Tim O’Brien
Multi-Grammy award winner Tim O’Brien and his wife Jan Fabricius have
performed together nationally and internationally either as a duo or as part
of the Tim O’Brien Band since 2015. In a duet setting with a guitar, a
mandolin, and their two voices, they bring an intimate and warm acoustic
music roots repertoire that’s at once both original and traditional.
Singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist O’Brien, born in Wheeling WV
in 1954, grew up singing and playing guitar in church and in school. After
seeing Doc Watson on TV, he became a lifelong devotee of old time and
bluegrass music. Co-founder of Colorado’s Hot Rize, he toured the world
with that band from 1978 until he started his solo career in 1990. His songs
have been covered by Kathy Mattea, Garth Brooks, and the Dixie Chicks,
and his collaborators onstage and in the recording studio include Darrell
Scott, Dirk Powell, Mark Knopfler, and Sturgill Simpson. Awarded
Grammy’s in both the Folk and Bluegrass categories, he is a member of
both the West Virginia and the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. He lives with
Jan Fabricius in Nashville TN.
Jan Fabricius grew up in WaKeeney, Ks. and sang from an early age in
church and school, taking up clarinet and then mandolin. A registered
nurse and mother of two, she kept her hand in music through local jams
and regional bluegrass festivals while raising her family.
Jan’s music with O’Brien started informally around their home as he wrote
or learned new songs, and she soon found herself singing and playing
mandolin in the studio and onstage. O’Brien’s 2021 release “He Walked
On”, and his upcoming release “Cup of Sugar” feature original songs
cowritten by Tim and Jan.
The maestro of oldtime returns to Longstaff House and Montana Fiddle Camp. I’m sure we will have a fiddle workshop as well.
Short Bio for Jacob Jolli
Jacob Jolliff is one of the world’s premier contemporary mandolinists. In 2011
he graduated from Berklee College of Music, having studied there on a full
scholarship. The following year, in 2012, he won the USA’s National Mandolin
Championship in Winfield, KS. A fixture of the bluegrass scene, he
performed and collaborated with Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Michael Daves,
Grant Gordy, Wes Corbett, and Alex Hargreaves, to name a few. Additionally,
throughout his 20s, he toured as a member of the groups Joy Kills Sorrow and
Yonder Mountain String Band. Currently, his focus is on his own ensemble, The
Jacob Jolliff Band—one of the most cutting-edge progressive bluegrass group
on the scene today. They’ve released three albums, the most recent of which,
“Instrumentals, Vol. 2: Mandolin Mysteries,” dropped in May 2024. The band
plays a combination of complex original instrumental music and vocal repertoire
that spans from trad bluegrass to unlikely pop covers. Improvisation and the
ensemble interplay are at the forefront