Rich and Valerie O'Brien
Rich O’Brien is an artist of extraordinary versatility. Acoustic Guitar Magazine calls him ....”the house guitarist for the cowboy music revival.” He has been inducted into both the Western Swing Society’s and the Western Music Association’s Halls of Fame. In addition, his work has won him a herd of Wrangler Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Ranger Doug of Riders In The Sky writes “There is no one I’d rather hear play guitar than Richard O’Brien. His taste and musical sensibility are exquisite. He has great technique, of course, but there is a vast difference between a facile technician and the brilliance and perfect feel that is Rich O’Brien’s. He’s a national treasure!” Famous for his Western guitar, his playing spans a variety of influences, from swing and jazz, to tejano, folk, and classical. Rich O’Brien was born in Southwestern Missouri, when “America ruraled” He credits his mother Gracie, a Carter Family style guitar player herself, with fostering his love of music. Family music sessions were frequent with his six brothers and three sisters. His ability to use the entire fretboard of the guitar was a gift from his brother Paul, who O’Brien once described as “the best guitar player in the family.” He now frequently performs with his wife, Valerie O’Brien on fiddle, not that dissimilar from his early musical roots. Leaving home with less than ten dollars in his pocket and the vague promise of a prison guard job, Rich headed for Texas. There, he quickly fit in with local music scene, playing western swing with the likes of Tom Morrell and the Time-Warp Top Hands and touring with Country stars Moe Bandy, Gene Watson and Ray Price. Texas is also home to Cowboy singers Don Edwards and Red Steagall, and O’Brien quickly found Western music’s blend of traditional American folk and swing styles and Old West subject matter fit his style of playing and his love of history. It proved to be the genre in which he would make his biggest mark. Word of his playing and also of his skill for arranging music quickly spread through a rapidly growing Western music scene. O’Brien has now played on or produced over four hundred recordings for such players as Don Edwards, Riders in the Sky, Waddie Mitchell, Sons of the San Joaquin, Red Steagall and Marty Stuart. Television and radio appearances include Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, The Grand Ol’ Opry, The Roots of Country Music, Texas Connection, The Music of The Wild West and On Stage.
Music runs deep on both sides of Valerie O'Brien's family. Both of her grandfathers were fiddle players as well as a great grandfather, and Valerie remembers her grandfather Ryals sitting with her at the kitchen table going over the old tunes one note at a time. Valerie's love for the fiddle was sparked at the early age of three when she discovered her mom's fiddle under the bed. Before long, she, her sister, and brother were all playing. Valerie started violin lessons at age nine, learned her first Texas-style fiddle tunes by eleven, and won the Junior World Championship at thirteen. Like everyone in her family, she became an accomplished musician on several instruments. At her first contest in Alvarado, Texas, Valerie got to hear two great Texas fiddle legends, Norman Solomon and Johnny Gimble, twin fiddle "Maiden's Prayer."
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