Mari-time for some music
Photo by Michelle McAfee
Picture David Jacobs-Strain and Bob Beach, side-by-side on the stage. Jacobs-Strain made the Pogreba guitar he is holding as well as the cannon used to spread the ashes of Hunter S. Thompson. Beach checks out his selection of harmonicas and adjusts his 1940s RCA microphone. They’re calm, poised and ready to play. This will be the scene when KYAQ 91.7FM brings the musicians to Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center this Sunday, Oct. 26.
Jacobs-Strain is a fierce slide guitar player and a song poet from Eugene, known for both his virtuosity and spirit of emotional abandon. His live shows move from humorous, subversive blues to delicate balladry and then swing back to swampy rock and roll. He has wowed audiences at Merlefest, The Telluride Blues Festival, The Philadelphia Folk Festival, Oregon Country Fair and many more. On the road, he has shared the stage with artists including Lucinda Williams, Etta James, The Doobie Brothers and George Thorogood. He has also performed with Boz Scaggs in more than 60 shows.
Beach hails from Philadelphia, where he has been making music on the harmonica and flute for more than 40 years. He plays harmonica with a calm fierceness, swaggering into a solo that makes you wonder how such a tiny instrument could possibly sound so haunting. He has recorded and performed with several acts including Ollabelle, Langhorne Slim, The Avett Brothers, Pat Wictor, Beaucoup Blue and Fruit.
Together, these men are a multigenerational, bi-coastal duo who have traveled from the left to the right coasts playing 70 to 100 shows and festivals a year since 2010. Those include the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Juan de Fuca, Strawberry Festival, Redding Roots and the Swannanoa gathering.
“David Jacobs-Strain and Bob Beach blew me away last summer at Swannanoa,” said American folk singer-songwriter Tom Paxton. “As we say at home, they ‘knocked my hat in the creek’. I can’t envision the audience that could fail to take to them from the first chord to the last. Hear them yourself as soon as you can.”
Sunday’s show begins at 7 pm at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center, located at 333 SE Bay Blvd., Newport. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. For more information, go to KYAQ.org.