Tim O’ Connor has been plying his trade on the New England blues scene since the early 1990s. O’Connor is a respected guitarist in his native New Hampshire where he is easier to see in a smaller population. Yet despite a lack of name recognition, his work with everyone from Ronnie Earl to Sweet Willie D to 2120 South Michigan Avenue has left no doubt about his talent caliber.
When O’Connor turns 33 next month, it will be his 20th anniversary playing guitar. O’Connor, since 2004, has been working, off and on, with Sweet Willie D as a regular band member. O’Connor and his band mates have been re-grouping since their keyboard player Mark Gilroy passed away three years ago. O’Connor along with Sweet Willie D played at Glenn’s in Newburyport the night before this interview. “We had a really nice gig last night,” O’Connor said. “We’re trying to find some more gigs.”
O’Connor learned to play guitar at age 13, having taken some lessons from some local guitarists in New Hampshire. O’Connor’s most notable guitar instructor was Ronnie Earl in Boston in 1999, whom he studied under for two years. “Ronnie’s a good friend of mine,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor grew up in a music family. His father is the bass player for Sweet Willie D’s band. “My whole family is musical,” he said. “We’ve had musicians in the family, guitar players, drummers.”
O’Connor and his family are originally from Long Island, New York. “My dad found work up here in 1990, and we moved up to Merrimack, New Hampshire.” The young O’Connor got his start in the local scene at a Monday night jam at Merrimack’s well-respected, now defunct, Stormy Monday Blues Café.
“That’s where I started playing in front of people, just one-four-five blues. Through that place I met Sweet Willie D and I met Brad Faucher. Brad is another one of my guitar teachers. He showed me the ropes, and he got me in the right direction. From there, I just did my homework, just constant research. I used to play six hours a day.”
Since those formative years, O’Connor has gone on to work with his teacher, Ronnie Earl, playing on Earl’s Ronnie Earl And Friends album, which brought O’Connor into work with Levon Helm from The Band, Irma Thomas, James Cotton, and Dave Maxwell.
Luther Guitar Junior Johnson is another big name O’Connor has worked with. Through Howard Randall’s original Sunday night blues jams at Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester, O’Connor met Little Harpo, Jon Ross, Per Hanson, LJ Graham, and Fran Calo.
O’Connor has been dogged by personal demons in his pursuit of music. “I have a diagnosable mental disorder called bi-polar disorder,” O’Connor allowed. “It’s gotten in the way when I wasn’t taking my medication. My condition prevented me from progressing at a rate where I wanted to, periods of depression where I didn’t play the guitar for a year at a time.”
O’Connor recently got his bi-polar disorder under wraps. He is getting back into the scene, and last night’s gig at Glenn’s Restaurant and Cool Bar was “a great come back” for the young guitarist. “For me, playing blues music is a difficult thing in itself because it’s not a popular form of music. If you want to play traditional blues, which I do, it’s tough road. You’ve gotta play the crappy clubs, and you’ve gotta do things you don’t want to do. I would say that is the hardest thing is just because blues is not popular. It’s kinda getting more popular again, I think. Compared to say if I was a rock musician or a pop musician, I would be better off, making more money. But that’s not why I do it. I do it because I love the music and I need to play blues music. It’s just part of me. Something about it just touches my soul.”
O’Connor also plays soul music like Otis Redding songs, but even that doesn’t get him like playing Otis Rush songs. O’Connor doesn’t know why he, a 33 white kid from New Hampshire, is playing blues. “I can’t explain it, really,” O’Connor said.
Playing blues music does help O’Connor through his struggles with bi-polar disorder.
“Playing the blues gets my frustrations out,” he said. “When I’m playing a solo, I really feel it. If I’m having a bad day, I’ll pick up the guitar and I’ll play some blues, and it will heal the problem. That’s why I consider music like a healing thing, as opposed to a sport which is competitive which I don’t like. I really am out there to heal people and to help people and to put a smile on their faces.”
For a while, O’Connor was going down a bad road, choosing to use drugs to get him through his depressions. From 18 to 32, O’Connor had a significant problem. “I went to Plymouth State College out of high school, and I got caught up in it right out of high school, and it just followed me into my early 30s,” he said. “I went to support groups and stuff, and I’m a little over a year clean right now, so I’m feeling good.”
Being a blues man also helped him through his drug induced depression. O’Connor’s relationships with other musicians were the biggest help. His spiritual father figure, Ronnie Earl, helped him over the hump of feeling how it is when you’re a recovering addict.
