Mollie O'Brien

Mollie O'Brien, the elder sibling of Tim from Hot Rize and a bluegrass artist in her own right, spent her early years in Wheeling, West Virginia. While still in high school she and her brother formed a folk duo. Following vocal studies at college, she relocated to New York City and took a position as a garment-industry buyer. Drawn by her brother’s achievements with Hot Rize, she moved to Colorado in 1980 and soon became a regular presence on the local R&B and jazz scenes. The siblings reconvened for a Mother’s Day concert in 1984; four years afterward they released the duet album Take Me Back. At the same time O’Brien pursued independent work, issuing her first solo record, I Never Move Too Soon, in 1987. She also appeared with the Mother Folkers on their 1989 live set Live at the Arvada Center. Throughout the next decade she balanced solo and collaborative projects, putting out Everynight in the Week in 1990 and reuniting with Tim for Remember Me in 1992. A further duet collection, Away Out on the Mountain, arrived in 1994, followed by the solo album Tell It True in 1996. Big Red Sun Blues came two years later, and Things I Gave Away appeared in 2000. In 2001 she joined the regular cast of Garrison Keillor’s nationally syndicated NPR program A Prairie Home Companion. Beginning in 2006 she performed and toured with her husband, singer and guitarist Rich Moore; those shows were captured on the 2007 album 900 Baseline. The couple’s second joint release, Love Runner, followed in 2014 and included both original songs and material by Randy Newman, Tom Paxton, Chris Smither, and others.