Quick Q and A with David Jacobs-Strain
 by Kathy S-B  ·  6 April 2008

David Jacobs-Strain is one of those wunderkinds who is so young and has been honing his trade in the music business for years already. David recorded his first album while still in high school and was a faculty member at a local country blues workshop in his teens. Lately he’s been touring the country, playing his sweet Delta-soaked blues to clubs, theatres, and coffeehouses. He’s definitely a force to be reckoned with! To learn more about David, check out his website at www.davidjacobs-strain.com or his MySpace site. Take a quick trip over to YouTube where you can see a funky video that really displays David’s guitar playing.

I’m starting off with a non-music question but one that I’ve got to ask because I, too, choose to use a hyphenated last name. Even though it’s the twenty-first century, you don’t often find people of the male persuasion using hyphenated names. Care to enlighten us about this?

I have both my parents’ last names. Neither of them would’ve had it any other way, and although a number of people in the music business have encouraged me to change it to something “easier to remember,” I’ve kept it because it feels right.

Do you recall your musical life-defining moment? When did the blues carve its way into your heart and soul? Or was it a process that happened over time?

Once I stayed up all night trying to play slide guitar harmonics after seeing Bob Brozman. I remembered what I had heard but didn’t have any idea of how the sound was made. I’ve always learned like that, by hearing something and messing around with it until I find the feel of it. Practicing all night, getting to a place where I can explore the same chord for an hour or more, those are defining times.

When I picked up a guitar at the age of nine, I wasn’t setting out to play the blues, but my first teacher, Emily Fox, taught me a Bessie Smith tune. Then I saw Taj Mahal when I was ten. I also remember being 12 years old and showing up at the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop and finding 40 people jamming on a Charlie Patton tune. I realized that I wasn’t the only one into this obscure music.

Your comment about your love for the trance-inducing heavy Delta Blues is intriguing. Can you try to describe this sensation in a bit more detail?

See next answer.

You’re so young and yet you’ve been touring so long already. You’ve probably had some high points and some incredibly low points. What keeps you at it?

Trying to reach that altered flow of consciousness that happens in a live show. It’s a connection with yourself and the audience that goes beyond the form or texture of the music. It’s so powerful—that’s why I keep reaching for it. The Delta blues in particular, the droning, repetitive quality of the music really encourages that kind of flow in a performance.

How did you hook up with your mentor and producer, Kenny Passarelli? I have fond memories of Kenny back in the Joe Walsh / Rocky Mountain Way days.

I met Kenny at a blues festival in Washington state, where he was playing with Otis Taylor. He had long hair and was wearing sprinter’s shoes.

Last summer you opened quite a few shows for the legendary Boz Scaggs. What was that experience like?

Boz’s music is different from mine but it was an honor to share a stage with such a consummate musician. It was really great to hang out with his band, who were all high level players. It was cool to watch their processes as they created a show. Of course, some shows were a challenge, especially when you walk out on a huge stage in front of an audience that doesn’t know you, or in some cases, isn’t even expecting you.