These days, O’Connor finds himself thinking more positive thoughts when he’s in front of a roomful of blues fans playing a solo. His music reflects the mood he is in. “I get inspired by what my dog was doing during the day, conversations I had with people. I try to relate life to my music. If I’m in a crappy mood, my guitar playing might be a little more aggressive. If I’m in a happy mood, I might play something more in a major scale.”
O’Connor said he cannot play without emotion, as opposed to some guitarists who can get up there and simply play notes. “I can’t do that,” O’Connor said. “All I do is improvise. I’m not a schooled musician. I didn’t learn how to read note on a staff. It’s all purely by ear and how I feel it. It’s all about feeling. The best blues guitar players will tell you that. Ronnie would tell you that. Eric Clapton would probably tell you that too.”
O’Connor said that the best blues is simplistic music. He referred to North Mississippi blues guys like Junior Kimbrough who kept it real. “It’s just raw emotions, and major scales and pentatonic and all that stuff comes into play, but at the same time, it doesn’t. It just goes deeper than what scale you’re playing.”
O’Connor has played all over New England, saying he would drive three hours to a gig if he has to. “I was in Newburyport Mass last night. I shared the stage with Ronnie in Vermont a month ago,” he said.
O’Connor finds the Boston scene a lot more competitive. “A lot of people always talk about the Boston blues scene, but New Hampshire’s got it’s own thing going right now. We have Howard’s jam Monday nights at Whippersnappers. We have the Thursday night jam at Wild Rover that “Slutty” Pete (Zona) hosts, and then there’s the Village Trestle jam. In those jams there’s a core of people. We all sit together, and its not really a competitive scene by any means, I don’t think. It’s has an earthy, down to earth vibe, which I like. I prefer that over the competitiveness aspect of the Boston scene.”
O’Connor said he did some work in the Boston scene, but that it is hard to make a dent in the city, to get people to hear you. Not an established name like Monster Mike Welch, O’Connor does not have a name to flag people down amidst numerous other players. “I think maybe some healthy competition is good in a way. I’m still trying to figure that out. I haven’t figured that whole competitive thing in music out.”
O’Connor was the lead guitarist for Charlie Sawyer’s 2120 South Michigan Avenue from roughly 2009 to 2010. “It was a strict band. I love Charlie, but I think I’m more in that creative kind of mode. He’s kind of like an encyclopedia of blues. He studies it to a t. I was too loud for him. He was always asking me to turn my amplifier down. But, Charlie’s a great guy, and I learned a lot from him.”
O’Connor’s thing is playing with Sweet Willie D. “As far as I’ concerned, he’s the best blues singer in the New England scene. He’s the most soulful, and he’s the most authentic. They call him the Deacon Of The Blues.” O’Connor has known Willie since age 17 and has played with Sweet Willie off and on for years. “Greg Roberts, the drummer, is just an in the pocket drummer. He’s not loud. He doesn’t play fancy, he just plays for the song, which I like. And I’ve got my dad on bass.”
O’Connor was a big draw locally when he started out because he was known as a young musician, a young blood. Ronnie Earl called him “junior.” O’Connor said it was a novelty at the time for young musicians to play blues. “I think now I’m probably getting more respected than I was just for what I have, my talent I guess,” he said.
O’Connor was painfully shy when he was young. This is the first interview he has ever done. “I was extremely shy and withdrawn, and the only thing that made me come out of my shell was when I picked my guitar up. But off stage I didn’t know how to communicate to people because I was kind of afraid of people, almost, because of my depression issues or what not. But now that that’s under wraps, it’s getting better.”
Tim O’Connor is sure to be ripping it up in the greater-Boston/New England scene for some time to come.
Timothy O’Connor is on Facebook.
Great article! I have had the pleasure of knowing Tim since he was a teenager and he is a great guy and very talented!
Tim’s guitar playing has inspired me to pick up the guitar and learn to play. Thanks to his persistent training and assistance I’ve learned to play some chords in a few short week. Tim is the kind of inspiration that everyone should have as their teacher because he’s so passionate about his convictions to play. Thanks, Tim!!! Great article.
That’s my bro! I’m very proud of him! Overcoming his demons has been a constant challenge and I’m really glad he’s been doing so well. I love him tons!!!
…the only thing is- when he said the whole family is musical- he’s being generous! I could never entertain a room the way Tim does! 🙂
Tim had been a good friend of mine for over a decade. It’s great to hear him doing better and feeling inspired. He’s a fantastic musician and it’s always a pleasure to share a stage with him. Keep the faith, Tim 🙂