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History Lesson, History Lesson

The history of Oz and Jaynes is impressive to some, maybe not so much to others.

In the mid to late 90's, Oz and Jaynes met at the Delta Theta chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. One late night at what used to be the house at 901 Oak Street, Jaynes sat in what used to be referred to as the TV room, and strummed Jimmy Buffett tunes on his guitar. Oz was a new edition to the chapter and happened in on the acoustic stylings of the very talented Jaynes. As Jaynes played songs that only the most weathered Parrothead would know, Oz began to sing along. To the surprise of Jaynes, Oz knew almost every song that he played. Before the night was over, the two new friends realized they knew almost 30 Buffett songs together having never even met.

To the surprise of Oz, Jaynes had never been to the famous Flora-Bama Lounge, a place that is mentioned in numerous Jimmy Buffett selections. The two planned a trip to the Gulf Coast to go to one of the most famous roadhouses in existence. The particular night they arrived, the bar traffic was somewhat "slow" in comparison with normal nights at the Flora-Bama. On the outside deck stage, there was a performer who was entertaining a crowd of around 60-70 people. After he finished a song, the crowd was yelling requests for songs by JB, among others. When the paid performer did not know "The Wino and I Know," half-drunk Oz approached the stage and offered the temporary service of Oz and Jaynes. He surprisingly agreed, and before Oz and Jaynes knew what was going on, they were performing at the Flora-Bama. The crowd response was deafening with applause, and the paid performer encouraged them to play another, which they gladly took advantage of.

Upon exiting the stage, Oz and Jaynes were approached by a local bar and restaurant owner whose first comments were "You guys are great. How much do you charge?" The blank look on their faces probably told the story better than their response, which was something to the effect of "we have no idea."

On the long ride back to Chattanooga, Oz and Jaynes discussed strategy and what they would need to get started in the music business. After arriving home, they called the bar owner in Florida and booked their first show. The Oz and Jaynes Acoustic Band was born.

The first show was part of a two night promotion. They had such a good time, the duo did not know when to quit. The first night, they played for 5 and 1/2 hours, and the second night went over the six hour mark. From then, bookings came fast, and Oz and Jaynes played almost everything that was offered. The part time college job had turned into a full time responsible position, which they may not have been ready for.

The first major screw up was a scheduled appearance on the Chattanooga Morning Show called "Good Morning, Chattanooga" hosted by Don Welch. Oz and Jaynes played a regularly scheduled show the night before that ran until 3:00 a.m. They were suppose to arrive at the studio for a live broadcast at 5:15. The mistake was going to bed. They are not sure if the alarm clock went off or not, but at 7:30 am, when Oz and Jaynes woke up and realized they had missed a great opportunity and let a lot of people down, they were devastated; and that innocent alarm clock was subsequently destroyed by Jaynes' foot. The morning show was left to take calls from the public in order to fill air time, and Oz and Jaynes were quickly on the "shit" list.

It took about a month of phone calls, voice mails, producers calling producers, friends calling the show, and ultimately a professionally typed and certified letter that would get their apology accepted by Don Welch and the morning show. Oz and Jaynes were rescheduled to appear on the show, but with the stipulation that they would come and tape the show late in the day to be shown the following morning.

Shortly after, Oz and Jaynes got booked on the Budweiser stage at Riverbend; a huge waterfront musical festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Other good bookings followed including the Flora-Bama, Buckhead Ga, Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and numerous other venues.

After college, Oz and Jaynes decided to take a break to avoid burnout and make different life altering decisions. Jaynes stayed in Chattanooga and decided to further his education, and Oz moved back to his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama and quickly went to work. Although they live in different places, they remain the best of friends and play live shows often. They are currently working in their chosen career field, as well as collaborating on a new studio album to follow up their successful original CD, "Calm Before The Storm."

You can catch them playing live at T-Bones in Chattanooga, or the Copper Top in Tuscaloosa, as well as different private shows and special appearances. Check the "Updated Schedule" section of the site.

Booking/Contact Information

For booking information, or questions regarding anything Oz and Jaynes, please email:


osborn34@gmail.com


Thanks! We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Oz Bio

Derek Osborn has been singing and performing for over 20 years. His early vocal career started in a small church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama including choir and solo performances. Since the beginning of Oz and Jaynes, Derek has performed somewhere around 900 times in the past 11 years in both large and small venues. Referred to as "Oz" by friends, he is an amatuer guitarist who leaves most of the playing to Jaynes. He is also a pianist who performed many recitals and concerts as a child.

Oz has a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He is the head estimator for Bigham Construction, a major General Contractor in the state of Alabama. Oz is also songwriter who in his spare time is working on the next studio album for "Oz and Jaynes."

He lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with his beloved wife Lynn and their new daughter, Savannah. Oz enjoys planting tropical plants in his backyard and is currently obsessed with banana trees. He enjoys reading Carl Hiassen novels, watching Bruce Willis movies, going to the Gulf whenever possible, and religiously listens to Radio Margaritaville and Alt Nation on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Jaynes Bio

Mike Jaynes has been playing guitar for 28 years, 15 of them professionally. With "Oz and Jaynes," "G2," "Galaxy Class," Archer and Tucker: A Space Odyssey," "Room," and other outfits including solo shows, he has performed live over 1,000 times. He specializes in Bluegrass flat picking, and experimental sampling is a feature of his live show. He exclusively plays Seagull guitars and has been sponsored by Seagull guitars for eight years. Vyvyan (his now retired and long-suffering S-6) has been a feature of Oz and Jaynes shows over the last ten years (mostly so fans could chart the progress of destruction to the beloved instrument, which they seemed to love to do). His new guitar, Lailoken, is showing heavy signs of abuse which grow weekly.

He has degrees on the graduate level in English. He teaches writing, western humanities, adolescent literature, 20th century American literature, and women's studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and his academic and creative publications have been published in the U.S., Canada, and England. He is also a noted animal advocate who writes and speaks across the country on the plight of captive and performing elephants and sharks. He is obsessed with his dog Brutumnus, believes in extra-terrestrial intelligence, and spends his ample free time eating tangerines and avoiding press interviews involving Oz and Jaynes. He lives alone with animals and uncounted books on an island fortress near Chattanooga, Tennessee."

Vyvyan Bio

Vyvyan is a seven year old Seagull S-6 Cedar Dreadnaught guitar Jaynes bought new in 1999 for about $500. Her name alludes to the Lady of the Lake in Medieval Arthurian Legend, and as you all know, she is the supernatural being who was entrusted to keep Excalibur safe for all time after Ygraine, the Queen of the Celts, buried King Arthur Pendragon.

Jaynes has played over 1,000 shows with the Lady Vyvyan (800+ with Oz and Jaynes, the rest being solo shows (“Temporary Palace,” Jaynes’ solo album, was released in 2002) bluegrass, jazz, and experimental side projects such as “Room”, “Enterprise J,” and “Starman Chronicles.”
What most people fail to realize is that the guitar is sentient and very picky about this and that. Jaynes is pretty sure Vyvyan hails from a planet circling a trinary star system near Omega Centauri, and has been on Earth close to three millennia, in various forms both corporeal and non. She has a slight tendency to feedback (due to holes in the Cedar Top), and was powered by an L.R. Baggs Ribbon Transducer Pickup.

The neck of the guitar has been replaced, and Jaynes has spent over two thousand dollars in maintenance in the last seven years. His devotion to the guitar is obsessive.
Some people have expressed interest in the effects rig Jaynes has used over the years, so if anyone is curious, the temporally linked sound of the gods came out of Vyvyvan (Martin Marquis Medium Strings, please) and ran into (the following combination has changed over the years, but the variance is not too high) an Ibanez delay, a Boss e.q., a generic distortion unit, an original WAH, and into a Line-6 digital sampler and delay modeler (this is the key to Jaynes’s live performances; the sampler allows him to lay track after track of chords / themes / whatever, and to shred / solo / dance on top of it all). From there it all runs through a tuner and into a Hughes & Kettner Montana Acoustic Amp, out a balanced D.I. in the back, and into the Mackie board. This amount of toys is not overkill; it allows Oz and Jaynes to be more than one guy singing and one guy strumming. The Sampler and the effects Matrix is one of the keys to the overwhelming intensity for which Oz and Jaynes’s live shows are known and praised.

In early July, 2006, after seven years of touring the country, the cross bracing under the cedar top finally caved during an intense set. As a result, the top dropped, the bridge pulled loose, and the action became unplayable (at least live). True, the bridge and top could be replaced, but Jaynes believes removing the battle scars and compromised structural integrity would remove the Lady’s soul. To keep from destroying a piece of beloved created artwork, Jaynes retired Vyvyan from live service (he still plays her around his secluded ranch almost daily) and an era ended. Worry not, the new Martin (tentatively named Le Fey) seems to be able to hold it’s on, but a sad undeniable fact of the universe is that Le Fey can never be Vyvyan.

Vyvyan’s glad to be put out to pasture after a very busy and hectic professional career. She enjoys cold moonlight, fireflies, and divides her time between Jaynes’s library and a planet near Omega Centauri.

For more info about Seagull guitars (handmade in Quebec, Canada) and the luthier Robert Godin, go to http://www.lasido.com/

Sample Song List

Here is a sample of just a few of the songs Oz and Jaynes perform.

Buffett
Margaritaville
Jolly Mon Sing
Cheeseburger in paradise
Love and Luck
Fins
One Particular Harbor
Volcano
Fruitcakes
Ballad of Spider John
First Look
Pirate Looks at 40
Pencil Thin Mustache
Tin Cup Chalice
Desperation Samba
Manana
Boat Drinks
Weather is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful
This Hotel Room
Wino and I Know
Door #3
Distantly in Love
Come Monday
Savannah Fare You Well
..........................................and many, many more.

Other Artists we Cover:
Dave Matthews Band
Sublime
Jim Croce
Allman Brothers
John Prine
Matchbox 20
The Band
James Taylor
.....and many more as well.