some reviews of his new album:
About.com
Tim is back with a killer solo songwriter record full of country- and blues-inspired original folk songs. Tim O'Brien's career has been built on the sheer fact that the man can seemingly do anything musically. Navel-gazing folk songs, check. High-powered bluegrass fiddle tunes, check. Meandering mandolin noodling, check. Toe-tapping blues tunes, check. Classic old timey Celtic and American gospel songs, check. Bazouki, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals...get the point?
popmatters.com
'Chameleon' may be some of his best work to date, even if he’s veered from the traditional bluegrass that made him famous in the country music world. Chameleon shows why he’s one of the best pickers in music as he plays the guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, bouzouki, and mandola.
Chameleon sees O’Brien as more of a Woody Guthrie folkie type, dispensing both silliness and political commentary with a sly wink.
Some of the catchiest songs on Chameleon see O’Brien getting political, albeit with a wacky twist or two. “World of Trouble” has a little “Cotton-Eyed Joe” breakdown, this time with Osama bin Laden as the titular figure. “This World Was Made for Everyone” is deliberately reminiscent of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”; that is, cutting commentary combined with earwormy hooks, this time about Manifest Destiny, 19th century New England whaling practices, and air pollution. After all, as O’Brien sings, “This world was made for everyone / Especially for us”. George Bush, Clinton, Jesus, and Bob Geldof also get name-dropped in a couple of tracks which are equally chock-full of O’Brien’s whimsical and wry social observations.
O’Brien has definitely picked the right name for this new record, because in just the past few years we’ve seen him go from traditional bluegrass to Scots-Irish ballads to his current incarnation as witty folkie. Sure, he may be a chameleon, but let’s hope he stays this color for a while. It sure seems to suit him.
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