Although singer-songwriter Kathryn Claire is a newcomer to The Palindrome at Eaglemount Cidery, at 1893 S. Jacob Miller Rd. in Port Townsend, she’s no stranger to Port Townsend itself, since she’s performed at Fort Worden before.

And since she already knew Matt Miner, she was more than happy to be part of his Rainshadow Recording concert series, through which she’ll be appearing at The Palindrome at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12, alongside fellow singer-songwriter Margot Merah.

While Claire is based in Portland, Oregon, Merah hails from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. It  was a small Irish pub in Amsterdam where the two first met in 2013, bonding over their shared love of traditional music, folk and harmony singing.

After two and a half years apart, the two reunited in the summer of 2022 in the Pacific Northwest, for a tour that featured both traditional and original songs and instrumentals, which led them to start writing songs together on the road.

Likewise, when they toured again in Europe in March of 2023, it led to the release of their duo album last summer, for which they toured yet again. That tour took them through Washington, Oregon and Montana, showing off their multi-instrumental skills on the guitar, fiddle, ukulele, bodhran and harmonica, while trading off lead and harmony vocal duties between them.

Claire described herself and Merah as similarly versatile, capable of teaming up to create “a varied sound, to keep things interesting,” which she suggested could owe to them being based on different continents.

“Even after all these years, the magic is still fresh and exciting to us,” Claire said. “Whether together or on our own, we tend to blend musical styles and genres a lot. My own music is not only folk-inspired, but also draws from elements of bluegrass, jazz and Celtic music.”

Claire characterized the Pacific Northwest, as a region, as complementing such musical diversity, since she sees its “amazing” musical communities as giving voice to “so many different genres,” just as she praised Miner as “a wonderful human, with an extraordinary capacity” to foster eclectic musicality within a local community.

“Matt has always been a proponent of providing cool new spaces for music to flourish,” said Claire, who also expressed her appreciation to Miner for booking “our dear friend,” Whidbey Island singer-songwriter Timothy Hull, to open for her and Merah at The Palindrome on April 12. “Margot, Timothy and I are all storytellers, so we fit together nicely.”

Miner described Claire’s songs as “honest, poetic and profound,” to the point that “each song is imbued with an energy and electricity that you can feel.” He described Merah’s songs as “comforting, hopeful and melancholic,” as they “tell about life, simple and small, with an eye for detail and the bigger picture.”

For more information on Claire, visit kathrynclairemusic.com online, and to learn more about Merah, visit margotmerah3.wixsite.com/margotmerah online.

Tickets for Claire and Merah’s April 12 concert in Port Townsend are available at ticketstorm.com or at the door.