Colin O'Brien

Hello! If you're reading this far hopefully you've seen my video, and listened to some audio samples. (full tunes). I hope you found them informative and enjoyable. I can play standing, or sitting. I'm working on standing on my head whilst playing! (JK)

Nashville based Colin O'Brien is a master of the acoustic guitar.. His compositions harken to Leo Kottke, drawing deep from the well of American guitar styles and his compositional imagination. Colin's latest release "Thirteen" (11-01-2024) is now gathering praise.

"These are cool recordings" - Premiere Guitar Magazine.

“Thirteen (released 11-01- 24) hit me with a wave of joyful surprise. Colin is an important figure in the American Primitive tradition.” **
Craig Havighurst WMOT The Old Fashioned, Nashville TN.

Colin plays concert stages, festivals, clubs and private events throughout the United States and occasionally abroad, if she sounds good. His live shows feature his instrumental virtuosity, amazing percussive dancing on his amplified board and his straight to the point songwriting, sometimes hilarious, always moving.

His live shows have reached the level of remarkable.

“A great entertainer” -Tim O'Brien (No relation, dang.)

Ironically Colin began his journey into music by failing the fourth grade snare drum coordination test. The conductor (Jack Horner) gave him drum sticks anyway. A drummer was born. In his teens he discovered Keith Moon, and that set him off and pounding. A bonified high school rock star, he went on to drum (as a minor) for legendary Detroit band The Frames and then with award-winning Jugglers and Thieves, a nationally touring rock band also based in Detroit. Colin then bounced forth and studied classical guitar at Cornish College Of The Arts in Seattle WA. where he was awarded second place in his first (and last) classical guitar competition, (The Seattle Guitar Society). To the possible chagrin of the awards committee, Colin spent his winnings on a pile of archaic (to him at the time) blues, American Fingerstyle and John Fahey recordings. Soon after he traded in his nylon string classical guitar for a howling 1972 Guild 12 string, one that he plays to this day.

“With his 12-string guitar work recalling Leo Kottke and the spirit of John Hartford hovering over O’Brien’s banjo-fiddle-foot percussion stage presence, he offered something for everyone.” -The Shepherd Express

“His rustic vocals convey more years than he has lived” -Billboard Magazine

Colin lives in the hills (well, in a house) in Nashville, Tennessee.

I have sound systems appropriate for any size event.

I do not charge to provide any given system (Unless you would like to use it beyond the time in which I will be playing)

I can also easily use a sound system you may already have available.

I require 4 Square feet of space to play.