We needed to change our name from The Riflebirds to The Riflebirds of Portland because a talented Australian band emerged during our hiatus and claimed the moniker.
Lee came up with the band’s name before he learned actual riflebirds exist. In fact, they are native to Australia.
After the band broke up, Kevin Kraft sold his vintage gold top Les Paul because he wanted to “set it free.”
The first time Lee met Branigan she was two. He could tell right away that she had a perfect ear and could sing perfectly on key.
During our recording sessions in July 2024, The Mermaids snuck off to a Rolling Stones concert.
When she was a teenager, Kate published a Beatles fanzine called “Here, There, and Everywhere.”
During the pandemic, Kevin and his kids, Grace and Andrew, shared a series of covers on YouTube and Facebook known as “Quarantunes”.
In the band’s younger days, Kevin Jarvis would lighten the mood with snippets of dialogue from the TV show Flipper, including the voice of Flipper, the bottlenose dolphin.
Kevin met his wife, Mary, while they were both training for the 1996 San Francisco Marathon.
Briana made a video for our song “She Not Here.” It should be on YouTube this summer.
Pre-Riflebirds, Lee and Kevin opened for The Rats—Fred and Toody Cole, with Louis Samora on drums—on the night of the Grenada invasion, October 25, 1983.
Kate played bass in a Portland band called Zuzu’s Petals.
Producer Marvin Etzioni and the original Riflebirds (minus Kate) dined at Moonshadows in Malibu just days before it burned to ashes in the Palisades fire.