Musician friends Darrell Scott and Tim O’Brien have come together for We’re Usually a Lot Better Than This, a live album due for release October 9 on Full Light/Thirty Tigers. The album was recorded in 2005 and 2006 during two separate concerts at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, NC to benefit the Arthur Morgan School.
“With Tim and me, it’s all fair game,” says Scott. “We are fearless and we egg each other on toward the edge of crash and burn. Hopefully there’s more burn than crash here.”
Scott and O’Brien previously collaborated on the 2000 studio album Real Time, and some of its songs are reprised for Better Than This. Also among the 13 tracks are covers of songs by Townes Van Zandt (“White Freightliner Blues”), Lefty Frizzell (“Mom and Dad’s Waltz”), Hank Williams (“House of Gold”), Gordon Lightfoot (“Early Morning Rain”) and Keith Whitley (“You Don’t Have to Move That Mountain”).
Multi-instrumentalist Scott has collaborated with Steve Earle, Sam Bush, Guy Clark, and more. Most recently he has been a member of Robert Plant’s Band of Joy. Bluegrass favorite O’Brien has released over 13 solo albums, as well as seven albums with Hot Rize in the ‘80s, and four with his sister Mollie. He has played with Mark Knopfler, Steve Martin, Steve Earle and more.
