Tim o brien singer biography examples

My conscience told me to run, but some irrational and powerful force was resisting, like a weight pushing me toward the war. What it came down to, stupidly, was a sense of shame. Hot, stupid shame. I did not want people to think badly of me. Not my parents, not my brother and sister, not even the folks down at the Gobbler Cafe. I was ashamed to be there at the Tip Top Lodge.

I was ashamed of my conscience, ashamed to be doing the right thing. Some of this Elroy must've understood. Not the details, of course, but the plain fact of crisis. On my last full day, the sixth day, the old man took me out fishing on the Rainy River. The afternoon was sunny and cold. All around us, I remember, there was a vastness to the world, an unpeopled rawness, just the trees and the sky and the water reaching out toward nowhere.

The air had the brittle scent of October. For a time I didn't pay attention to anything, just feeling the cold spray against my face, but then it occurred to me that at some point we must've passed into Canadian waters, across that dotted line between two different worlds, and I remember a certain tightness in my chest as I looked up and watched the far shore come at me.

This wasn't a daydream. It was tangible and real. As we came in toward land, Elroy cut the engine, letting the boat fishtail lightly about twenty yards off shore. The old man didn't look at me or speak. Bending down, he opened up his tackle box and busied himself with a bobber and a piece of wire leader, humming to himself, his eyes down.

It struck me then that he must've planned it. I'll never be certain, of course, but I think he meant to bring me up against the realities, to guide me across the river and to take me to the edge and to stand a kind of vigil as I chose a life for myself. I remember staring at the old man, then at my hands, then at Canada. Twenty yards. I could've done it.

I could've jumped and started swimming for my life. Inside me, in my chest, I felt a terrible squeezing pressure. Even now, as I write this, I can still feel that tightness. And I want you to feel it—the wind coming off the river, the waves, the silence, the wooded frontier. You're at the bow of a boat on the Rainy River. You're twenty-one years old, you're scared, and there's a hard squeezing pressure in your chest.

Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and your childhood and your dreams and all you're leaving behind? Would it hurt? Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did? At the rear of the boat Elroy Berdahl pretended not to notice. He held a fishing rod in his hands, his head bowed to hide his eyes.

Tim o brien singer biography examples: In and , O'Brien was honored

He kept humming a soft, monotonous little tune. Everywhere, it seemed, in the trees and water and sky, a great worldwide sadness came pressing down on me, a crushing sorrow, sorrow like I had never known it before. And what was so sad, I realized, was that Canada had become a pitiful fantasy. Silly and hopeless. It was no longer a possibility.

Right then, with the shore so close, I understood that I would not do what I should do. I would not swim away from my hometown and my country and my life. All those eyes on me—the town, the whole universe—and I couldn't risk the embarrassment. It was as if there were an audience to my life, that swirl of faces along the river, and in my head I could hear people screaming at me.

They yelled. I felt myself blush. I couldn't tolerate it. I couldn't endure the mockery, or the disgrace, or the patriotic ridicule. Even in my imagination, the shore just twenty yards away, I couldn't make myself be brave. It had nothing to do with morality. Embarrassment, that's all it was. That was the sad thing. And so I sat in the bow of the boat and cried.

Elroy Berdahl remained quiet. He kept fishing. He worked his line with the tips of his fingers, patiently, squinting out at his red and white bobber on the Rainy River. Then after a time the old man pulled in his line and turned the boat back toward Minnesota. I don't remember saying goodbye. That last night we had dinner together, and I went to bed early, and in the morning Elroy fixed breakfast for me.

When I told him I'd be leaving, the old man nodded as if he already knew. He looked down at the table and smiled. At some point later in the morning it's possible that we shook hands—I just don't remember—but I do know that by the time I'd finished packing the old man had disappeared. Around noon, when I took my suitcase out to the car, I noticed that his old black pickup truck was no longer parked in front of the house.

I went inside and waited for a while, but I felt a bone certainty that he wouldn't be back. I washed up the breakfast dishes. The day was cloudy. I passed through towns with familiar names, through the pine forests and down to the prairie, and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and then home again. I survived, but it's not a happy ending.

I was a coward. I went to the war. Throughout the course of the Vietnam War, the U. Many of these changes were designed to address the charges that the draft rules placed an unfair burden on America's less economically and politically powerful families. But the draft remained controversial, and legal challenges to Selective Service policies made the system increasingly ineffective.

In deferments for graduate school were eliminated, although students currently enrolled were usually permitted to keep their deferments. Two years later, the government placed additional restrictions on deferments. At the same time, it introduced a random draft lottery in an effort to draw troops more equally from all American communities.

But draft evasion remained widespread, overwhelming federal efforts to enforce the Selective Service laws. Finally, inPresident Nixon eliminated student deferments altogether.

