: Shad Cobb Brown, Jan Fabricius, Tim O’Brien, Mike Bub. Photo credit is Scott Simontacchi

“The songs started with ‘Bear.’ It was December of 2021, and the news was all about Russia and would Putin invade Ukraine. I had just read a book on the history of dancing bears. White Nationalism was a prominent topic, the flip side being Black Lives Matter. Trump had lost the election but was ramping up his spoiled brat act. I could imagine the gripes Putin, Trump and the White Nationalists had, even if I didn’t agree. I’d also reread some of a favorite book by Rafi Zabor: The Bear Goes Home. In the plot, this guy in NYC wins a dancing bear in a card game, and after he gets busted trying to busk with it, he leaves the bear in his flat during work. One day he comes home and the bear’s talking and playing clarinet. The bear becomes a jazz sensation but he’s also the ultimate outsider. So I was thinking about all that. I think the bear represents anyone or any social group that feels their world has changed too much while they weren’t looking. The bear comes out of his cave in spring and all the trees are cut down. He’s just pissed off. ‘I’m a bear’ he cries, ‘but damn it, I’m more than that.’ I can identify with the bear because I’m old. I don’t relate to a lot of new stuff and while I do fairly well in spite of all the changes, sometimes I’ll swear at them.

“The saddest song is one I wrote with Jan. We were driving along talking about some folks we know who are locked into a dysfunctional relationship, how we wished they could figure it out, change things. Jan said, ‘She can’t.’ I said, ‘He won’t.’ and then we both said, ‘They’ll never’ in unison.

More songs started coming in the spring of 2022. I got with Ronnie Bowman and these brothers from West Virginia, Chris and Donnie Davisson, to co-write. I try to bring something to a session so we can start right in, and I thought how about ‘thinkin’ like a fish.’ I played a funk lick on the banjo and we spit out some words to it. After we were done that day, I played it for Jan’s son Lane, who’s crazy about fishing, and he gave me an idea for the last verse. Another song that fell out one morning is ‘Let the Horses Run.’ I happened on the funny story of Lulu the Nashville border collie who inherited a fortune when her owner died with no heir. The dog’s master was a guy who helped put up a notorious statue of the first Grand Wizard of the KKK here in Nashville, and his death resulted in the statue finally coming down. Ronnie and I got together again and came up with ‘Diddleye Day,’ which rhymes dogs with hogs, and so I’m thinking maybe there’s a whole theme here.

“But I also had written ‘The Anchor’ which was just something I was just ready to write. It’s in line with the social justice songs on ‘He Walked On,” but again it’s from the point of view of someone old who realizes they’re a throwback, in this case ‘Walter Cronkite’ who’s commenting from the great beyond. I’m in my late 60’s and doing fine but I’m looking at things from that older perspective. One of my closest friends, J.D. Hutchison was in hospice care when Ronnie and I wrote ‘Goodbye Old Friend.”  (J.D. passed away soon after.) With ‘Cup of Sugar,’ “The Pay’s a Lot Better Too’ and maybe even ‘Gila Headwaters,’ I’ve got that elder perspective again: life is short but it’s wonderful so don’t sweat the small stuff. The guy in ‘Stuck in the Middle’ is taken by surprise but he takes it lightly.

I let the songs dictate the arrangements. I asked myself is it all acoustic, is it an electric country record? Is it time to go electric?. But I ended up making another pretty eclectic set of acoustic tracks. Jan and I work on the form, tempo, and key for each of them at home, and she sings and plays her parts live when we get to the studio. That builds a strong frame before we get to the studio. With session guys like Mike Rojas, Russ Pahl, and Jaimee Dick, as well as with my bandmates Mike Bub and Shad Cobb, you just get them in the room and play the song. They find the way. Dennis Crouch came one day when Bub couldn’t make it, and Paul Burch joined in too on a couple. I had a lot of fun writing the songs and had just as much fun recording them. It was a blast having Del McCoury come in to play some real first-generation bluegrass. I think Cory Walker crushed the banjo part.”