One of the top bluegrass musicians in the country, Tim O’Brien, is coming to Scottsbluff to headline the third annual Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival. O’Brien, who’s performed with other top musicians like Dolly Parton and Kathy Mattea, will be bringing his Grammy winning singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist skills to 18th Street Plaza on Aug. 22.
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – The first two years of the Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival, presented by Platte Valley Companies, featured a number of quality, big name bluegrass bands in the region.
Year number three, however, is going to be even more impressive on stage.
That’s because this year’s event will be headlined by Tim O’Brien, one of the top bluegrass musicians in the country.
“The level of performance people are going to see from Tim and his group is going to be out of this world,” said Rory Vernon of Scottsbluff, a longtime musician himself who’s in charge of the artist lineup for the Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival. “No one is going to walk away disappointed that night. In fact, I think people who attend are going to be awestruck.”
The third annual Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival is set for Aug. 21-23. Tim O’Brien will take the stage Saturday, Aug. 22, at 8:30 p.m. at 18th Street Plaza in downtown Scottsbluff. Admission will be free, thanks to numerous sponsors in the region.
Vernon calls O’Brien an “A-lister in Nashville, Tennessee.”
“In my opinion, I think he’s one of the top seven bluegrass performers in the nation,” Vernon said. “His playing ability is hard to match. He’s performed all over the world, and he’s played with some really big names in the music industry, like with Dolly Parton, and he’s even put together a duet album with Kathy Mattea. So, for us to be able to get him to travel to Scottsbluff for our Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival is huge.”
According to information sent to Nspire Today! from Tim O’Brien’s marketing team, the Grammy winning singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist O’Brien was born in Wheeling, West Virgina, in 1954 and grew up singing in church and in school.
After seeing Doc Watson on TV, he became a lifelong devotee of old time and bluegrass music. He started touring nationally in 1978 with Colorado bluegrass band Hot Rize. His songs “Walk the Way the Wind Blows” and “Untold Stories” were bluegrass hits for Hot Rize, and country hits for Kathy Mattea. Soon, more artists like Nickel Creek, Garth Brooks, and The Dixie Chicks covered his songs.
Over the years, O’Brien has collaborated with his sister Mollie O’Brien, songwriter Darrell Scott, and noted old-time musician Dirk Powell, as well as with Steve Earle, Mark Knopfler, Dan Auerbach, Sturgill Simpson, and Steve Martin.
Living in Nashville since 1996, O’Brien’s skills on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo make him an in-demand session player. He tours in a duet setting with his wife Jan Fabricius on mandolin and vocals, and in a band the includes bassist Mike Bub, fiddler Shad Cobb, and Fabricius.
The International Bluegrass Music Association awarded him Song of the Year in 2006 and named him Best Male Vocalist in 1993 and 2006. He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2022.
Recent releases He Walked On and Cup of Sugar wove stories of everyday life into socially conscious themes. Other notable O’Brien recordings include the bluegrass Dylan covers of Red on Blonde, the Celtic-Appalachian fusion of The Crossing, and the Grammy winning folk of Fiddler’s Green. His duet with Darrell Scott, Real Time, is a cult favorite, and he won a bluegrass Grammy as part of The Earls of Leicester. O’Brien and Fabricius released their first full collaboration Paper Flowers in June 2025. Its fifteen original songs serve as a narrative of the married couple’s life together.
“Tim O’Brien is very laid back and easy going, but he’s very powerful, too, with his music,” Vernon said. “When you learn about all the musicians he’s performed with, you knows he’s one of the best.”
Interestingly, Vernon himself has a performance connection with O’Brien. About 25 years ago, Vernon and Steve Gilmore handled sound tech for O’Brien’s band at a bluegrass festival that used to take place at Curt Gowdy State Park west of Cheyenne.
Following the festival that evening, Vernon happened to be in the right place at the right time, giving him an opportunity to actually play some music with O’Brien.
“After some bluegrass festivals, its common for musicians to get together for what I call a ‘tailgate concert,’ where they just play songs for fun,” Vernon said. “Tim and I got involved in one of those ‘tailgate concerts’ in one of the cabins up there, and that turned into almost an all nighter. Tim played the Mando cello, and I played the guitar. We just stood there in the kitchen and played music, right next to each other. I didn’t make it a point to get right next to him while we were playing; that’s just how it worked out. There were some other people who had an instrument, too, and joined in. It was a lot of fun.”
Vernon said he doesn’t think that evening had anything to do with O’Brien agreeing to come to Scottsbluff for the Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival.
“That happened such a long time ago that I doubt he remembers it, especially with as big as he’s become in bluegrass music,” Vernon said with a laugh. “I remember it because I was in awe of how well he could play – very few people can play like him. At that point, I knew he was going to be pretty big in the music industry.”
Originally, Vernon said he reached out to the one of the players he knew in the hit bluegrass band Hot Rize, Pete Wernick, to see if he would be interested in performing at the Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival this year. Wernick is also a very talented musician, Vernon noted, who was part of the Hot Rize group that was inducted into the West Virginia Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
Wernick couldn’t accept Vernon’s offer, however, because he said he and his wife were already scheduled to play the same weekend in August this year at a music event in North Carolina. Wernick, however, suggested Vernon reach out to O’Brien. Fortunately, Vernon knew O’Brien was friends with Steve Gilmore and Steve Martin, both talented bluegrass musician that Vernon was friends with, too, and Vernon asked them if they knew how to get ahold of O’Brien.
“Martin gave me an email address, and that put me in touch with [O’Brien’s agent, Chris Faville],” Vernon said. “I asked [Chris] if Tim would be willing to come to Scottsbluff in August for our bluegrass festival.”
Vernon didn’t have super high hopes that O’Brien would say yes, just because O’Brien is used to performing in much bigger venues throughout the world and has become such a big name in the bluegrass industry.
However, Faville got back to Vernon, informing him that O’Brien was willing to come to Scottsbluff.
“I was as excited as I could be,” Vernon said with a big smile. “I think I let out a big, ‘Yeah!’, when I got the message, just because you don’t know if you’re going to be able to get someone here as big as Tim O’Brien.”
Vernon said landing a top-notch music artist like O’Brien builds up the Beef, Beans & Bluegrass Festival’s credibility even more.
“I think it’s huge because down the road when other performers see that Tim O’Brien came here, they’ll be more likely to consider coming here, too,” Vernon said. “Getting Tim to be our headliner is a crazy, good thing. I’ve already talked to a lot of people I know in the bluegrass music industry who are amazed that we were able to get him here. They just look at me like, ‘You’re kidding. Tim O’Brien is coming to Scottsbluff?’ It’s going to be incredible.”
Vernon said he anticipates that three other musicians will travel with O’Brien.
“I think it will be a standard bluegrass group, featuring a mandolin player, a guitar player, a banjo player, and a bass player,” Vernon said.
While Tim O’Brien will be the headliner for this year’s festival, there will be lots of other talented bluegrass bands taking the stage during the weekend of the event. More bands will be announced soon.
Vernon said he’s excited about how this year’s entire music lineup is shaping up.
“I think the entire lineup is going to be great,” Vernon said. “There will be bands performing on stage from 10 in the morning that Saturday until 10 at night, and each one of them will be playing really quality music.”
Vernon encourages people of all ages to come see top-notch musicians, especially since there’s no admission fee.
“People have an opportunity to listen to some top-drawer bluegrass music right here in Scottsbluff without paying a dime,” he said. “At other festivals, this kind of lineup, headlined by Tim O’Brien, could cost hundreds of dollars for a ticket. But we’re making it free for people to attend. We want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy some of the top bluegrass bands you’ll find.”
