In 2000, David Jacobs-Strain was the youngest faculty member at Centrum’s Acoustic Blues Festival.

The then-15-year-old had been attending the workshop in previous years as a youngster, impressing people not only with his technical skill, but also with his musicality and depth of feeling.

“David had something,” said Peter McCracken, Centrum program manager. “First of all, he was a listener, and he had a certain soulfulness that was unusual.”

Over the years, the Oregon-based musician has evolved to become a singer-songwriter who, while maintaining a lively tour schedule with top artists, has returned to Port Townsend on occasion to perform, with a concert coming up this Friday evening at Rainshadow Recording Studio at Fort Worden.

“He’s at a new level now,” said McCracken.

OLD SOUL

Rainshadow Recording Studio owner Everett Moran also recalls first hearing the young blues-steeped student, and echoes McCracken’s reaction.

“He played like an old soul,” Moran said of the “obvious prodigy.”

In 2001, Moran had been charged with booking the fifth annual Coors Roots of the Blues Festival in Denver, and wanted to give the opening slot to a young musician with enough chops and soul to play on the same stage with the likes of John Jackson, Corey Harris, Del Rey and others, Moran said.

Jacobs-Strain, who was suggested to him by Mary Flower, fit the bill with his talent and soul.

“At the time, he was a disciple of the one-chord African blues,” Moran said.

Moran, who moved to Port Townsend nearly a decade ago, later made contact with Jacobs-Strain at The Upstage, and heard the now singer-songwriter perform again.

“It was a fairly dramatic growth and change in style from when I first heard him,” he said.

Jacobs-Strain also tracked a CD for Port Townsend musician Matt Sircely’s band Hot Club Sandwich, “No Pressure,” which comes out in about two months, said Sircely.

“David is a stellar engineer and a true audiophile, the kind of person who can hear minute sonic details,” said Sircely.

“But most importantly, David is a remarkable musician and songwriter who always shows a devotion to the heart and soul of the music itself, whether he’s playing a show, writing a song, or engineering a recording for a client.”

THE ARTIST

Jacobs-Strain began playing on street corners and at farmers markets as a teenager, and before he dropped out of Stanford University to play full-time, he had already appeared at festivals across the country.

“I try to make art that you can dance to, but I love that darker place, where in my mind, Skip James, Nick Drake and maybe Elliott Smith blur together,” he said in a press release.

He has appeared at festivals in locations ranging from British Columbia to Australia, including MerleFest, Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Bumbershoot and Blues to Bop in Switzerland. On the road, he has shared the stage with Lucinda Williams, Boz Scaggs (more than 60 shows), Etta James, The Doobie Brothers, George Thorogood, Robert Earle Keen, Todd Snider, Taj Mahal, Janis Ian, Tommy Emmanuel, Bob Weir, T-Bone Burnett and Del McCoury.

His newest record, set to be released later this year, was tracked at Sound City and mixed by Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Lucinda Williams).