So how come "The Three Jacks," you ask, when there are plainly five of us, only two are really named "Jack," and two of us are girls? . . . (Maybe "Jills," then?). 
Well, there is a reason, but it would take far too long to tell you! Catch us at the end of a show sometime, buy us a drink (or three) and we will tell you whatever story we can come up with at the time. Slainte!
(The Three Jacks at The Arsht Center for The Performing Arts, Miami, Florida in 2008)
This is the "PanCeltic Flag," showing, from top left and going clockwise, the flags of Brittany ("Little Britain"), The Isle of Man (the "Triskellion"), Scotland (St. Andrew's Cross), Wales (the Welsh Dragon), Cornwall (St. Piran's Cross) and the flag of the Irish Republic. Celts settled a huge swath of the Atlantic seacoast and inland mountains of North America. It started with the hundreds of thousands of "Scotch-Irish," Scottish settlers of the Ulster Plantations, driven by famine to America's Eastern seaboard in the 17th and 18th centuries) . . . And the Scots and Irish of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia ("New Scotland"). . . And the Celtic French "Acadians," driven by British conquest from Canadian "Acadie," where they had lived cheek-by-jowl with their Scottish and Irish cousins, to a new home in Louisiana, where they became "Cajuns" . . . And the million survivors of the Irish famine who flooded New York and Boston in the mid 19th century and the 5 million Irish who followed after. . . It is small wonder that the Celtic stamp runs so clearly and identifiably through the home-grown musics of the Americas. It is the backbone of American Country, Cajun, Bluegrass, Rock-a-Billy - and Rock-and-Roll. In their stage show, The Three Jacks take that Celtic inheritance of The Americas of the last 400 years into a new century. To a base mix of much-loved Celtic traditionals - from "Matty Groves" through "Whisky in The Jar" to "Les Flammes d'Enfer" - they fold in their mistreatments of the Celtic classics – most notably numbers by the blind, 17th Century, Irish, folk/baroque harper and boozer, Turlough O’Carolan - (his "Lord Inchiquin” now has a set of bawdy lyrics and has been re-christened “Ramrods & Bearskins”) - whip in brand new (soon to be) Celtic classics from their "catalog of 18th century folk-songs they wrote last week" - and then leaven the whole heady brew with rip-out, stomping, fiddle break-downs like “The Red-Haired Boy,” “Drowsy Maggie” and "Soldier’s Joy.” Sometimes we can get the Breffni dancers
to come out with us and do a show or two: But at every show, kids get on stage and dance and the crowd sings and laughs along with the band - and everyone goes home happy.
Henk was born in Calcutta, India, to a Scottish Dad from Aberdeen (a fishing town on the left-hand-side of the North sea) and a Dutch Mum (from Enkhuizen, a fishing village on the right-hand-side of the North Sea), was raised in Amsterdam and London, and has lived in the Northernmost capital of Latin America - Miami - for lo, these many years. Henk is a veteran of a string of rock bands in the UK and the US - most notably alt-rockers, Perfect Strangers. He founded The Volunteers in Miami over 15 years ago and is the third “Jack” in The Three Jacks. Henk is the band's frontman and chief rabble-rouser with a huge voice that is - says Miami's "New Times" - "to traditional rock vocals as Guinness is to Coors Light." Henk is also the band's bard. He researches the traditional songs and writes the original tunes and lyrics that Street Magazine calls the "powerful, awe-inspiring, soul-firing music" of The Volunteers - and now The Three Jacks.
The amazing Mr. Shawde has performed, recorded or toured all over the world with such legends as Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Richie Havens, Stan Lynch (Tom Petty), Al Cooper (Blood Sweat & Tears), Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry and recently accompanied Enrique Iglesias at the Latin Grammy Awards, which were televised, live, to a world-wide audience of over ten million.
For the last several years, Jack’s wizardry on guitars - and a host of other stringy thingys - have been a hallmark of The Three Jacks’ sound. [Check out www.jackshawde.com]
Jack is a staggeringly talented multi-instrumentalist, whose axes include fiddles, recorders, crumhorns, shawms, cellos and guitars. Jack studied Irish fiddle technique under the legendary James Kelly and has played in an array of rock, country, renaissance and Celtic bands including, for years, Avalon. Jack’s recordings span the range of his musical interests and include an album of songs and dances from the 14th Century, a collection of Scottish tunes with Jennifer Licko, and tracks on three, recent, platinum-selling pop/rock CDs: Shakira’s “Donde Esta Las Ladrones” and “Laundry Service,” and J. Lo’s “On the Six.” Jack’s blazing fiddle and haunting recorders - and occasionally even the crumhorn - play a starring role in The Three Jacks.
Debbie is Louisiana Swamp Irish and a total GrooveMonstress. She plays various 4 and 5-string electric basses and the BSX Allegro electric upright bass - which she endorses - as well as a mess of other instruments, like trumpet, French horn, guitar and melodica . . . and, thankfully, whenever the didgeridoo is essential – so is Debbie!
In a recent Miami New Times article, Greg Baker described Diane as a "lithe blonde beauty" with a background as a "hard-hitting drummer who sometimes shattered sticks." Hey. some things never change!
Apart from being a major songstress in her own right Diane is a total groovemonster (and by far the best looking drummer any of The Jacks have ever played with). [Check out www.dianeward.com]