Tim o brien singer biography examples: Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter

But by this time the American withdrawal of troops was well underway, so the move did not have a major impact. On January 27,Nixon formally shut down the Vietnam-era draft for good. Nixon's decision to end the draft delighted the many Americans who had opposed the war. But it did not end the legal problems of those Americans who had illegally resisted the Selective Service system in one way or another.

Approximatelycivilians remained in trouble with the law for their actions. These included convicted draft resisters and men who had moved to Canada or other foreign countries to avoid induction. Many Americans thought that the federal government should dismiss the charges that these civilians faced and let them resume their lives.

Some argued that they should be "pardoned"—forgiven for crimes committed against the government. Others, including many of the draft resisters and evaders, argued that they should receive an "amnesty. But an amnesty was viewed as an admission that the government had been wrong to prosecute the resisters and evaders for following their beliefs.

Not all Americans believed that amnesties or pardons should be granted, however. In fact, political conservatives, veterans groups, and many other Americans thought that the men who had disobeyed their draft orders should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This issue became yet another point of division in American society untilwhen President Jimmy Carter approved an unconditional amnesty to those who had gotten in legal trouble for their peaceful opposition to the war.

Since Nixon ended the military draft inthe United States has only used volunteers in its armed forces. Sincehowever, young men have been required to register with the federal government when they turn 18 years old. This law ensures that the government can renew the military draft at any time if necessary. Appy, Christian G. Baskir, Lawrence, and William A.

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, Gottlieb, Sherry Gershon. New York : Viking, Hall, Mitchell. New York: Columbia University Press, Levy, David W. The Debate Over Vietnam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Tollefson, James W. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, Wells, Tom. Berkeley: University of California Press, Williams, Roger N. New York: Liveright, Some North Vietnamese men tried to evade their own country's military draft during the Vietnam War.

Many families supported their sons in this effort. Important officials in the government often arranged to keep their sons out of the military by sending them overseas to study. Ordinary families, meanwhile, hid their sons or bribed doctors to disqualify them from service. Anyone who didn't show up automatically had his rice ration cut off.

Tim o brien singer biography examples: Timothy O'Brien (born March 16, )

But families would buy food on the black market or just get along by sharing whatever they had. They would survive that way while they tried to scrape up enough to bribe a recruiting official to fix up the files. Other draftees mutilated themselves or managed to find other ways to fail the physical. People with money were able to pay doctors to disqualify their children.

These kinds of things were easier to do in the three big cities—Hanoi, Haiphong, and Nam Dinh. Many of them were looking for ways to keep their children out too. And people had more money in these places, so corruption was more a normal thing. Also, it was simply easier to hide in the cities and there was more information about how to stay out.

The result was that the big majority of the Northern army was made up of young people from the countryside. They were just more naive. They believed the propaganda more easily. They didn't have the same chances to get out of it. American writer and Vietnam War veteran. Rock and roll, a lot of that is the same too. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. For other people with the same name, see Tim O'Brien disambiguation. Country bluegrass folk Americana Irish traditional music. Vocals guitar fiddle Mandolin mandocello bouzouki banjo. RCA Sugar Hill. Musical artist.

Early life [ edit ]. Music career [ edit ]. Hot Rize [ edit ]. Duets with Mollie O'Brien [ edit ]. Forgot it? Reset it. Click the eye icon to show your password. Membership has its privileges. Learn more. All About Jazz musician pages are maintained by musicians, publicists and trusted members like you. Tell us why you would like to improve the Tim O'Brien musician page.

All About Jazz Essentials. Sign In Up Donate. Read more. According to John Metzger at The Music Box website, the band "not only inspired artists within its own genre, but also fueled the rise of the jam band scene in Colorado.

Tim o brien singer biography examples: Over his celebrated career, which

FromHot Rize played bluegrass based on traditional sounds but enlivened with fresh harmonies; they also often combined old and new songs in their show. In O'Brien produced his first solo album, Hard Year Blueswhich featured his distinctive folk-fusion sound. By O'Brien and his sister had produced three more albums that included traditional country, folk, and swing tunes sung with tight harmonies.

Both songs had a wide appeal, reaching beyond the country audience to the mainstream. O'Brien played a range of instruments--mandolin, fiddle, and even the bouzouki. The group toured widely, recording Oh, Boy! Hot Rize reunited in for a reunion tour, captured in So Long of a Journeywhich was not released until Metzger wrote that the album "showcases the ensemble at its best--delivering a delightful treat," and that the band "unleashed some of the tightest, most exquisite bluegrass music this side of [famed bluegrass musician] Del McCoury.

O'Brien moved into another musical tradition in with The Crossingan exploration of Irish music that included performances by Irish band Altan and Irish singer Paul Brady, as well as many American bluegrass performers. In a review in World of HiberniaKira L. Schlechter noted that the album had been inspired by O'Brien's interest in his Irish roots, remarking, "That interest is more like an overwhelming delight.