David's Home Page and Schedule
NorthernBlues Music has announced the signing of Eugene, Oregon's, David Jacobs-Strain, one of the best young Blues guitarists in America. His new CD, "Stuck On The War Back" is slated for release in late May of 2002.
The Cascade Blues Association is PROUD to announce that Oregon's foremost fingerpicker under the age of 18 competed in the Blues Foundation's International BluesKids Talent Competition and took
You can read the Blues' Foundation's Press Release here. Congratulations David!!!
CBA Music Review: The Longest Road I Know
David Jacobs-Strain was born in 1983 in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Eugene, Oregon, as a youngster. He began accompanying himself on the guitar at age nine. His first influence to play the blues came from live concerts by Walker T. Ryan and Taj Mahal in Eugene, and from listening to recordings of Fred McDowell, Lightning Hopkins, and Bessie Smith. His first stage performances were at the Eugene Saturday Market and the Oregon Country Fair in 1994.
When David saw Bob Brozman's performance at the W.O.W. Hall in 1996, he was inspired to learn bottleneck slide.
Just a year later, David opened for Brozman on the same stage ... playing slide guitar. In 1999 he received a scholarship to attend the
IGS workshop in Santa Cruz, CA, to study with Bob Brozman as well as
Woody Mann, Martin Simpson, John Cephas,
Mary Flower, Orville Johnson, and Bob
Tilling.
The Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop became part of
David's life at age 12 and it has been an annual ritual ever
since. He first learned of the workshop, which has been fundamental to his development as a blues musician, from remarks made by
Del Rey in a live radio interview on KLCC "Blues
Power". In 1998 he was awarded a Portland "Blues In The
Schools" scholarship to attend the workshop. In 1999, he became
the Port Townsend Country Blues Workshop's youngest-ever faculty
member. He will return to lead the introductory slide-guitar workshop in
the year 2000.
A number of traditional blues artists at the Port Townsend Workshop have been particular influences, including
John Cephas, Del Rey, John Jackson, Steve James, Otis Taylor, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Ann Rabson, Jerry Ricks, and
Orville Johnson.
Beyond the Port Townsend setting, David has gone on to share concert and festival billings with Otis Taylor, Del Rey, Steve James, Ann Rabson, Robert Lowery, and Alice Stuart.
David has performed at Blues festivals all up and down the West Coast, including the Waterfront Blues Festival (1999, 1997), the Port Townsend Country Blues Festival, the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival, and the Hood River Acoustic Slide Fest, to name a few.