Mark Stuart always knew the life of a musician would require him to log plenty of hours on the road, but what makes it all worthwhile is when he’s able to take the stage, especially in a venue like the Rainshadow Recording Studio in Port Townsend.

“It’s always a nice stop on my way toward British Columbia,” said Stuart, who returns to Rainshadow for another show at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 17. “It’s a very attractive location, and Everett (Moran) uses his experience as a sound technician, engineer and producer to make sure you sound fantastic.”

Stuart is especially appreciative of venues that showcase him well, since he books all his own performance dates, living the nomadic touring lifestyle that made its way into the myths and music of his famous influences, from Chet Atkins and Merle Haggard to John Fogerty and The Beatles.

Perhaps Stuart’s biggest musical influence was his family, since he grew up listening to his father’s fiddling and his uncles’ guitar playing, then graduated to playing with his dad in his “weekend warrior” band, which took him to a string of bars and honky-tonks around Nashville when he was only 15.

“I come from a musical family, but I’m the only one who’s ever gone into music professionally,” said Stuart, who formed his own band, cut a record and still made time to play side-gigs for acts like Freddy Fender when he was 17. “Music is in my DNA. Everyone around me when I was growing up was at least a semi-professional level talent.”

All those live performances during his high school years made him realize how much he loves the stage, and how much he feeds off the energy of his audiences.

“When you’re on stage, it’s like you’ve hit pay dirt,” Stuart said. “You don’t mind driving to a different city every night, and sleeping in hotel rooms or guest rooms of other people’s homes, because when you’re able to perform in front of an audience, whether it’s six people or 40 or 260, it’s electrifying to have that shared experience, where they’re enjoying what you’re doing. If I didn’t feel that vibe, it’d be like I was in a vacuum, and I might as well be playing at home.”

Stuart had just come off the road when he met his wife, Stacey Earle, at a songwriters’ night in Nashville in 1992, and they got married in 1993.

For a while, Stuart and his wife were able to balance raising her two kids with gigs on the road with his brother-in-law’s band, Steve Earle and the Dukes, before Stacey returned home to become a caregiver to her mother, but those years gave them both plenty of additional lessons in playing blues, folk, rockabilly and country.

Stuart is grateful for the number of other musicians he’s been able to play with over the years, and in the tradition of his more famous influences, he incorporates those experiences into anecdotes onstage, since he sees himself as a storyteller.

“I’ve had some folks tell me that it was just my guitar-playing that brought them back to my shows, but a lot of people also really seem to like hearing about my time as a sideman to artists like Freddy Fender, Steve Earle, Steve Forbert and even Joan Baez,” Stuart said. “When I toured with them, I got an inside perspective that most folks might not hear otherwise.”

As Stuart spoke with The Leader over the phone, from where he’d pulled his car over onto the side of the road, the rain he’d been subjected to all day long finally let up.

“A moment of sunshine,” he laughed. “Even when it’s not, I still get a buzz out of doing this, even at my age. I guess that’s why I never moved on from doing this. I have to do it full-time.”