They’ve played together for decades, but local Celtic harpist David Michael and Southwestern guitarist Michael Mandrell agreed it’s been too long since they’ve played together for the public in Port Townsend.

The Unity Center of Port Townsend will be hosting Michael and Mandrell’s “Celebrate Spring” concert this weekend, and the duo expressed as much enthusiasm for the venue as they did uncertainty about when exactly they last performed for the public in PT.

“The Unity Center has become more of a concert venue recently,” said Michael, a resident of Port Townsend since 1990, where he runs his independent recording label, Purnima Productions. “They’ve upgraded their sound systems, and have been very accommodating.”

“Plus, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play in a former roller-skating rink,” Mandrell laughed.

Nearly half a dozen years ago, Michael and Mandrell were performing together at public venues throughout the Puget Sound region. After COVID hit, they limited their area concerts to private, invitation-only affairs.

“We played in a backyard in Port Townsend for maybe 30 people,” Michael said. “One of our last big public concerts together was on Orcas Island in 2017.”

The duo has since recorded songs together in studios. Of Michael’s two most recent albums, 2019’s “Confluence” includes Mandrell’s playing in “almost every piece.” With 2021’s “Skyburst,” Michael estimated that Mandrell had “more of a presence” than any other artist on the album.

Mandrell, who hails from Taos, New Mexico, met Michael in 1994, while touring through the Pacific Northwest. Michael was on vacation at the Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat in Oregon, where Mandrell was slated to perform, and they struck up an acquaintance that led to them playing together on the spot.

“My guitar’s open tunings made it sound closer to his harp,” Mandrell said. “Before too long, he was asking me, ‘Have you ever been to Port Townsend?’”

Michael introduced Mandrell to his longtime friend, world fusion music pioneer Benjy Wertheimer, which inspired Mandrell to move to Wertheimer’s hometown of Portland.

Even after Mandrell and Wertheimer invented what they came to call “Celtistani” music, they included Michael in a number of trio performances leading up to the pandemic, before Mandrell returned to New Mexico.

For Michael, part of the appeal of playing with Mandrell is how much “we listen to each other.”

Michael described Mandrell and himself as “close friends” with shared interests and pursuits, from hiking to harvesting wild mushrooms, which he touted as inspiring their shared musical affinity for “the wild places in nature.”

Michael said their respective musical instruments “go together so well,” while also citing their intuitive collaborations as evidence that “each of us knows what the other is looking for” as composers.

Mandrell agreed that they share “a synergistic compatibility” of musical styles.

“I knew I’d be visiting Portland this weekend, so we decided the time was right to play together again,” Mandrell said.

Michael stayed in Port Townsend because, after growing up in Seattle and living in the bay Area from 1983-1990, he was ready to retreat to the Olympic Peninsula, while still remaining relatively close to populated cities.

“I love feeling like a part of this community,” Michael said. “It’s just the right size that I can make friends here. It’s not on the way to anywhere else, so most people are here for a reason. I was able to buy my house 25 years ago from the sale of my CDs, back when that was possible.”

Michael became known for his impromptu harp concerts aboard Washington State Ferries, and played regularly on the Whidbey Island/Port Townsend run for 17 years, until homeland security concerns ended his busking stint there in 2007.

Although Mandrell has made Taos his home, he admitted he wouldn’t mind spending close to half the year in the “lush, verdant” Pacific Northwest, whose forests and streams have inspired him to write no shortage of songs.

Michael and Mandrell paid tribute to this region in their New Age album, “Cascadia,” in 2008.

What to know

The Unity Center is at 3918 San Juan Ave., across from Blue Heron Middle School.

The “Celebrate Spring” concert starts at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 27.

Advance tickets are $25 from the Unity Center and $30 at the door.