Considering the quality of music performed by most of the lesser known Americana artists on Music City Roots, they would be lucky to attract tens of tens of people to their shows. A great deal of the utterly non-commercial Americana music being made these days just isn’t that accessible nor interesting.

I got to see the “O’Brien Party of Six” (Tim’s younger son had headed back to college at Berkeley) perform at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica last night and it was a blast. I like family bands to begin with and having Tim and Mollie O’Brien fronting such a group isn’t a bad place to start! (lol) Mollie’s two pretty daughters and Tim’s son on bass were nice contributors but it was Tim’s pickin’ (and singing) and Mollie’s vocals that made the show so enjoyable. I told Tim afterwards that he really should have included “Family History” due to the make-up of this ensemble. Also, Tim assured me that Jon Weisberger is not near as pompous in person as he seems to be here at Engine145!(lol) In parting I recommended that Tim and Sam Bush get together and work up a mandolin based version of “Dueling Banjos” they could name “Dueling Mandos”! Its always entertaining to see the expressions on the artist’s faces when I make those kinds of comments…