NEWBERG, Ore. — Newberg native Jacob Jolliff will return for a night of bluegrass at the Chehalem Cultural Center on June 5 with duo partner Michael Daves.
The duo has released an album, We Like Jim and Jesse!, that pays homage to “first-generation bluegrass icons Jim & Jesse (McReynolds) and the Virginia Boys,” according to a press release for the show. The album revisits portions of the McReynolds’ catalog as well as works by many other bluegrass greats — a project the two have been planning for years.
The Newberg show is part of a larger tour that began in New York City in April and will conclude in Vermont in August. Along the way, the duo will perform at the Grey Fox, RockyGrass, and ROMP festivals.
Daves interviewed Jesse McReynolds in 2019 for his ArtistWorks class on bluegrass vocals, when the musician was 90. Jesse was still writing new music, and the encounter inspired Daves to “explore his catalog and share it.”
“Michael Daves and Jacob Jolliff are two of America’s premier bluegrass talents,” states the Chehalem Cultural Center in the event description “After years of collaborating in various bands and informal settings, they have teamed up as a formidable duo featuring high lonesome vocal harmony and fiery flatpicking.”
Daves said he teamed up with Jolliff because he “thought [he] would be the ideal partner for this project because, like Jesse McReynolds, he’s such a rock-solid singer and executes these mind-blowing things on the mandolin without a lot of fanfare…And I love hearing Jacob’s studied interpretation of Jesse’s style combined with his own wildly unique vocabulary.”
The two have collaborated off and on since 2015.
The Chehalem Cultural Center describes their work as straddling “the line between hard-core traditional bluegrass and experimental forms.”
In the past few years, Newberg has seen a rise in bluegrass performances. Joliff performed in his hometown, Newberg, for the first time in August 2024. In February 2025, Wolves & People owner Christian DeBenedetti and CCC Performing Arts Manager Rachael Bonnett introduced the Newgrass Music Festival, which expanded into two days this year. Bluegrass fans and players can attend Wolves & People’s jam sessions on Thursday evenings.
Jacob Jolliff and Michael Daves perform at the Chehalem Cultural Center’s LaJoie Theater on June 5. Doors open at 7 p.m.; the show begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for Arts for All (anyone with an Oregon Trail Card), $30 for seniors and students, and $35 for adults.
The album We Like Jim & Jesse! is available on streaming platforms and through Wild Geranium Records — Daves’ independent label — on Bandcamp, digitally and on CD.
Learn more at the Chehalem Cultural Center website.
Disclosure: The Chehalem Cultural Center is a Newsberg advertiser. Newsberg maintains full editorial independence over its content. For more information, see our ethics policy.
