Tim O'Brien wrote "When You Come Back Down"

[JLee]

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I just realized that he co-wrote "When You Come Back Down"! I had looked it up way long ago when I wanted to know if Chris wrote it. But I had no idea who Tim O'Brien was at the time. I knew he was going to be at the Mandolin Symposium this year and I saw him that whole week long. I'm kicking myself for not realizing this before the Symposium. I coulda thanked him for writing the song that made me fall in love with the most beautiful instrument in the world! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[fwoompf]

Tim O'Brien is one of the best songwriters of our time...he kicks some major tail!

[jjboone101]

Yeah, he's one major talent. Guys like Tim and Darrell Scott don't get quite enough attention for their songwriting abilities. As Darrell mentioned on a NPR show recently, the songs that get picked up and recorded by major artits (Dixie Chicks, Travis Trit, etc.) enable him (financially) to pursue his own musical pursuits and cut the kind of albums he likes...probably similar with Tim. And now it looks like Tim is getting more into producing (new Duhks album on Sugar Hill Records).

[AW Meyer]

The song was co-written with Danny O'Keefe, of "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" fame.

[Michael H Geimer]

Timmy O is one of my favorite mandolin players, too. Tastes in spades!

[JLee]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif Wow... so I did my Tim O'Brien research and realized that he has written lots of songs by other artists that I didn't even know he had written!! He told us at the Symposium that he had written "When There's No One Around" which is a Garth Brooks song that I've always liked and I just found out that he did his own version of that song in addition to When You Come Back Down on an album back in 1996 or 97!! He also wrote 2 Dixie Chicks songs on one album (Longtime Gone and More Love). I also read lyrics to lots of his other songs. I'm really impressed and I ordered 2 of his CDs (When There's No One Around and Real Time) since I don't have any of his stuff and I liked all the songs on both albums when I heard the clips.
It's interesting, his version of When You Come Back Down. It sounds like a saxaphone doing the instrumental solo. Hmmm I wonder if that takes the place of Sarah's fiddle solo or Chris's mando solo or if Tim actually plays the same solo that Chris plays. I'll have to wait till I get to hear it. Unless one of you knows. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
Still kicking myself that I didn't do my research before the Symposium! Guess I have to wait till next year to thank him! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Ivan Kelsall]

Tim Is a heck of a Mandolin player - he 'aint half bad on the fiddle either !.He was one of the main reasons why i bought all the old Hot Rize LP's & CD's & most of his current output also,
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #Saska

[JLee]

What's Hot Rise??
So has anyone heard the Tim version of When You Come Back Down? Is it really a sax in there instead of a mando or is there a mando solo too? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[AW Meyer]

Yep, that's a sax solo. No mandolin solo on it as I recall. It's on Tim's 1997 album, "When No One's Around."

[SternART]

JLee....how old are you? Hot Rize is a legendary Colorado bluegrass band, and guess who played mandolin, violin & was the lead singer?
I'll let you do the research......and while you are at it look up Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers.....they always toured with Hot Rize
and had to sit in the back of the tour bus. Their guitar player Red, looks a lot like Tim.

[JLee]

LOL yes I am a youngin.... in my twenties. But I didn't grow up with Bluegrass. Tragically, I didn't even know what a mandolin was until Nickel Creek! I only came across it because I started listening to country music when I was in High School and then they started playing Nickel Creek. It was Chris's solo in When You Come Back Down that made me go what is that heavenly instrument!! And I fell passionately in love with it ever since then! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
One of my friends exposed me to mandolinists other than Chris but I really didn't know much about them until I went to the Symposium this Summer. And that sure opened up a whole nother world for me!
But I did my research and found out that HotRize was a HUGE bluegrass group with Tim O'Brien. Interesting... he had the same Record Label as Nickel Creek. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JLee]

That's so wierd that it's a sax solo instead of a mando! I wonder if Chris plays the same exact solo as the sax. If he changed it, I would think it would say "arrangement by Chris Thile" but it doesn't. That would explain why it is such a tough part to master.... I've been working on it forever!

[SternART]

JLee...remember the Symposium performance of Donny & Tim......they did a jazz tune with Tim playing some great swing guitar.
Well...Hot Rize & Red Knuckles were the same guys, they changed clothes and instruments and came out as the Trailblazers and
did a more electric Swing thing for the 2nd set. Not only was it hilarious, but those cats could swing. Tim can play jazz
guitar too. He is a huge talent. He has a coupla Irish CDs out too with some ex-Solas members, and sometimes tours as a great
trio with Casey Dreissen on fiddle and incredible rhythm guitarist from Solas John Doyle. Oh yeah, and Tim sings pretty good too!

