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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post-halloween newsletter

November 1, 2009

Greetings Jaybirds Fans, Friends and Family,

Happy post-Halloween and happy annual 25-hour-long Sunday. We hope you’re enjoying the fine fall weather and extra sleep-in time wherever you are.

A quick apology and follow up before we get to the news:

We’re really sorry for the confusing blank message about a show in Edmonton sent out last-minute a couple of weeks ago. That was not an attempt at an obscure form of zero-syllable haiku, it was actually just an error. Please be assured that we’ll never sell your address to anyone and won’t spam you with empty emails ever again. Here’s a real haiku to prove it:

Two fingers rolling
Must learn Upwards Tech mail-merge
Leaves fall, Jaybirds sing

And now the news:

John’s featured in a super, full-length interview on Mandolin Café this month. Cool pictures, quotes, everything you’d want from an interview. Check it out here: Mandolin Cafe. He also says he’s considering robbing a bank to buy the Jaybirds a fleet of private jets, diamond Rolex watches and basic US health care, but we’re pretty sure he’s kidding.

Jim reports that his studio is buzzing with activity including new and/or recently finished projects with Nell Robinson, 49 Special, Mountain Laurel and…(cue drum roll)…THE 5th AND HISTORIC 10th ANNIVERSARY JAYBIRDS CD!! Yes, you heard it first here. On November 19 he’ll be teaching an advanced guitar workshop in Calgary—contact him at jim@thejaybirds.com for more information. He’ll also be doing a duet show with Steve Fisher at Mikey's Juke Joint in Calgary on Nov.22nd, and gigging with Nell Robinson, Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum, Keith Little, Andrew Conklin and Dix Bruce in October, November and December. Check his website for more info: www.jimnunally.com.

Greg’s long-derailed full-length interview with Carol Beaugard on WFDU’s Lonesome Pine RFD will finally air on Thanksgiving morning, from 7-11 am ET. You can hear it live, or stream it from www.wfdu.fm anytime for 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. Everything (and probably more) you ever wanted to know about Greg. He also has an article coming out in Strings Magazine all about why you fiddlers should use a wood shoulder rest...though he was not allowed to say what kind in the article. Yet another reason to attend a Jaybirds show soon (and bring your opera glasses).

A couple of special notes about our upcoming concerts:

The November 14 show in Mountain View, CA, will be a special engagement marking the 10th anniversary of John’s “Up In The Woods” CD. The first set will be a regular Jaybirds set; the second set will feature all or most of the songs on “Up In The Woods.” And for all you fans on Vancouver Island, don’t be surprised if Greg shows up speaking Canadian, eh, and cleverly disguised as one of central Alberta’s greatest fiddlers, Byron Myhre.

Here’s where you can catch us for the rest of 2009...

Your Jaybird pals,


Nick, Greg, John, Trisha, Jim

 

 

 

Jaybirds Fall Newsletter

September 28, 2009

Greetings Jaybirds Fans, Friends and Family,

First, assorted seasonal lyrics for you taken from (name them! not that we have any prizes or anything) how many favorite old bluegrass songs?

…Apples in the summer time, peaches in the fall
And now each night I remember days of summer when blossoms filled each bough and…
Don't you remember the day last summer
The sun so warm the skies so blue, the little birds did sing so sweetly?
But the summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying
Oh, the summer’s come and gone, and the winter’s coming on....

Enough sad songs. Now for the news from Jaybird-land:

Jim Nunally tells us he’s finished shooting video for his second (and follow up) instructional DVD titled, “Walks and Runs.” Listen up all you guitar under-study aspirants: this is the perfect companion to his currently available “Strums” DVD and will teach you how to play everything on the guitar exactly like Jim does. Visit his website to get your own copy…available pretty soon at www.jimnunally.com. Also, Jim reports, if folks have flown on Jetblue, Frontier, Airtran, or ExpressJet lately, you might have heard his song, “The Good Times We Never Had,” which has been part of the in-flight programming.

Nick says he’s been up there in Nanaimo working his tuchas off roasting coffee (and apparently boning up on his Yiddish slang at the same time – happy Yom Kippur, by the way). He’s still looking for new students to take on-line banjo lessons. Drop him a note at: nickhornbuckle@hotmail.com.

