Some bands may practise together a couple of hours a day, others on weekends, but bluegrass band John Reischman and the Jaybirds are lucky if they can jam together at all before a concert.That's because each band mate lives in a different city. Reischman, the mandolin player, lives in Vacouver, bassist Trisha Gagnon lives in Chilliwack, banjo player Nick Hornbuckle is from Nanaimo, fiddle player Greg Spatz is from Washington state, and guitarist Jim Nunally lives all the way down in California.Tonight (Friday, Nov. 21), however, all five musicians will be at the Brackendale Art Gallery (BAG) to play a lively, romping bluegrass session, with songs from their latest album Stellar Jays, as well as some originals.Reischman, a California native, is the root that binds them together. After meeting his future wife in Vancouver, he said he moved to the city 15 years ago and began to meet other musicians, like Hornbuckle and Gagnon, with similar tastes.The band formed together in 2000 when Reischman created the album Up in the Woods, and was looking for back-up musicians."That was the beginning of the band," said Reischman. "I wasn't really setting up a band, but I had the record and I wanted to play some shows, so I booked the shows and chose the musicians and it clicked very well."Because there is a fair distance between them, usually the only time they see each other is when they are on tour."We mostly practise when we are on the road, if we have a tour and we have a few days off we might have a song and that's pretty much it," said Reischman.After listening to The Jaybirds's songs, one would think the band grew up with bluegrass on their front porch but Reischman says not necessarily so."It wasn't like there was a bluegrass radio station where I grew up, there was really no one who played the music it was just through mainstream TV and movies ... such as the movie Bonnie and Clyde, and the TV show The Beverley Hillbillies."As he got older, Reischman said he discovered San Francisco had many bluegrass recordings and would go there to find the records and meet other people interested in the music.Although the band is billed John Reischman and the Jaybirds, Reischman does not hesitate to say the band is a collective group."Everyone is featured when we perform, it is not like me and a back-up band, it is five distinct personalities and talents," said Reischman.Reischman said their music has old-time influence with fast and exciting fiddle tunes, up tempo bluegrass numbers and pro-ballads."Trisha wrote a real pretty slow song on our newest record called On My Way to You," said Reischman. " It gets a little monotonous if you are always playing something up tempo, so we always try to vary the feels and tempos of the material in the presentation."Last May The Jaybirds played at the Brackendale Bluegrass Festival as a four-piece band without their fiddle player, Spatz."Mostly if someone is not there it is usually him," said Reischman. "He's got a day job teaching creative writing and is a novelist. Usually myself and Jim and Nick end up taking extra solos to make up for the arrangements with the fiddle."Tonight, however, Reischman said he promises all five band members will be at the BAG. Tickets cost $20 and the band hits the stage at 8 p.m.
