We're Usually a Lot Better Than This (Live)

The second effort by Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott is a live duo recording compiled from two Grey Eagle dates in Asheville, North Carolina in 2005 and 2006. The material includes fine originals including Scott's "Long Time Gone" (a hit for the Dixie Chicks) and "With a Memory Like Mine," O'Brien's "Climbing Up a Mountain," and the pair's "When There's No One Around" in medley with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." But there are also excellent covers. There's a wonderful a cappella reading of Hank Williams' "House of Gold," a rowdy version of Townes Van Zandt's "White Freightliner Blues," and an elegiac take on Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain," as well as renditions of Keith Whitley's classic "You Don't Have to Move That Mountain" and Lefty Frizzell's iconic "Mom and Dad's Waltz." Beyond the material, what's memorable is the sheer high-wire informality of the setting. While both men are fine singers and Scott is one of the hottest guitar pickers on the planet, what's readily apparent is the pair's willingness to fly by the seat of their pants, inventing harmonies and unique phrasings and instrumental passages; their shared sense of spontaneity reveals genuine surprise between the players, and results in communicating a shared joy with the audience.