I grew up in the small blue-collar town of Anacortes Washington, out in the San Juan Islands. I'm still out there, my roots have grown pretty deep by now.
Over the years I've gotten to share the stage and the studio with some remarkable folks considering the obscure position in the music industry I wholly reside in! I was the musical director, as well as guitar and banjo player, for The Secret Sisters performance at Benaroya Hall, with Brandi Carlile and The Seattle Symphony, I've toured nationally playing guitar and mandocello for banjo virtuoso Danny Barnes, played mandolin on Eddie Vedder's recording Better Days for the Sony Pictures movie Eat Pray Love, and engineered at my personal studio Jenny Scheinman's solo record Here on Earth, featuring Bill Frisell, Danny Barnes, Robbie Fulks, and Robbie Gjersoe. Three records of my old folk-rock group Spoonshine were produced by Adam Kasper (Foo Fighters, Cat Power, Pearl Jam, Into The Wild Soundtrack, REM, Soundgarden). I've also composed music for television shows that have aired on the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and Spike TV.
Fretboard Journal says of my solo record Otter House Sketches "The album is relaxed, beautiful and filled with deft guitar playing".
Dennis Cook of Jambase and Dirty Impound said of a show: “A leader on mandolin/acoustic guitar that strongly recalls The Bad Livers…..with fierce picking that recalls Tim O’Brien in his youth and a voice that just might unleash hellfire one day, Jacob Navarro made one feel, by turns, that the grave loomed near or one had just gotten the best kiss they could remember in recent history….”