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Jack
Dwyer is a multi-instrumentalist (mandolin,
acoustic and electric guitar, banjo, fiddle) and singer,
who lives in Portland, OR.
Jack's musical life began in Anchorage, Alaska when
his whole family started singing and playing together
in community potlucks. Soon he had taken up a
number of stringed instruments and had began to develop
as a lead vocalist. After a move to New York's
Hudson River Valley, Jack persuaded his family to start
playing together professionally as The Dwyer Family
Band (The Dwyers).
They gained a following around New York and performed
steadily for the next eight years.
As a teenager Jack performed around the Northeast U.S.
with various local bands and appeared as a sideman with
some prominent performers, including his mentor Bill
Keith, Peter Rowan, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, the Mammals,
Greg Garing, and a number of New York City bluegrass
performers. At age 14, he was awarded a scholarship
to attend music school at Bard College. He studied
classical and jazz music theory for 2 1⁄2 years
before moving back out to the West Coast. Later,
he was lured into poetry and songwriting and completed
a B.A. in English from the University of Washington
in December '08.
Jack recently moved to Portland to pursue new projects.
He teaches mandolin at Lewis and Clark College and performs
out with fellow Portland mandolinist Tim Connell in
“Twin Mandolins!" a world mandolin duo. Jack
also puts on a solo show called "The Roots Revue,"
a multi-instrumental, multi-genre foray into traditional
American roots music and arts. He appears with
various vocal duos, stringbands, acoustic and electric
combos at venues around Portland and the West Coast.
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Jack offers
private music
lessons on a variety of instruments: mandolin,
guitar, banjo, and fiddle, for students of ages and
experience.
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