Welcome Jaybirds visitors! We're glad you stopped by to hang out with us
in cyberspace. Here's where you can get all the latest news about the Jaybirds, read old newsletters, peruse the scrapbook, find song lyrics…

Below are newsletters from the past year or so. We'll always post them here after they've gone out electronically to our fans and friends.

If you want to be on the e-mailing list to receive the newsletter hot off the virtual press, just drop us a note at: . Put "Add Me" in the subject line, and we'll do the rest.

Enjoy, and thanks again for visiting!
Your Jaybird Pals,

John, Trisha, Greg, Nick and Jim

 

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Summer newsletter

 

June 26, 2008

Happy Summer! We hope wherever you are you’re enjoying the extra daylight hours and warmth. And just remember: nothing enhances fun times and fine outdoor summer activities better than a good bluegrass tune playing at a high volume in the background…especially if the outdoor activity happens to be down at your local swimming hole, and especially if the bluegrass tune playing in the background is one inspired by an actual swimming hole and played by The Jaybirds, like, say…Cleo Belle or Bash Bish Falls. Swim responsibly! Don’t let the banjo chimes distract you.

A few things we’re looking forward to in the upcoming month:

We’ll be making return appearances at some of our all time favorite festivals – the Mission Folk Festival, Stevenson Bluegrass Festival and the Vancouver Folk Festival. The Vancouver Fest should be especially fun. We get to reprise our face-off with the traditional Chinese folk group, Red Chamber, and share the stage with Bela Fleck and the Sparrow Quartet, both at the same time! Whoa. And earlier in July we’re playing our first ever show in Horsefly, BC (just up the road from Likely). It’s an outdoor gig so we’re just hopeful that the name is only a name, not a description of the local wildlife.

Other news:

Jim’s now got easy purchase links through his website for his terrific new instructional DVD, “The Art of Rhythm Guitar.”



Check that out at www.jimnunally.com.

Greg is excited to be visiting Inuvik, NWT, with his wife Caridwen in June-July, team-teaching fiddle with her for “Strings Across the Sky.” If you look at the map of North America, go north and just keep on going north pretty much until you can’t go any further, you’ll see it, right there by the Arctic Ocean on the balmy McKenzie Delta. Talk about lots of daylight hours! Check his website (www.gregoryspatz.com) for pictures in a week or so. We’re told the mosquitoes up there are bigger than…horseflies. Likely? Maybe more like hummingbirds.

Here’s a complete listing of where you can come hear us, and when, through July. Come on out if you can. And as always, feel free to stop on by at our website for a virtual visit – get lyrics to your favorite Jaybirds songs, look at pictures, read old newsletters and more.
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Your Jaybird Pals,



Greg, John, Trisha, Jim, Nick

End of Winter Newsletter

Greetings Jaybirds friends, fans, family:

Here’s your end of winter Jaybirds news roundup, and a few new dates to mark in your calendar. Anyone sorry to see the snow melting?

Biggest news for us: Stellar Jays has been nominated for a Juno Award in the “Roots and Traditional” category. We’ll be flying to Calgary the first week of April to dine in our finest evening wear and see who gets the prize. Stay tuned, or visit the Juno Awards website for more info and to see who the other nominees are: www.junoawards.ca/08_nominees.php. And if you have any sort of magical voodoo-like powers to help us triumph, now would be the time to put them to use.

Jim tells us that there will be an Austin City Limits broadcast documentary of the “Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.” The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience (with Jim) is on it playing Bluegrass Stomp. You can get more information at Austin City Limits, or if you are in the San Francisco area, here is the KQED Schedule: KQED.

Nick reports that he bought a new fish tank! Talk about a captive audience. For our paleontologist picking friends, Nick asked that we send out this shot of one of nature’s extinct (Earl-iest?) oddities, the “banjo fish” – closest living relative, the “banjo catfish” (anyone getting hungry?)




Greg has a new MySpace page. Hear tracks off his solo CD and see old (and new) pictures of him at: myspace.com/gregspatz. If you’re a MySpace user, log in and befriend him – he could sure use the virtual companionship.

Hope to see you all out there sometime soon!
Your Pals,
Greg, John, Trisha, Jim, Nick

NEW YEARS NEWSLETTER

January 21,2008

Greetings Jaybirds Friends, Fans, and Family:

Happy 2008! Hope your New Year is off to a great start. So far we’ve enjoyed the wind and rain in Portland OR, and the wind and desert sun in Blythe CA. Next up, some form of rain in Seattle, no doubt. Remember: if the January weather’s got you down, drop by for a visit with us in cyberspace where it’s always sunny and tropical and the drinks are served with little umbrellas and bowls of peanuts and bird seed: www.thejaybirds.com.

A few items to draw your attention to, some new dates, and that’s it for us this time.

In the news:

John is featured in the January 2008 issue of Bluegrass Music Profiles. To learn more about that, go here: http://www.bluegrassmusicprofiles.com/current%20issue2.htm

Nick has a brand new book of banjo tablature featuring old time tunes adapted for bluegrass banjo, some from Jaybirds recordings, some from Nick’s personal library of favorites. If you’re interested, drop him a note: nickayn@msn.com or nickhornbuckle@hotmail.com.

Greg’s brand new fiddle CD is out and available at CD Baby: four new tracks with Jaybird accompaniment (and special guest Rob Ickes) as well as new Mighty Squirrel tracks and duets with Caridwen Spatz. Read more about that and listen here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/gregspatz

Hope to see you at a show soon!

Your pals,
Jim, Nick, Trisha, John, Greg

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