Tim O'Rourke

Get your CD here:

Order Backyard Dreams!

Check out samples & get instant downloads! 

The following is what Sansietch had to say about what happened there: 

I'm only a short while out from the two day sessions with Tim O'Rourke. I guess I'm still reeling a bit. I wanted to give you some early

impressions of these sessions.

I suppose I'll leave out the beans, chili, beer, farm fresh eggs... I could talk about those but unless you've had them...

Okay, seriously,

Tim O'Rourke came in here and did everything I dreamed he would do,

and nothing I had the balls to hope for.

He started with music, and humility

and confidence all together.

He laid down a series of vocal and acoustic guitar tracks that had me going out of my skin.

I mean, the groove came through right off,

because the base of these songs are Tim's guitar playing and singing.

He must have put down half the album in the first sitting alone.

After that, I needed a break.

I needed to come back to earth.

We might have walked up the road,

or fed the chickens,

or ate our fill.

Deep down we probably thought about sharing our experience with our wives.

That's a whole other story... If you believe that music is an illustration of the heights humans can achieve, it's moving to be in the room when the real thing goes down.

Well, if there's any true craziness, it happened that night. Tim had barraged me with so many affecting performances that things may have gotten out of hand. Just tune into our laid-back approach to electric lead guitar on some of these tracks.

Sorry, no drums from that evening survived the festivities. I don't want you to think that I didn't play that night though.

We jammed in several combination and on several songs.

I clearly had far too much “O'Rourke on the rocks” by that time.

And poor Tim suffered under the completely misguided idea

that he had to do everything

at scale and on the clock,

and in eight hours or something.

But living out in the country,

kickin' up dust,

layin' down tracks

doesn't give us any isolation,

and it wasn't long before

MM7, CR 18

lived up to it's reputation and

Mark Kelley

showed up.

He spun a few tales and ran off with a PA. Practice the next morning or something.

Coffee and grit,

like the red dirt blowing our chi-chi's off,

is just what T-Pain, which is what I called Tim by now,

showed up with the following morning. He pummeled the bass guitar for... has it been three hours already?

I suppose I asked.

Seems like he put down bass tracks with country-gumption

until we had to start recording bird song or coyote howls,

or something to fill the spaces left for wanderin'.

Plenty more lead guitar and illegal ivory audio

are what Tim used.

I took a few pictures and tried my best to capture the details.

Tim O'Rourke is a troubadour you want to go see.

I'm just lucky enough to have seen him make music

right before my ears.

                                                Sansietch '09

Also due this Spring, a moving, insightful book of the lyrics of Tim's songs over the past several decades. It's a unique look at the man behind the mountain. Or should we say on the mountain?! Check back soon!