RUBY JEWEL PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
ABOUT THE SHOW
Who: John Reishman and the Jaybirds
What: In concert at the Historic Washoe Theater
Where: Washoe Theater, Anaconda, MT
Date: Sunday, Oct 29, 2017
Time: 3-5:30PM
Price: $13 advance $15 door $25 VIP $5 kids 12-18 under 12 Free
VIP includes a pre-show reception, balcony seating – LIMITED 100 seats
This concert will be a fundraiser to benefit non-profit The Anaconda Family Resource Center.
ABOUT THE BAND
Years of European and North American tours, five critically acclaimed albums, two Juno nominations and two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations…little wonder, the buzz around John Reischman and The Jaybirds continues to grow. Like the mandolinist at its helm, the group fashions a stylish, elegant take on bluegrass that is at once innovative and unadorned, sophisticated and stripped-down, happily old-fashioned, yet unselfconsciously new. To see their live show is to believe it. A genial blend of story-telling and side-show humor provides the backdrop to their studied performance of original songs, instrumentals, and newly arranged traditional material.
Hailing from the variegated ranks of the contemporary West Coast acoustic music scene, each of these ‘birds has certainly earned his wings: the list of projects they have contributed to over the years is nothing less than a short list of acoustic power houses. Together, their seamless ensemble work makes for one of the freshest, most tasteful band-sounds on the folk and bluegrass circuit today.
John Reischman, Mandolin
Contrary to a vicious rumor that has been circulating, the Jaybirds did not begin as a radical underground Western Canada political sect bent on relocating 49th parallel boundary monuments to claim the West Coast’s finest bluegrass musicians for the Commonwealth. The simple fact is, it was always about music – the music of one man.Fans of the Jaybirds know it is a shared loved of John Reischman’s mandolin work that brought together this select and accomplished group of players. And there is little doubt that when the Jaybirds get together musically, something special happens; some have noted that other kinds of boundaries are shifting. Few can traverse the disparate landscapes of bluegrass and old-time as expertly as Reischman and the Jaybirds have. With each new recorded offering, this stellar group furthers its exploration of a unique musical geography where our timeless string-band traditions are renewed, expanded, and enhanced.
Whether setting the tone for a mournful ballad, laying in fills for one of the group’s unique original compositions, or providing essential rhythmic foundation to breakneck speed bluegrass, John Reischman’s mandolin acts as the sonic heart and soul of the band and its conceptual touchstone. He is a mandolin master of the highest caliber, having garnered praise from every corner of the music world for his tasteful, classic, and versatile technique bar-none. After cutting his teeth with West Coast groups of now-legendary status (the Tony Rice Unit, the Good Ol’ Persons) Reischman has once again reached new heights with the Jaybirds; this time, it is with a singular sound built around his musical tastes and fortified by the intrepid spirit of his musical partners.
Visit John’s Website for me about him.
Greg Spatz, Fiddle
It’s hard to tell who will show up to the party: Jaybird Greg Spatzor his dour, northerly doppelganger, Gregory. If you happen to be wandering the grounds of Eastern Washington University, you’ll likely meet the latter, who has an impressive writerly resume. Gregory’s fiction (most recently the critically acclaimed novel, Fiddler’s Dream) has even graced the high-art pages of “The New Yorker.” Imagine him pushing around campus, absent-minded, shuffle-footed, in a maroon cardigan.Then there’s Greg, a party to far-out beyond bluegrass experimentations with his college roommate Mark Vann of Leftover Salmon, or his post-college roommate, a certain resophonic guitar celeb named Rob Ickes; Greg, a first-call session man with a style so rapturously soaring, so wildly bluesy only a sweater of Mr. Rogers proportions could temper its fire. Most recently he is proprietor and bouzouki geek of the worldly old-time of Mighty Squirrel.
While the academic version is far from this man or his music, there must be a little bit of Gregory in Greg, even when he’s a fiddling Jaybird. Perhaps the writer’s focus gives the fiddler the uncanny ability to, in the space of a single set, play melodic partner to Trisha Gagnon’s pure, timeless voice, slice a clean edge through a blues-infused Jim Nunally composition, and double up or harmonize with John Reischman’s note-perfect mandolin, all at the drop of the hat.
Trisha Gagnon, Bass
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Or in the wild raspberry jam, which British Columbia-based Trisha Gagnon makes herself on her farm and preserves in mason jars. They’re for sale, seasonally, during set breaks at Jaybirds road shows. If you take home a jarful, you will no doubt find that the adjective chosen by folk music authority “Sing Out!” to describe Gagnon’s voice was apropos in more ways than one: “Irresistible.”A less epicurean adjective would not have sufficed, and not only to account for her organic jam-making enterprise: Gagnon brings a perceptive beauty to all she touches. Her many roles in the band — vocalist, bassist, and song-writer — all are informed by the same personal, homespun touch. But that’s not all. Her Chilliwack, B.C. farm has harbored many a wayward animal in search of a place to rest — about a dozen cats, several dogs, and other critters could attest to her generosity.
Gagnon’s earnest, convivial spirit informed her work of several years with her sister in the popular BC-based band, Tumbleweed, and has inspired such memorable Jaybird narratives as “Blackberry Bramble,” “On My Way to You,” and “Home Sweet Home,” a rare collaboration that set Gagnon-penned lyrics to a Reischman melody. To hear her explain the inspiration for the song in concert drives home the great virtue she celebrates, and in many ways embodies in her music: a true sense of place. As a grounding force in this band of far-flung and far-flying Jaybirds, for Gagnon, each and every road leads home.
Visit the band’s website for more about them.
ABOUT THE CAUSE
The Anaconda Family Resource Center pictures a future in which all families receive and fully use the basic skills, education, support, and encouragement necessary for the development of healthy families.
Balsam Range 
Caterina Lichtenberg