[Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Santa Cruz Guitars Company and Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings and the Santa Cruz Guitar PLEK Department.

And by Peluso Microphone Lab.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician.

Tonight's episode is recorded live from the Gerst House.

Let's step inside and listen.

["Little Lamb Little Lamb" instrumental music] -♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ Looks like spring Came back around ♪ ♪ On the hillside You're jumping up and down ♪ ♪ Lifts my heart up to see you Scamper once again ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb The winter's long ♪ ♪ It gets so dark and cold ♪ ♪ It reminds me How I keep on getting old ♪ ♪ I was young once I won't be young again ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ ♪ Looks like spring Came back around ♪ ♪ On the hillside You're jumping up and down ♪ ♪ Lifts my heart up to see you Scamper once again ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ [instrumental chords] ♪ It's just like magic How the seasons come and go ♪ ♪ Reassures me in a way You'll never know ♪ ♪ Living and dying Walk along hand in hand ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ ♪ Looks like spring Came back around ♪ ♪ On the hillside You're jumping up and down ♪ ♪ Lifts my heart up to see you Scamper once again ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ [perky guitar music] ♪ There's a sheepdog watching Keeping you in line ♪ ♪ Your mama too She sees you're doing fine ♪ ♪ A year will go by This'll happen once again ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ ♪ Looks like spring Came back around ♪ ♪ On the hillside You're jumping up and down ♪ ♪ Lifts my heart up to see you Scamper once again ♪ ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ [mellow instrumental music] ♪ You wouldn't understand ♪ ♪ Little lamb little lamb ♪ -Beautiful, beautiful, guys.

Hello, and welcome to The Life of A Musician.

I am your host, Brandon Lee Adams, and I am truly, truly honored and excited to say this is episode two with Mr. Tim O'Brien and Jan Fabricius, also known as Mrs. O'Brien.

And once, like I said, I am, like I said, blown away.

It's one thing to listen to you guys on a CD or an mp3 or on YouTube, whatever the kids are listening to these days, but it's another thing to sit right next to you.

And I'm one of those guys, like, I've been in the studio, like some, over my years.

I've been in there enough to know when something's in tune and when something's out of tune, it's a little sharp, it's a little flat, and it's blowing me away how in tune, you know, everything is sounding.

And we don't have a Peterson set up to anybody, but, I'd say, you know, where does that come from?

-Playing in tune and singing in tune?

I don't know.

You know, there are standards, I guess.

You know, the kids these days, they think everything is absolutely metronomic time and everything's rock solid in tune, like Auto-Tune is.

And so, they learn how to do that themselves.

I think the technology brings us forward.

We start imitating what technology helps us to do.

I don't know, you know, it's a lifelong thing to learn how to play in time and in tune.

-Yeah, right.

-And I'm still working on that thing.

-Oh, me too.

What about you?

Is this like you just kind of feed off of Tim, and that's kind of how you stay in that pocket so well.

-Yeah, it helps a lot because he's so tight and just makes it easy to hang with.

-Just got to listen to each other.

-Yeah, that's true there.

-That's good in the marriage, too, right?

-[chuckles] Mostly.

-Like I said, I told you on the phone, I'm a little bit of a "you" nerd.

And you had something in common with another friend of mine, an acquaintance, a friend, Roy Book Binder, where I heard that you guys are traveling around in, like, a pull-behind, and Roy is doing the same thing with his wife.

-Yeah.

Yeah, we did, we've done some fair amount of travel where, you know, being married and collaborating on stage means that we'll go to some place and instead of flying back to be together, we're already together, so we can stay out and do something in between that time and our next show, which might be, you know, you get a lot of weekdays that are loose, you know, Monday through Thursday, a lot of times.

So, you know, we got the camper, we got a little teardrop trailer that's got a little kitchen out the backside of it, and we stick the guitars and the madeleines and fiddles in there, and then we just go and see what happens.

It's pretty nice.

-That just sounds like a dream, that's the goal.

I remember when I was a kid, the goal was, you know, just find a way to make a living doing this, you know.

And just-- how has that kind of evolved for you?

Because you've... you've just done so much.

I mean... -Well, you know, when I started out, I was taking every gig I could get and, you know, teaching a lot of lessons and that kind of thing.

