Who we are
About Tim O’Brien
Firstly I am a Christian and Christmas is a special time for me. I am married to Mo (Maureen). The things I like best about Christmas is getting together with family and friends and the Church services during the holiday period. Christmas music is very much part of the enjoyment for me as well.
My musical background is mostly Folk music and in my teens, like a lot of young people those days, I played in a folk group (called The Travelling People). We used to play in various folk clubs (with various line-ups). I stopped playing the guitar in my early 20’s after getting married and having a family and only took it up again after I stopped (paid) work some 40+ years later. At that time I realised that God had given me a talent that I should be using for His glory. The husband of a work colleague sold me an Epiphone Les Paul style guitar at a good price as they were moving abroad and he had to jettison some of his possessions. This started me playing again, although in a very different style to my roots as a folk guitarist.
When Andy and I started to play together we quickly found that our two different styles could be combined to make a sound that we like, and hope you also enjoy.
On this album I play a Taylor T5s guitar stringed with Elixir Nanoweb strings Light/.010 -.046 strings. They give a lovely clear sound and a great bass tone as well as the top notes. They are very light. For most of the album I play using an acoustic setting on the guitar and I play backing, finger-style guitar.
About Andy Stockbridge
I started playing guitar when I was about 14 and ended up being part of various bands in my late teenage years and early 20’s. I had a time playing to make a living (I hesitate to say professionally!!) including working in Europe and for a summer season in the house band for a holiday park. As you can see all high flying ‘stuff’.
I have always loved all kinds of music and in particular jazz. Over the years it has been tremendous to play with various musicians and try to develop my playing. But like so many folks I never got the time to practice and I guess the motivation, so ended up playing the same old tunes over and over again – to the total distraction of my family. But then a couple of years ago I thought it would be good to play a bit more and really try to learn the instrument that I have been murdering all these years. And with that along came Tim and we started working on some instrumentals together that eventually ended up being Acoustic Christmas.
On this album I attempt to play a Martin GPCPA3 with La Bella Phosphor Bronze strings. On some of the tracks, like Little Drummer Boy, you can hear a semi-acoustic D’Aquisto New Yorker (jazz arch-top) with D’Aquisto strings and plugged directly into the mixing desk. So this is not entirely acoustic – but it seems to sound OK
Like Tim I am part of Shenley Christian Fellowship and have at times played in the worship band. I am married to Beverley who teaches at a local school. When not trying to get my head round various scales and chords my music teacher insists that I learn, you can find me running a consulting business that specialises in supporting charities.