JD Eicher was a business major at Westminster College when he first started writing songs.

“I was starting to assemble songs and learn about how lyrics and melody and harmony and rhythm all sort of fit together,” Eicher said.

“It was such a life changing thing when I started to write songs, because it became such an outlet for everything — the good and the bad and the in between in life. So I fell in love with songwriting.

“Then, when I first performed some of these songs, I’m sure they weren’t good songs, but there was that instant human connection thing that happens in the room when you play a song live and there are people there listening to it. When everyone’s sort of aligned, it’s a kind of magic, I think. And I fell in love with that as soon as I started to perform those songs I was writing.”

The Canfield native turned his business studies into a business-music interdisciplinary degree and turned the second part into his primary career.

In the 20 years since he made that decision, Eicher had released more than 10 albums and EPs with another one set for release in early 2026.

He’s toured the U.S. and overseas. He’s had songs in national television commercials, penned the title song for a best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks, written a novel of his own and served as a pitchman for Speedway. He also became a husband and father.

To mark that 20-year milestone, the singer-songwriter, guitar player and pianist booked a series of concerts with his band — Jim Merhaut, bass, and Dylan Kollat, drums — and will play a free show Friday at Birdfish Brewing Co. in Columbiana.

The anniversary shows chronicle Eicher’s musical evolution, starting out solo acoustic before bringing out each band member one at a time.

“Ultimately we land on the main part of the set, which is electric guitar and the full dynamic of the band,” Eicher said. “There’s some really old songs, a couple we haven’t played in a long time, and there are some new songs we just started to play and everything in between as well.”

Eicher’s last full-length album was 2022’s “Majesto Sessions,” a collection of songs that accompanied his novel “The Lights Along Majesto.”

Since then, he’s released several singles with another single coming next month. Those songs will be compiled with about four additional songs that fans haven’t heard for that new album.

Technological advances make it more economical to produce quality recordings in a home studio setting, Eicher said, and listening today is more singles driven than album driven.

That’s one of many changes Eicher couldn’t have fathomed when he was starting 20 years ago. Spotify and other streaming services weren’t on anyone’s radar, and the social media outlets that allow musicians to interact and market their music directly to fans were in their infancy.

One of the most vital tools in recent years for Eicher is Patreon, a service that allows fans to subscribe to their favorite artists and get special perks, from access to recordings not available anywhere else to livestreamed concerts and subscriber-only live events.

“Patreon has absolutely been a game changer and allowed me to keep going, because we’ve been able to reach people at a one-to-one level, and folks are able to support us, my band and me directly,” Eicher said. “Over the years, that’s meant making more music than I otherwise would have been able to make.

“There’s been a lot of growth in indie music viability over these past 20 years, and we’ve really leaned in on it and taken advantage of the fact that we can make the music we want to make. It’s a hustle, but you get to do the thing you want to do.”

Collaborations with Sparks and Speedway also have been integral to keeping Eicher working. The publicity surrounding the book tie-in with Sparks’ “Two by Two” novel introduced Eicher to a new audience and got his music played in places like the television show “Good Morning America.”

“Frankly, it was a validation along the way that was really encouraging and also, practically, it just kept me in the game,” he said. “It was a huge, huge gift.”

Doing spots for Speedway was a financial lifeline coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That was a time when it was very difficult to find your footing as an indie musician,” Eicher said. “Speedway came in and offered me this opportunity and, again, it kept me in the game and on the road. Those are the two main things I can look at and say, you know, when times were kind of questionable and things were on the edge, I was lucky enough to have these very out-of-left-field opportunities that kept me going.”

When asked what 2005 Eicher would think about his career 20 years later, he said, “I think he’d be surprised I’m still doing it. I hope he’d be happy with the musical growth and development, but also that I sort of stuck to the core ethos of the music from the start. The goal was never really to be famous. It was always to try to be earnest. And I think I’ve been able to keep that up, trying to keep it up the whole way.”

If you go …

WHAT: JD Eicher Band 20th anniversary concert

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Birdfish Brewing Co., 140 E. Park Ave., Columbiana

HOW MUCH: Admission is free.