A Juno-nominated and Grammy-award winning artist, John Reischman is known today for his work with his band the Jaybirds and his acclaimed solo albums, but he got his start as an original member of the Tony Rice Unit in the late 1970s. With the Tony Rice Unit, Reischman helped define the “new acoustic music” movement in bluegrass thanks to their high profile albums on Rounder Records.
“One of the true tone poets of American acoustic music…..always placing the right note in the right place with the right tone and touch……Throughout, Reischman’s full throated mandolin never overplays or forces a point on the listener. The music is open, inviting, and engaging on multiple levels at once, telling musical stories without words like the birds in the tall pine trees or the waves upon the dark and roiling sea.” - Acoustic Guitar
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.