We hadn't seen the great Tim O'Brien for many years. In fact, the last time we saw him he was playing guitar for Sturgill Simpson! But he was booked at the Bull Run for a January 15th show, with Sam Grisman and Victor Furtado backing him up (billed as "Tim O'Brien & Sam Grisman with Victor Furtado"). We delayed getting tickets for long enough to not get one of the best tables, but we got a pretty good one shortly, the table to the left of the stage where we'd sat when we saw Asleep At the Wheel in 2014, and also Steve Kimock in 2016.
Got tickets for Dave too. He'd never seen Tim before and was psyched to see Grisman after we'd gushed about the show we saw him at in Beverley. He was over for the day and we headed out to Shirley at the tail end of rush hour. And when we got there a little over an hour before the show was supposed to start, the place was already packed with as noisy a crowd as we'd ever heard there! One thing we love about the Bull Run is that the fans are generally knowledgeable and have driven a long way to see and hear the band. The performers had put out the message that this would be an acoustic show that would reward listening, and we were all ready for that, though loud conversations preceded it.
The overworked wait staff finally took our drink and food orders and the few empty seats were soon filled. The guys came out with Furtado to our side of the stage with his banjo, Grisman center stage with his bass towering over him, and Tim a bit to the other side of the stage. The guys all had mikes for their instruments, one central mike for ensemble sound, and a vocal mike for Tim. And though they have an incredible array of speakers in the Sawtelle Room (Tim mentioned how pleased he was to play a room named after his old friend, Charles), they kept it quiet so we could hear the sound on stage. This took a few tunes to straighten out, but was soon fantastic.
Tim sang lead on all except one song, I believe, and Sam chimed in with some very spare and lovely harmonies. They opened with a couple of mid-career Tim songs (Let's Go a-Hunting and Turn the Page), then did a couple of John Hartford tunes, and then played some from all over. Furtado was pretty good on banjo, sticking mainly to the background but stepping up for a few leads. Grisman was as great on bass as we remembered, trying not to upstage his hero, Tim, but leaning toward the common mike for the harmonies and waltzing with his bass partner.
And Tim was as amazing as ever, starting on mandolin and then switching to guitar and then fiddle. He did his great version of Jack Of Diamonds/Drunkard's Hiccups on fiddle and tore the house down. We were all silent during the songs but the crowd roared at the end of each. They did a few Dylan songs (Sam gushed about how Tim's Red On Blonde meant so much to him), and Tim almost made it all the way through a *fast* cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues before stumbling on the words ... there's lots of 'em.
Most of us were probably aware that Bobby Weir had just passed away, and they did a couple of songs that the Dead had covered, such as I've Been All Around This World. But their real tribute to Bobby was a cover of the song Tim had won a talent contest with, singing with his sister in their teens, Morning Dew. Grisman had a great bass line on this, but the thing is that Tim O'Brien is one of the best musicians I've ever heard. The quality of his voice sneaks up on you (Dave said, "Now *that* is a bluegrass musician"), and his mandolin playing is awesome, fast, inventive, and perfect. But his fiddle playing is absolutely some of the best I've ever heard, amazing tone and subtlety.
They did two sets of pretty good length, and closed the second with Working On a Building. The trio all bowed to the very enthusiastic crowd, then did a short encore. They were heading up to Portsmouth the next day and then Waldoboro Maine, though Tim had to be told what state it's in. All done by 10:00 and then not a bad drive home.
