Biography

The musical partnership of Jackie & Jason began in 2007 after a chance meeting at Joe Federigo’s — a popular jazz club and music venue in Eugene, Oregon. Jason was playing a weekly solo gig and Jackie was in the audience one evening. When Jason began playing “Norwegian Wood”, Jackie jumped up on stage and sang a perfect, though impromptu, harmony. Their voices blended into a sound greater than the sum of its parts. The song ended to rousing applause and within three weeks of their first rehearsal, Jackie & Jason were performing live, soon becoming a favorite at Eugene area wineries such as LaVelle, Iris Hill and Territorial Vineyards as well as other local venues.

If Jason Cowsill’s surname seems familiar it’s because he is a scion of a well-known musical family, The Cowsills. As a child performer in the spotlight, his father had endured untold pressures; consequently, he never forced his son to follow the musical road. On his own, Jason picked up the guitar and immersed himself in learning all of the songs his father already knew.

With his father in music and his mother an actress and model, who later became an executive at Playboy Enterprises and a film and television production designer, Jason grew up with few illusions about the entertainment business. “It took away a lot of the mystique,” he affirms. And, hanging out amidst the monkey cages and koi ponds at the Playboy Mansion seemed perfectly normal. “It’s only in retrospect that I think, ‘What a strange way to grow up.’”

In contrast, Jackie Jae’s upbringing was anything but cosmopolitan. Growing up in a farming town in Minnesota, population 400, Jackie dreamed of the city life Jason was living and was determined to make her dream come true. While earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Arizona, she toured the southwest with the school’s Symphonic Choir as well as fronting a popular local cover band. After graduation she packed her bags for L.A. and the film industry, where she also learned the harsh lessons of show business. Despite working with superstars such as Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, Rosie O’Donnell, and Leonardo DiCaprio, Jackie soon realized city life wasn’t all she dreamed it to be. She moved to San Diego where she stretched her musical wings with the popular corporate cover band, The Mar Dels, traveling all over the United States as well as internationally.

Eventually even San Diego was too much city life for her and she made her way to Eugene, Oregon where she discovered a popular musical venue, Joe Federigo’s, and thus the story began.