Late this week John will visit Nashville to take possession of a new Red Diamond mandolin patterned after his Feb 18th, 1924 F5 Loar. The new mando is part of Don MacRostie's replica series. Don takes detailed measurements of an existing vintage Gibson mandolin, including top flexibility, and then makes a limited number of replicas (in this case, six, from which John will pick his favorite). Not long ago he did the same with a litter of copies made from David “Dawg” Grisman's 22 Loar…so now he’s done it with John's mando, only this time rather than a litter it’s a flock or maybe a brood. A murder? A bintl anyway (thanks Nick). Features a custom engraving on the tailpiece by artist Kelle DeForrest. To find out more about Red Diamond Mandolins go to:  www.reddiamondmandolins.com.

Sadder even than all those sad bluegrass lyrics, Greg is busy back at school teaching and administrating. Wrote about 100 new novel pages over the summer and rode his bike just more than 1000 miles. And finished work on a mighty new Mighty Squirrel CD – should be out in January, but don’t worry, we’ll let you know when it’s out. He’s also all over Lee Watson’s awesome new bluegrass CD… http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/leewatson

Trisha has been preserving and canning and preserving some more of her amazing, health-benefitting, all organic JAM. Yup. Get yours at a Jaybird show in your area soon. No other big news for her, though she did want us to post this up-close shot of her personal harvesting assistant (though she says he helped mostly by eating the fruit, not doing any actual labor…err, that is labour, presuming he’s the Canadian variety).

We remember days of summer, when possums filled each bough…

And lastly, here's where we'll be in the next little while.  Come on out and see us if you can.   We're always glad to see you!

Your Jaybird pals,

John, Trisha, Greg, Jim, Nick

July 15, 2009

Mid-Summer Jaybirds Newsletter

 

 

Greetings Jaybirds Fans, Friends and Family,

At last, the long awaited mid-summer Jaybirds news roundup and calendar update! We know you’ve been waiting, dying to know what we’ve been up to and where you might hear us next. So we’ll dispense with the fluff and get right to it.

Biggest news around the Jaybird nest: Jim Nunally is now married! On June 28th, to the accompaniment of music by some Jaybirds and a host of other SF Bay Area pickers (and we mean about 200 of them), with potluck epicurean delights and Irish set dancing beyond compare, Jim and his longtime sweetheart, Judy Forrest, tied the knot. What a party! No sooner had they headed off for their honeymoon in SF than Jim got a call to gig with the Travelin’ McCoury’s (as in the Del McCoury Band, without Del) in Mt. Shasta, so he packed up his VW bug, wedding streamers, tin cans, rice and all, and headed north to play. Never a dull moment. Be sure to drop him a note or pay a visit to his website to congratulate him virtually. JimNunally.com.

Other news: “Stellar Jays” is nominated for a Just Plain Folks Music Award in the Bluegrass album category. The JPF Music Awards is the largest indie music award program in world – actually, the largest music award program in the world, period. Read more about it here:  Just Plain Folks Greg, Trisha and Nick are also individually nominated for songwriting awards (for “Bash Bish Falls,” “The Jaybirds Song,” and “Cleo Belle”), and Greg’s “Fiddler’s Dream” (the CD, not the book) is up for an award in the Roots Instrumental category.

As many of you already know, earlier this year we lost a great mandolin player, one of John’s longstanding musical partners, Butch Baldassari. He will be missed. To recognize Butch’s contributions to the mandolin playing world, Sound Art Recordings has organized and produced a tribute CD featuring new recordings by many of Butch’s friends, bandmates and musical partners – Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, Mike Compton, and many others, including the Jaybirds. Read more about that or order your copy here:  www.soundartrecordings.com.

Still more news: Greg will be the featured guest on Carol Beaugard’s “Bluegrass Country” on WAMU and WFDU-FM. The interview should air on July 24th, 11-12 EST – check out www.bluegrasscountry.org for official, final broadcast schedule and dates as well as internet streaming info, if you’re curious to see what happens when Greg talks…and maybe some evidence for why he doesn’t say much on stage.

Bigger news than that: John is among the nominees for Mandolin Player of the year on the IBMA’s second ballot this year. Not twisting any arms here, but you IBMA members with voting rights, should you feel so inclined, we definitely would not hold it against you if you were to go vote for John instead of any of those other mandolin pickers.

Lastly, a reminder from Trisha: with the hot summer weather we know how good it is to dish yourselves up a bowl of ice cream with some sweet organic raspberry, blackberry and/or boysenberry Trisha-jam heaped on top. This is fine – anything you do with Trisha’s jam is fine, so long as you eat it – but you must remember that the health benefits of the jam will be negated by the ice cream. Sorry…we don’t make the rules, we just keep you informed about them.

And last of all…here’s where we’ll be playing through the beginning of August. Come on out for a concert if you can!


Your Jaybird pals,