And really, learning how to play the mandolin and the fiddle were kind of, that was just an idea that maybe I could have more work if I could be more versatile.

And so, that led to a lot of things, and that led to doing some recording sessions, which was good.

But... and then, if you write some songs and you realize, oh, if somebody else records your songs, then that's really good.

And that mailbox money, where you didn't really work for it, it just kind of comes, you know.

You wrote a song because you wanted to write a song, and then somebody else liked it enough to sing it and sold it a lot.

That really is great.

Those are the things... but for a long time, you're just kind of wondering where the next rent's coming from.

-Yeah.

Yeah, I hear you.

And for the folks back home, mailbox money would be what you mean as your royalty check.

-Yeah, royalty check.

-You know, your mechanicals, if you can get them.

-Yeah.

You know, you can imagine Tom T. Hall walking out to get his mail and finding a bunch of money there.

-Yeah.

-I get a little money now and again, and it really helps.

-That, I want to see that one done live and do something along with it, it was "Goodbye Old Friend."

Can you tell me just a little bit about that one?

-Well, one of my mentors and best friends was a guy named J.D.

Hutchison.

He was from Belmont County, Ohio, not far from Wheeling, West Virginia.

And he was one of the first guys that I knew that wrote new songs that fit in the bluegrass vernacular.

They were modern in every way with how he expressed the ideas and lyrics, but he played them in such a way, or he found a way to write songs that fit in.

And he was a guy who would, you know, have a big plug of tobacco and a spit cup, and then he would sing Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, and then he would quote Nietzsche and Shakespeare in between spits, you know.

He was a real hillbilly Renaissance man.

And, you know, came from a musical family.

His dad played the old-time fiddle.

His mom and dad sang old country songs.

And it was tough when he was in hospice care.

And, you know, we had said goodbye several times in-person and on the phone, and we didn't get to go visit him that last time, but we did get the song to him.

So, we wrote him a song before he passed away.

He was the king of the tiles.

He was a scrabble player, could beat anybody.

He's that kind of guy.

Just smart as whip.

But he was just kind of a court jester.

He didn't really have a musical career.

He never cared for the business of music.

He just cared for the music more, and poetry and acting, and he was a cartoonist.

It was just, I mean, he's still my hero.

Let's sing that one.

[Brandon] Yeah, please.

-Going to tune this up for that.

["Goodbye Old Friend" instrumental music] ♪ All of the hellos And goodbyes ♪ ♪ Life happens Somewhere between ♪ ♪ There's lessons you learn When you stumble and fall ♪ ♪ There's lessons From following dreams ♪ ♪ There's old times before And there's after ♪ ♪ And so many things Left behind ♪ ♪ I'll remember the sound Of your laughter ♪ ♪ And those moments Are frozen in time ♪ ♪ Goodbye old friend ♪ ♪ No better words I can say ♪ ♪ Goodbye old friend ♪ ♪ I wish you well on your way ♪ ♪ It's a long long way Up this mountain ♪ ♪ I followed And never asked why ♪ ♪ Someday we'll drink From a fountain ♪ ♪ That never ever runs dry ♪ ♪ Goodbye old friend ♪ ♪ No better words I can say ♪ ♪ Goodbye old friend ♪ ♪ I wish you well on your way ♪ ♪ Goodbye old friend ♪ ♪ No better words I can say ♪ ♪ Goodbye old friend ♪ ♪ I wish you well on your way ♪ -Wow.

That's just gorgeous.

Absolutely gorgeous tune.

That's... it's one of those...

I tell you, the first time I heard that song, I could feel the emotion coming off of it.

-Definitely, yeah.

You know, I don't know...

It's very simple.

There's nothing unusual about it.

You know, it's like these songs...

There's nothing new under the sun, really.

The human condition has been described in so many songs and so many novels and, you know, whatever, poems, but there's no harm in expressing them in your own way.

It's going to come out your own way, but it's just stuff that everybody has expressed before.

but I think we need them.

They're like stories, they're like myths, they're like... they're lessons.

And if you put it out in front of people, it's nourishing.

I kind of wondered, you know, singer-songwriter situations where people are sitting around, you know, it's like people are ape for singer-songwriters nationwide, worldwide.

They love it.

And a lot of times, they would go see songwriters, they had no idea about any of their songs.

But people are fascinated that people can tell stories.

