Album Review: TIM O’BRIEN & DARRELL SCOTT

By Aaron Davis (for JHWeekly.com)We’re Usually A Lot Better Than This TIM O’BRIEN & DARRELL SCOTTThis duo of world-class instrumentalists and singer-songwriters truly fill one another’s shoes. Scott and O’Brien trade off on acoustic guitars, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo, claps, and lead/harmony vocals, filling the air with a gospel-bluegrass tinge that is, in an invitingly loose fashion, two friends making incredible music for a great cause. Recorded at two different concerts at The Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C. benefiting the Arthur Morgan School, Scott says in the liner notes, “Some songs we’d played hundreds of times over the years, some we just did on stage on this recording for the first time. We are fearless and we egg each other on towards the edge of crash & burn.” A set favorite is Scott’s “Long Time Gone,” bridged with a fiery improvisational section that climbs, teeters and soars. Barn-burning opener, O’Brien’s “Climbing Up a Mountain,” and Scott’s versatility as a banjo roller on a co-write with his old man, “With a Memory Like Mine,” are also gems.