Photo courtesy Colin O'Brien
Colin O'Brien
Colin O'Brien
Last year Colin O’Brien came back to Milwaukee to play a show with his mentor Peter Roller’s band. This time O’Brien returns to celebrate his new album Thirteen for an October 11 concert at Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, sharing the bill with veteran Wisconsin songwriter Bill Camplin: linnemans.com/event/colin-obrien-cd-release-w-bill-camplin-october-11-2024.
The songs—a baker’s dozen—all but one written by O’Brien, move from playfulness to dread, from virtuosity to whimsy. Echoes of Leo Kotke, John Fahey, Mississippi John Hurt Preston Reed, Doc Watson and Chet Atkins come to mind.
O’Brien says the songs were not written with an album in mind. “I resurrected the 12-string (a 1971 Guild f-212) in 2022. A pretty major rebuild, it was. To be honest it's a bit of a mystery what compelled me to do that More of one looking back, because at the time I was just drawn back,” he says of the guitar that had spent almost 12 years in the case.
He says over that time span he was musically engaged releasing five albums and performing.
“One day I took the case down, opened it up and I had a sense that it was re-born and another, that I was. I tuned it up. When I played it, I needed nothing more. The instrument feels like a self-sustaining place in and of itself. Or rather transports me to that place.”
If that characterization sounds beyond music, you may be onto something. “It sounds mystical, but really it's simple,” O’Brien explains. “It's the sound of the thing. The only thing I’ve heard’ that fills me so is total silence … every time I play the thing, I’m taken to a place self-sustaining.”
Guitar, both six- and 12- string resonates with him. At heart a soloist, O’Brien hears the guitar as a voice for that part of himself.
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Listening to the muse
Thirteen by Colin O'Brien
While he enjoys collaboration, a practice that his adopted home of Nashville has built a legacy on, the Guild had a pull O’Brien couldn’t resist.
“When I opened that old Guild 12-string case and played it I just didn't want to stop, and I still don't. My side man gigs here in Nashville were fizzling out, and I let them.” His choice was clear—pull in, listen to the muse, stop the hustle, stay home.
He describes “a devotional attitude began to take shape. I started to hibernate with the Guild. Tunes started coming. They were more or less an excuse to play the thing. No big motives. But in time (over a year or so) they began to pile up. I began playing them at gigs and was quite taken that people really enjoyed them.”
In 1994 O’Brien moved to Milwaukee from Seattle to study at Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. During his time in Milwaukee O’Brien studied guitar with John Stropes and Roller, played banjo with Salt Creek, hosted the Midweek Mountain Music residency at Bremen Café and wrote instructional materials for Hal Leonard.
While the demand for 12-string fingerpicking is not high in Nashville, O’Brien felt this batch of songs was special. After playing professional for about 30 years, he trusted his gut.
He built a small studio in his garage, which also meant building a car port
“With some help from friends—who are also some of the leading audio engineers in the world—I began my foray into recording, literally from the ground up. New tunes, new studio, new recording equipment. All pointing like a mirror to and from within; no difference, singular,” he says.
The process
Realizing he had an album he began recording. Communing with one tune at a time. Letting them change if they wanted to, nudging them back if needed, working out parts technically to find ease.
For “work” O’Brien has a 20-foot commute to the studio. No hourly rate. He didn’t move onto the next composition until he got “it” when listening back. That “it” could be a giggle, it could be his arms flying up, it could be an involuntary “yes!” as if to express what he already knew. Listen the next day, if “it” is still there, then it’s time to move on to the next piece.
“I’m done with tricky,” he says, “More than decide, I listen. I let time have its say. If I like it, it might be good. If I continue to like it, it is good for me. I did this with each tune, for as long as it took.”
O’Brien says he is more excited about this record than anything he’s done. “I’m releasing it for real, (something he’s never done before) and have assembled a team of industry experts helping me with that. This record will be heard.”
It seems the project has been freeing, “I’m not on the hook. There’s no outer validating contingency needed,” he says. “I’ve already hit my mark.” His colleagues and friends in Nashville agree. It has passed the litmus test.
“But how someone else feels about it doesn’t change how I already do. It can’t. I’m truly free. In that way the magic of music is upon me like never before.”
Stream or download Thirteen at Amazon here.
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