By Gretchen Wing
Special to the Weekly
No setting is more intimate for music-lovers than a living room. And while John Reischman and John Miller are not going to be cramming into anyone’s home on Lopez, on March 6 at 7 p.m., they’ll be doing the next best thing: performing “house concert” style at the Lopez Library. Celebrating the release of their first CD in 12 years, Reischman and Miller promise an evening of virtuoso acoustic music.
John Reischman is one of the premier mandolinists of his generation. Re-inventing traditional old-time tunes and showcasing original tunes, Reischman embodies the spirit of acoustic music in the 21st century. He usually tours with his band The Jaybirds, but his Lopez visits have been more intimate, as with his appearance last year with Eli West.
Reischman got his start as an original member of the Tony Rice Unit in the late 1970s. There, he helped define the “new acoustic music” movement in bluegrass. Reischman was influenced early on by Bill Monroe’s sound, but also by early bluegrass mandolinists like Sam Bush, David Grisman, and jazz mandolinist Jethro Burns. In the Bay Area in the 80s, Reischman toured with The Good Ol’ Persons, cementing his reputation. He moved to Vancouver, B.C. in the 1990s and formed The Jaybirds, but continued his musical explorations. In 1996, he won a Grammy as part of Todd Phillips’ tribute album to Bill Monroe. Over the years, he’s collaborated with a wide range of artists, including bluegrass singer Kathy Kallick, guitarist Scott Nygaard, banjo whiz Tony Furtado, Chinese Music ensemble Red Chamber, Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Celso Machado, and singer songwriter Susan Crowe.
John Miller grew up in a musical family in Pennsylvania, exposed to all kinds of great American traditional music. By high school, Miller “had seen a kind of Who’s Who” of Old-Time, Country Blues, and bluegrass performers. At Cornell University, Miller played electric bass in the band Country Cooking, kick-starting his musical career. By the end of the 1970s, he had five solo albums, shifting toward jazz and away from country as he went.
In the 80s Miller moved to Seattle, where he eventually met John Reischman. They recorded their first CD in 1998, and began touring together. Since then, along with another Reischman duo CD, Miller has recorded and toured with Finnish virtuosos Petri Hakala and Tapani Varis, and in a country blues trio with Orville Johnson and Grant Dermody. Most recently, he recorded a Brazilian/jazz CD with his wife, singer Ginny Snowe.
Together, Reischman and Miller represent an astonishing depth and breadth of musical experience. Their Lopez Library appearance will be one to remember.
