Since forming in 2006, Old Jawbone has been performing its goodtimes rhythm and bluesgrass music for audiences throughout the Northbay. Proud winners of the 2010 North Bay Music Award (NORBAY) for Best Folk/Accoustic group, the 6-piece pseudo-string band ensemble delights audiences with a unique and powerful sound rooted in Dixieland, R&B, and American Folk music. Their 2009 self-titled debut album earned a favorable review in Downbeat Magazine, and a second release is on the way.
Longtime friends Ian Tewksbury and Ben Dubin had been jamming together for years before deciding to create a band that would embody the spirit of American Roots Music. Drawing on Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke and Rebirth Brass Band for inspiration, Old Jawbone began to take shape with the addition of vocalist/guitarist Hannah Jern-Miller. Having recruited mandolin/dobro player Dave Sampson, fiddler Korey Kassir and trumpeter Tom Salvatore in 2010, the band plans to bring their melting pot music show to festivals and regional touring destinations in the near future.
Boasting an eclectic lineup of guitar, bass, mandolin, dobro, fiddle, harmonica, trumpet, vocal harmonies and percussion, Old Jawbone delivers a high-energy show that simply makes people feel good.
Downbeat Magazine January 2010:
"...this strings-and-harmonica trio has a fond and secure clasp on the old-timey music of the American South. Their harmony singing and instrumentation have willful, engaging qualities that insulate original songs and well-traveled material like Reverend Gary Davis' "Angels Singing" from sentimentality..."
-Frank-John Hadley -
Old Jawbone is:
Ben Dubin: Harmonica, bass, vocals and sometimes drums.
Hannah Jern-Miller: Guitar, percussion, vocals.
Ian Tewksbury: Guitar, tenor banjo, vocals.
Dave Sampson: Dobro, Mandolin.
Korey Kassir: Mandolin, Fiddle
Tom Salvatore: Trumpet
Hannah Jern-Miller has been bringing her sultry blend of folk, blues, and R&B to her native Sonoma County for over 10 years. Born in San Francisco and raised in Petaluma, Hannah grew up in a musical family. It was with her father’s old Yamaha guitar that she felt instant comfort, and was inspired to write songs. After graduating from UC Berkeley she moved to Santa Rosa where she met the members of Old Jawbone one night after wandering into a party with her dog, “Banjo.” They jammed late into the night and she became first an opener, then a "special guest," and finally the front woman of OJB.
Raised in a musical family, his mother plays in the Santa Rosa symphony and his father (with whom Ben now plays the drums) founded the band Blue Moon and now is the frontman and leader of the Rosetown Ramblers and The 4th St New Orleans Jazz band, Ben Dubin has been around music his entire life. After leaving UCSD with a degree in Philosophy he returned to Santa Rosa to form Old Jawbone with childhood friends Warren Mann and Ian Tewksbury. In 2008 he picked up the Harmonica, learning from the old recordings of Sonny Boy and Little Walter, and soon had mastered the difficult art of playing bass and cross-harp at the same time.
After leaving college with equally useful degrees in English Literature and Classical Latin, Ian returned to Sonoma County to photocopy paper at Santa Rosa Blueprint (FYI: don't get your Blueprints photocopied there). Learning the music of the old blues masters on the guitar and the songs of New Orleans on the 4 string banjo, he has played throughout Sonoma County with The 4th St New Orleans Jazz Band, The Rosetown Ramblers, and Old Jawbone.