WPAA
Public radio performers featured on nationally syndicated shows, Mountain Stage and Prairie Home Companion, are coming to St. Francis on Sunday, Feb. 9. The 3 p.m. Central show is scheduled for the St. Francis Community High School Auditorium.
Grammy Award winning singer Mollie O’Brien and her husband, professional guitarist Rich Moore, have mined the vast range of American roots music from traditional folk, jazz, blues and rock to create a varied and entertaining show for the Western Plains Arts Association.
Admission is by WPAA season ticket or adults $10 and students $5. 50th anniversary season programs are made possible through the generous support of area businesses and individuals, including a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Logan, Kan.
Here is what a few leaders in the music industry say about O’Brien: ”An incredible singer and fantastic guitarist performing some of the best songs you’ll ever hear in one show…In 27 years of performing on Mountain Stage, she’s one of the top three best singers ever to perform on the show,” Larry Groce, artistic director and host, Mountain Stage. Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones said, “If you want to know what singing is all about, listen to Mollie O’Brien.” The Washington Post wrote, “The precision of her phrasing, the smooth flow of her delivery and the sheer beauty of her alto make her one of the best interpretive singers in American pop today.”
O’Brien and Moore have been married more than 30 years, making beautiful music together and apart. They met in 1981 at the Denver Folklore Center and married a few years later. At the time they were involved in their own bands and working solidly all over Colorado – Mollie was singing with Prosperity Jazz Band, a vintage swing band which featured local luminary Washboard Chaz among others; Rich was playing bass with the rock-steady blues band, The Late Show. Within a years Mollie joined The Late Show, and they attracted notice outside the bar band scene and began playing Colorado blues festivals and concerts. A few years of marriage and two daughters later, things began to change. O’Brien quit the blues band and Moore got a day job that he held until both of their daughters graduated from college.
Now, here’s how things turned out.
O’Brien became known to the rest of the world as a singer’s singer when, in 1988, she and her brother Tim released the first of three critically-acclaimed albums. Eventually, Mollie recorded five equally well-received solo albums. She was a regular on the nationally-syndicated radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion” from 2001 through 2005, and has long been known as a singer who doesn’t recognize a lot of musical boundaries. Audiences love her fluid ability to make herself at home in any genre while never sacrificing the essence of the song she tackles. She has primarily focused her efforts on the fading art of interpretation and the end result is a singer at the very top of her game who is not afraid to take risks both vocally and in the material she chooses.
Moore has immersed himself in the Colorado music scene for many years. While staying home with the kids when Mollie and Tim toured, he held a day job and continued to perform locally with a variety of Colorado favorites, including Pete Wernick and Celeste Krenz. Not only is Moore known to produce some of the funniest onstage running commentary, he’s also a powerhouse guitar player who can keep up with O’Brien’s twists and turns from blues to traditional folk to jazz to rock and roll. He creates a band with just his guitar and, as a result, theirs is an equal partnership.
The duo has released three CDs that showcase their talent for unlocking the secrets to a diverse array of songs in authoritative yet very fun and unusual arrangements. Visit their website: mollieobrien.com for more information.
O’Brien and Moore let us know via their choice of material that they are not afraid to take risks. It’s almost as if they’re telling us that at this stage in their lives, they are at home with their musical selves – they can do whatever they want and they don’t care if the rest of the world agrees with them.