Pompadour

It's been four years since the last Tim O'Brien solo record, and he has not sat idle. He's been fronting, piloting and performing with folks like Steve Martin and Mark Knopfler to Hot Rize and Earls of Leicester, a group that includes dobro-master, Jerry Douglas. He's achieved award-winning success, played with a vast grouping of musicians and yet the solo work keeps tugging at his feet. Pompadour swirls together bits of bluegrass, deep-roots Appalachian music, field hollers, old-school rock 'n' roll to traditional jazz and even James Brownian funk. The same applies to the perspectives from which O'Brien addresses the central theme. The spare lyrics of "I Gotta Move" and use of everyday images on "I'm A Mess For You" imply rather than spell out a story of loss and redemption. A steady-rockin' groove drives the classic trope of asking a doctor for a cure to heartache on "Give Me A Little Somethin' Take Her Off My Mind."