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Home » Stories » LISTEN: Tim O’Brien Has The Mountain Stage Song Of The Week

Mallory Richards Published August 28, 2025 - 7:15 am

LISTEN: Tim O’Brien Has The Mountain Stage Song Of The Week

Tim O'Brien and Jan Fabricius perform on Mountain Stage at the Kennedy Center.

Listen

This week’s special archive episode of Mountain Stage was recorded at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Mountain Stage was a part of the Center’s 50^th Anniversary Season in October 2021, and host Kathy Mattea welcomed Texas Swing legends Asleep at the Wheel, soul-blues singer Ruthie Foster, multi-cultural folk singer Leyla McCalla, indie-pop songwriter Carsie Blanton, and Grammy-winning West Virginian Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius.

Our Song of the Week comes from the duo of O’Brien and Fabricius, who perform “Nervous,” a timely commentary about modern times that appears on O’Brien’s album He Walked On.

Listeners will also hear a special performance by Kathy Mattea and our pianist Bob Thompson, accompanied by a string quartet of National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellows, of Dave Mallet’s touching ballad “Summer of My Dreams.”

Our final guests, Asleep at the Wheel, were celebrating their 50^th anniversary as well. They treated us to a career-spanning set of Texas Swing that only they can deliver. Too bad you can’t hear juggling on the radio!

Join us starting Friday, Aug. 29 on these NPR stations for this special archive broadcast of Mountain Stage, LIVE from the Kennedy Center. Check out the full playlist here.