Joe Rathburn to perform Saturday at Poway Library

Enjoy a free concert by Joe Rathburn at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Poway Library.

The concert is part of the San Diego County Library’s Acoustic Showcase concert series and is open to the public.

A singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar-based sound, Rathburn said he was influenced by artists like Tom Waits, Randy Newman and The Beatles, as well as modern musicians like Bruce Cockburn and David Wilcox.

“(My music) follows the singer-songwriter template from the 1960s and ‘70s, like James Taylor, Paul Simon or Cat Stevens, Rathburn said.

Rathburn began playing musically professionally in 1972 and has opened for an eclectic mix of musicians, including Ellis Paul, Susan Werner, Dave Van Ronk, Chuck Berry, The Guess Who, Ray Charles and Kiss.

Rathburn said he loves performing at library shows like the one at the Poway Library because the audience tends to be people who want to listen to what you want to play, unlike performing somewhere like a coffee shop. “I enjoy playing for people who like to listen to (my music),” he said. “If given the choice between a listening audience and (an audience of people talking), I’ll take the listeners.”

He will be performing a variety of songs from his six albums of original music, as well as some new music that has not been recorded yet, he said. He will also “throw in a cover or two” of well-known sings for the audience.

Rathburn began playing guitar when he was 7 or 8 years old, he said, after his older brother brought a 12-string guitar home. “I immediately took to it,” he said. Rathburn said he would “noodle around” on the piano and guitar, and took his first guitar lesson from a man selling lessons door-to-door in winter in Michigan.

The man used a Hawaiian lap guitar technique, teaching Rathburn to play “Aloha Oe.” Rathburn later took a couple more lessons from a music store, but mostly taught himself by listening to “guitar players who were better than me.”

Rathburn said he loves the feeling he gets when he plays music, which has kept him going for over 40 years in the business. “It sustains me, like mother’s milk,” he said. “And there’s always something to learn. There has been so much music created through the centuries, I’m just scratching the surface of it. I’ve not even mastered what I know. There’s unlimited creativity still to be tapped.”

The Poway Library is at 13137 Poway Road. For a preview of Rathburn’s music, visit joerathburn.com.

Email: entertainment@pomeradonews.com