Dave Nachmanoff and friends to perform in Poway Friday night

The “philosophical folk rock” of Dave Nachmanoff is coming to Old Poway Park’s Templars Hall.

His 7:30 p.m. concert on Friday, Jan. 16 is being put on by San Diego Folk Heritage.

Nachmanoff said he coined the term philosophical folk rock because of his “somewhat eclectic” taste in music.

“Philosophy informs my music, but you do not need a degree in philosophy to enjoy it,” he said. “It is parallel to my life because of my interest in philosophy in general.”

Nachmanoff, 61, is not only inspired by philosophy when writing his music, he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Davis and worked as an academic for many years.

“Many of the great philosophers were not … academics, just great thinkers,” he said, naming the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and French philosopher René Descartes as examples.

But disillusionment with his career in academics by 1997 prompted Nachmanoff to return to his music roots and pursue it as a full-time career. He not only performs as a solo artist, but joins other musicians on tour around the world. Those artists have included Al Stewart, Alison Krauss, Firefall, Dave Mason and America.

In addition, Nachmanoff has recorded albums, writes music for himself and others, has a recording studio to produce other artists’ works and leads songwriting workshops across the country.

Nachmanoff, who lives in Davis, was originally scheduled to perform for San Diego Folk Heritage in 2020, but his concert was canceled due to the pandemic.

While he has performed throughout San Diego County over the years, he said this was his first opportunity to reschedule his Folk Heritage performance and he has never been to Poway.

Though he plays guitar and keyboard, Nachmanoff said he only takes his acoustic guitar on tour. In Poway he will be joined by Mike Lindauer on bass and vocals along with Nick Carvajal on drums and vocals. He has played with Lindauer, who splits his time between Chicago and Texas, for many years. Carvajal is also from Davis and has performed with Nachmanoff frequently over the last few years.

All three have joined forces before and they blend really well together considering their limited rehearsals before performances, Nachmanoff said. It is because Lindauer and Carvajal are such talented musicians and know his music very well, he said.

Opening Friday night’s concert will be two-time San Diego Music Award nominee Omar Musisko, known for his “genre-bending, eclectic indie-folk music that weaves vulnerability and dark humor into poetic songs that search for beauty in the hurt,” said Abby Polin, an SDFH board member. Musisko has performed with The Peripherals and The Spiritual Motels.

Nachmanoff said while he has heard of Musisko, they have never met and he is looking forward to seeing him perform.

The Virginia native said he began his music training when he was 7 or 8 with piano lessons, but soon after picked up the guitar.

“My parents were not musicians, but they had a deep love of music and encouraged me,” he said.

Nachmanoff and his two brothers formed a band as teens and they still occasionally perform together.

“My parents were a lot into folk music, so that had a strong influence on me,” he said.

At age 9, Nachmanoff won a talent contest in Virginia with his rendition of Libba Cotten’s folk-blues classic “Freight Train.” His prize was playing a half-hour set at a local folk festival, which led to him eating dinner with Cotten. She was impressed by his abilities and invited him to play with her on the grounds of the Washington Monument.

That interaction inspired him to be a professional musician, he said.

“I have loved performing ever since I was a kid,” he said. “There is also something really thrilling about writing a song, when it works, but I enjoy performing more. … It feels good and nothing can replace the satisfaction.

“When you perform, it is a moment in time and when you write songs they are forever,” he said.

Singer-songwriters such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, John Denver and Joni Mitchell were some of his early inspirations, along with bands such as the Eagles and The Beatles, he said.

Nachmanoff first started writing songs around age 8 or 9, but said he did not get serious about songwriting until his late 20s after moving to California and meeting some independent singer-songwriters.

“My inspiration has changed over the years,” he said. “When I first started it was about getting heartbroken, being in love and relationships.”

After working with Al Stewart, whom Nachmanoff said often wrote songs about history, he too started branching out into other aspects of life, literature, philosophy, history and current events, though the latter was usually a year or two after they happened.

“As I get older I find it is a little more about family and those close to me, anything is fair game,” he said. “People do not just want to hear songs about my relationships and emotional state at that time. These are valid (topics), but I want to take the road less traveled.”

Nachmanoff writes music and lyrics.

“Based on my experience, 70 to 80 percent of people don’t pay much attention to lyrics, but I care about lyrics,” he said, adding he finds composing music “more easy than lyrics and I usually write them simultaneously. When I write the words I usually have a tune in my head.”

While some musicians perform primarily depressing ballads or fun music, Nachmanoff said he likes to mix it up because he does not want an entire concert to essentially sound the same.

“I like variety … entertaining people,” he said, noting that if one of his songs brings someone to tears because they were moved, start laughing or are amused, or the lyrics just make them think about something — even if they don’t agree with him — then he has accomplished his goal to entertain.

“If I do a show and you do not understand the words because the music was too loud, that is a waste of time,” he added. “Both the words and music matter, that is what’s powerful and why I love songwriting.”

Nachmanoff said many in the area might not be familiar with his music, so he recommends they listen to some songs on his website, davenach.com, so they might consider attending his Poway concert.

Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for SDFH members and free to those 17 and younger. Buy at the door or in advance at ticketweb.com. There is a small online fee.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16 in Old Poway Park’s Templars Hall, 14134 Midland Road. For details, visit sdfolkheritage.org.