[Erk]

Welcome to the world of Tim. Boy are you in for a treat, there are just so many great Tim O'Brien albums to choose from:
O'Boy O'Boy, with Mark Schatz and Scott Nygaard
Rock In My Shoe, with great performances by Jerry Douglas
Red On Blonde, Tim does Bob Dylan!
The two Irish albums- The Crossing and Two Journeys.
If you like vocal harmonies you have to pick up some of the albums he recorded with his sister Mollie; Away On a Mountain and Remember Me. Not a bad one in the bunch and good for hours of musical enlightenment.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I first heard 'When you come back down'' on a Nickel Creek album.
Beautiful song,beautifully played. One of my favourites by Tim is the song ''Late in the day''- heck, it would bring a tear to a glass eye !

[rhetoric]

I like Nickel Creek and Tim O'Brien, but "When You Come Back Down" drives me bats. I like the tune and all, but the lyrics are pretty presumptuous. It just seems so condesecending for anybody but God to be saying, "WHEN you come back down..." Maybe she won't. Maybe she'll just keep rising. It makes me want to write a "sequel" song from her perspective in which she leaves her "solid ground" in the dust. Anyway, I always chalked the arrogant "now, now, dear" feel of it up to Nickel Creek's youth, but now I have to blame in on Tim? Oy vey. Anyway, when I saw NC in concert all the kids wanted that song for an encore and screamed and swooned and swayed while they played it. I must be old or something.

[David M.]

It just seems so condesecending for anybody but God to be saying, "WHEN you come back down..."

Not if she's in a plane... I honestly have always read those lyrics that way.

Nelly Kane is another great Tim O. song you hear covered by BG bands all over.

[Jim Hilburn]

Back in the early 70's, Tim was in a band called Ophelia Swing Band here in Boulder and it was common to see him with Dan Sadowsky and Duane Webster playing on Pearl St. for change before the Pearl St. Mall was built.
The first Hot Rize gigs were on KGNU radio at 7:00 in the morning when the station first went on the air.

[Keith Erickson]

Tim O'Brien!!! WOW!!! He is amazing!!!

My first bluegrass song that I learned and jammed to was "Colleen Malone".

It was my exposure to Hot Rize that really got me all gung-ho for bluegrass.

[JLee]

I just got my Tim CDs today and I love them! He has an amazing voice! I heard him sing at the Symposium when he was sitting only 5 feet in front of me and he was great then but it is cool to hear some of this stuff- his music is so versatile!

I love his version of When There's No One Around better than the Garth version. It's wierd- you can just tell that he wrote it by the way that he sings it. It's also cool to hear him sing those Dixie Chicks songs that he wrote. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I don't like his version of "When You Come Back Down" as much as NC because it's too upbeat and I've always seen that song as sort of a sad, inspirational, and reflective song. It's also very wierd to hear the sax in place of the mando. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

Rhetoric, I've always interpreted that song in a specific way and I love the lyrics. I always think of it as a girl who needs to go and chase her dreams and her man who is choosing to let her go so she can go fulfill them. My guess is that she is going to pursue a music career where she will be faced with all the crazy challenges and hell that most people who take that road encounter... (I inferred this from the line, "I'll be the harmony to every lonely song that you learn to play"-- an incredible line although it may just be one big metaphor and have nothing to do with a music career).

The "when you come back down" part of it does sort of imply that she is going to fail so if any lyrics should be changed it should probably be "if you come back down." But I interpret this to mean that he is completely supportive of her and wants her to do whatever it takes to reach her goal but he also knows that any road worth travelling will also have huge bumps in it and he is saying that if there every comes a time that that harsh reality makes her get her head out of the clouds and float back down to earth.... then he will be there for her.

One of my favorite lines is "my greatest fear will be that you will crash and burn and I won't feel your fire" because he knows what fire (desire or passion she has for what she values and wants)and he knows what reality may do to her desire to achieve her goals and he doesn't want her to give up.

Another great line is "your memory is the sunshine every new day brings"--- I could go on and on! It's just a fantastic song-- hopefully this makes you see it a little differently. Just my interpretation of it.
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[Landgrass]

I think you just nailed it JLee.