Americana

"Mele na Leni" - Jamie O'Brien (slack key guitar tuned to taro patch in F)

Without realizing it, Jamie has been performing music in Americana style since his younger days in England. As a great fan of Lonnie Donegan and skiffle, he soon became familiar with the music of Woody Guthrie, Huddy Ledbetter and others. He was always fascinated by the London-Irish music he heard in his family and its connection to folk music - namely, Appalachian and old timey American music. He learnt more when through Ogron, an unaccompanied group he helped form, he was introduced to the Carter Family, Doc Watson, the New Lost City Ramblers and many other American performers.

After arriving in the US, he became a founder member of Medicinal Purpose, an old timey and southern swing contradance band based in Harrisburg, PA. Ryck Kaiser (fiddle), Carol Whitfield (clawhammer banjo, concertina) and Henry Koretzky (mandolin, hammered dulcimer) formed the nucleus of the MPs, with Jamie playing guitar; and these musicians took him even further along the road.

Individual commitments of band members made regular playing by the MPs an impossibility; each followed his or her own path with work and with music, though their separate ways often still intertwine. Both Henry and Jamie have often added guitar to the Ryck Kaiser Trio and Ryck has often fiddled with the Launies; Henry is a current member of that band. Henry and Jamie also perform as Shades of Green & Blue and as a contradance band, Unbowed.

Jamie often plays coffeehouses and other listening venues where he features a varied repertoire including Americana, celtic and Hawaiiana, including traditional, contemporary and original songs.