Rising folk star writes songs about the resilience of optimism in the face of heartbreak
CD Review by Ceci Gilson
Massachusetts singer/songwriter Chris O’Brien’s Cinderella story continues. What’s not to love? He has a storybook folk pedigree. Raised in Western Massachusetts, his stepmother worked at the Iron Horse Music Hall and the Newport Folk Festival. A folk DJ, she made him mix-tapes of Joan Armatrading, Martin Sexton and the Indigo Girls to lull him to sleep when he was four. At age 12, it was a concert by The Indigo Girls and Shawn Colvin that convinced him to pick up the guitar. Who was on hand to teach him his first chords? Their housemate Dar Williams, of course.
And the story gets better! 2007 was a very, very good year for Chris O’Brien. With the release of Lighthouse, O’Brien was nominated for a Boston Music Award for “Local Male Vocalist of the Year” and Boston mega-folk station WUMB named him “New Artist of the Year.” He performed as an Emerging Artist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and was the Grand Prize Winner of Martha’s Vineyard-based Internet station WMVY’s “Fresh Produce” sampler.
While working as a waiter at Cambridge’s famed Passim coffeehouse/restaurant, O’Brien submitted his song “Rosa” online to Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion and says he promptly forgot about it. Then the phone call came - he was one of six finalists of the “Talented People in Their Twenties” competition. He performed the song on Prairie Home Companion for over 4 million listeners and his resulting sales on iTunes allowed him to quit his day job. By year’s end, O’Brien was headlining his own show at Passim. Rags to riches (on a folk music scale anyway)!
His first full-length CD, Lighthouse, is a mostly buoyant sounding collection of well crafted songs powered by O’Brien’s lilting tenor and unobtrusive support from some of Boston’s finest: guitarist (and co-producer) Austin Nevins (Deb Talen, Edie Carey), bassist Zack Hickman (Josh Ritter), drummer John Sands (Aimee Mann, Lori McKenna), and pianist Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter). Backing vocals from Antje Duvekot and Frank Marotta Jr. round out the sound.
The melodies pour out; lovely pedal steel and subdued electric guitar, O’Brien’s acoustic guitar never overdoing it but propelling things forward, some piano and keys hidden here and there. Antje Duvekot’s ethereal back-up vocals add some crucial texture – bringing to mind Shawn Colvin’s early work with Suzanne Vega and others in the late 80s.
The vocals are king on this disc. Front and center, the lyrics are clearly realized and O’Brien’s voice instantly draws you in with casual soul and phrasing that lands him somewhere between Ellis Paul (richer tone, though similar voice) and Tracy Chapman (borrows from her percussive phrasing and tremolo-laden voice). O’Brien’s press kit is rife with references to fellow Bostonian/Northamptonite Martin Sexton, but I find he doesn’t chew up the scenery as Sexton tends to.
Lighthouse is clearly a break-up disc. O’Brien is pissed – and there’s a woman to blame. Or maybe a few…. Yet throughout the turmoil, O’Brien (or the songs’ narrators anyway) holds on to a dogged optimism and a refusal to give in. Ever.
The motifs are many throughout the disc: women leaving, men left behind, raw emotional treachery, more women leaving, warm sun/blue skies/cold winter, “women playing me for a fool,” and the lure of the open road. And always, he holds on to a grim hope that things will be better down the road. Communication between men and women (or a lack of it) plagues the disc: “I’m listening to every word you say” (Blue Skies), “I’ve missed every word you’ve said” (Apartment #4), and finally, the album’s coda: “I’ve heard every word you said/ So far, Melissa/ You were wrong/ I have gone for good” (Melissa). The latter song makes me look forward to his songwriting when he is a “Talented Person in His Thirties.”
The disc opens with the fabulous “Rosa,” the song that won the PHC competition. It’s a classic “she was workin’ as a waitress” song. The dreamy guitar instantly places us in the wide-open spaces somewhere out West before Rosa’s ambitions are derailed. But, “I told her I loved her/ And I think I really did/ She just smiled something wicked/ And turned away instead.”
“Cigarettes and Coffee” finds the narrator in the throes of a deliciously complete existential meltdown on a train platform as his love pulls out on the last train. Yet, “Every day’s a new day/ A green and a blue day/ Every day’s a chance to start again/ Make it right/ So come on, baby/ It’s a long road back from here.” There’s that optimism thing again.
“Apartment #4” is one of the disc’s outstanding tracks. The beat slows, some fine minor chords make their way in, and O’Brien sings with his best laid-back soul which helps pull you through to the bitter end. “This is all I have left, my love/ And I’m not letting go.” That is one stubborn guy.
As we go to press, Chris will be performing at the 2008 Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. His upcoming tour schedule includes some of the folk world’s best venues and festivals as he crisscrosses across the country. Catch him in the small places while you can – if we’re lucky, he’ll return to Portland’s North Star Café for an encore performance.
Editor's note: Chris appeared at the North Star Music Cafe on April 26, 2008. I had meant, of course, to get a review of "Lighthouse" onto MFM.COM prior to his appearance - due to inattention on my part, I let that opportunity slip away. My apologies, and my thanks to Ceci Gilson for writing such a great review! As Ceci writes above, we hope that Chris will come back and appear in Portland again soon. I saw Chris perform at last year's NERFA, and he is indeed very, very talented!
Bob McK