And this is something that humankind has done since there was a fire, you know, sat around a fire.

It's like, remember when COVID came around and the guys that put on Hamilton, they said, well, you know, we're pretty sure people are still going to want to tell stories in the dark after this is all over.

You know, this is something that started a long time ago, and it ain't going to go away.

-[Brandon] Yeah.

-And the stories, you hear a good storyteller, and they'll tell it a little different each time.

So, that's all I'm doing.

I'm just telling the same stories just a little different way.

One of the things JD would do after he did some kind of ditty, he would be sitting there, and he'd go... like a Jack-in-the-Box coming up.

He'd just be sitting there and go... -He was quite a character.

-He was funny.

That's what I was thinking as I ended that song.

[laughter] -We'll keep it that way.

So, we've got that on film.

-[Tim] All right.

-I'll send it to you even if we don't use it.

That's such a gorgeous song.

That one just stuck with me.

That was one of those classics.

That's one thing... Tim has written a lot of personal tear jerkers for me, you know, through the years.

Like, you know... -[Jan] "The hand is cold..." -"That once held mine.

I can't believe you've really left this world behind."

I'm like, oh, man, that hit home for me because I lost my brother as well.

-Oh, yeah, man, that's, there's nothing... That's hard, that's a hard one.

-Yeah.

"High on a Hillside."

That's off that "Oh Boy!

O'Boy!"

record.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And that-- just hearing that-- you know, when my brother went, hit me really, you know.

And then, late in the day, when I had my first crush, it was like late in the day.

I think I was in like 9th grade, you know, and I actually stole the melody to that and put my own words into it to try to impress a girl.

-That's pretty great.

[laughter] -I was plagiarizing you in high school.

Thank you so much for coming and being part, both you and Jan.

It's been such a treat.

I kind of want to get this out.

When we were going over songs to do for this episode, I emailed you and I said, this is kind of my guilty pleasure song because it's off of that first album, "Odd Man In," that I discovered... And I was like, oh man, I really need to practice it because I hadn't practiced it in forever.

So, I'm like, oh man, I hope I can play it.

So, this is my guilty pleasure song off of "Odd Man In," "Flora, The Lily Of The West."

And I want to say, thank you, thank Jan so much for being here, and thank you folks back home for joining us on The Life of A Musician .

And we hope that you'll keep tuning in, and be well and God bless.

And I think we're going to take you out on "Flora, The Lily Of The West."

-Yes.

Learned this from Joan Baez... and put a few more chords to it.

Took it through the vibrato filter and I put it down to a safer key.

And that's what you have.

Flora, the lily of the west, back when Louisville, Kentucky was in the west.

[Brandon] Yes, sir.

["Flora, The Lily Of The West" instrumental music] ♪ When first I came To Louisville ♪ ♪ My fortune there to find ♪ ♪ There was a maiden there From Lexington ♪ ♪ Who was pleasing to my mind ♪ ♪ Her rosy cheeks Her ruby lips ♪ ♪ Like arrows Pierced my breast ♪ ♪ And the name she bore was Flora the lily of the west ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ Well I courted lovely Flora Some pleasure there to find ♪ ♪ But she turned Unto another man ♪ ♪ Which sore distressed My mind ♪ ♪ She robbed me of my liberty ♪ ♪ Deprived me of the rest ♪ ♪ Then go my lovely Flora The lily of the west ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ It was down In yonder shady grove ♪ ♪ With a man of high degree ♪ ♪ Conversing With my Flora there ♪ ♪ And it seemed So strange to me ♪ ♪ She robbed from me My liberty ♪ ♪ Deprived me of the rest ♪ ♪ And I was betrayed by Flora The lily of the west ♪ [instrumental music] ♪ But I stepped up to my rival My dagger in my hand ♪ ♪ Being mad to desperation Boldly bade him stand ♪ [Announcer] Thank you for being a part of our show.

We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Life of A Musician.

["Flora, The Lily Of The West" instrumental music] ♪ When first I came To Louisville ♪ ♪ My fortune there to find ♪ ♪ There was a maiden there From Lexington ♪ ♪ Was pleasing to my mind ♪ ♪ Her rosy cheeks Her ruby lips... ♪ [Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Santa Cruz Guitars Company and Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings.

And the Santa Cruz Guitar PLEK Department.

And by Peluso Microphone Lab.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.