CHRIS O’BRIEN
Little Red
Highway 26 Music
* * * *
There are local musicians we love simply because they’re ours, and there are those who are so good we don’t have to apologize for liking them. Place Northampton, MA native Chris O’Brien in the second category. His latest project—a ten-track fan-funded CD—crackles with energy and dazzles with fine songwriting and instrumentation. O’Brien now resides in Somerville and the fingerprints of his Boston peers are all over this record. Think the vocal inflections and (occasional) high register of Ellis Paul and the forays into country-laced folk of Mark Erelli. Like the best songwriters O’Brien spins his tales compactly, eliding details and stripping facts to their basics. We’re not given the back story in “Maria,” but we learn enough in two and a half verses to know that loving her comes with perils attached. In fact, dangerous love of all sorts is a major subtheme of this album—young love “(This Old Town”, the love that comes too fast (“Hurricane Love”), the love that baffles when it’s gone (“I Don’t Know You”), and the losses you don’t get over (“Paper Doll Parade” and “Blood Like Yours”). Mix in some country pedal steel, some bluegrass banjo and mandolin, some pop hook electric guitar, and some sparse acoustic strings and there’s an awful lot of music packed into ten tracks. And yeah, he’s a western Mass lad!
There are local musicians we love simply because they’re ours, and there are those who are so good we don’t have to apologize for liking them. Place Northampton, MA native Chris O’Brien in the second category. His latest project—a ten-track fan-funded CD—crackles with energy and dazzles with fine songwriting and instrumentation. O’Brien now resides in Somerville and the fingerprints of his Boston peers are all over this record. Think the vocal inflections and (occasional) high register of Ellis Paul and the forays into country-laced folk of Mark Erelli. Like the best songwriters O’Brien spins his tales compactly, eliding details and stripping facts to their basics. We’re not given the back story in “Maria,” but we learn enough in two and a half verses to know that loving her comes with perils attached. In fact, dangerous love of all sorts is a major subtheme of this album—young love “(This Old Town”, the love that comes too fast (“Hurricane Love”), the love that baffles when it’s gone (“I Don’t Know You”), and the losses you don’t get over (“Paper Doll Parade” and “Blood Like Yours”). Mix in some country pedal steel, some bluegrass banjo and mandolin, some pop hook electric guitar, and some sparse acoustic strings and there’s an awful lot of music packed into ten tracks. And yeah, he’s a western Mass lad!
Check out clips on O'Brien's Myspace page.
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