Whether hanging his hat in Big Indian, the Rockies, the high Arizona desert, or the canyons of Topanga over the years, this singer-songwriter has been methodically writing, releasing and performing his own consistently engaging guitar- driven material, honing a distinctive sound that easily rises above the throngs of his DIY contemporaries. What sets O’Neill’s music apart is in no small part his versatile and singular guitar style, which melds elements as varied as virtuosic finger-picking, Old Time grooves, rock and roll riffs, and world music rhythms such as Colombian cumbia into an alluring alloy that can evolve seamlessly from painfully fragile passages, to plaintive solo lines, then into driving squalls. Paired with an affecting and unassuming tenor and a wry lyrical sense that lingers on beauty and loss, the talented Mr. O’Neill’s real achievement has been to combine his various influences into an integral sound wholly his own.