JIIG came into being in 2004 when singer, songwriter and concertina player Ian Robb decided to record a long overdue “solo” album, and realised he didn’t have to look very far in his home town of Ottawa for some really top-notch help. The solo album quickly evolved into a group project, and the pre-existing trio of James Stephens, Ian Clark and Greg T. Brown, then known acronymously as JIG, took on a fourth member and a second “I”.

The music of JIIG centres around Ian R’s masterful singing of traditional or traditional-sounding, mostly English songs, and is balanced by some stellar instrumental sets showcasing the various stylistic influences and uncommon musicianship of James, Ian C and Greg, all leading lights of the vibrant Ottawa Celtic scene. The band finds its tunes in the Québec, Ontario, Newfoundland, Appalachian, Scottish, Irish and English repertoires, or among James and Greg’s own compositions, and produces a sound that is at once rich and rhythmic, eloquent and edgy. The band's first (and only) recording project, simply entitled "JIIG" received two Canadian Folk Music Award nominations in 2005, and Ian R. won the CFMA for "Best singer, Traditional"

James Stephens
Perhaps best-known as a record producer (Finest Kind, Pierre Schryer, Glen Road, Genticorum, The Brian Pickell Band and countless other artists in the folk/acoustic genre; winner of the 2003 Porcupine Award as “Producer of the Year”), James is one of Canada’s most versatile and inventive fiddle players, mastering a multitude of styles from Cape Breton to Bluegrass, Québecois to Appalachian Old Time, Irish to Ottawa Valley. James works his way through 4 and 5 string fiddles, mandolin and bass in the course of a JIIG performance. He has played with a Who’s Who of Canadian folk roots music, from Fat Man Waving to Lynn Miles to Finest Kind, and had a previous life in classical music. In recent years, James has made many trips to Smithers BC to teach and compose for the Valley Youth Fiddlers’ project, and is also one of the organisers of the Gatineau Hills Fiddle Festival, in his home community of Chelsea, QC.

Ian Robb
A founder member of the Estelle Klein Achievement Award-winning Friends of Fiddler’s Green, and a third of the internationally acclaimed vocal harmony trio Finest Kind, Ian, who describes himself as “a singer and writer of old songs” is one of North America’s most respected singers of English traditional song, with a singing career spanning more than 50 years. He bought his first English concertina in the 1970s, and over the decades has gradually developed his own distinctively chordal style of song self-accompaniment. Ian has been a long-time builder