Former Portsmouth musician Laurel Brauns and local band Wooden Eye join ‘Idol’ finalist Scott MacIntyre for a show to benefit the blind.

It was almost exactly four years ago that singer-songwriter Laurel Brauns packed up and headed west to pursue the next chapter of her music career. The former Portsmouth resident has been living in Bend, Ore., ever since, where she’s been fine-tuning her skills as a songwriter and performer. Her fourth full-length studio album, her first since moving to Oregon, came out in September.

“I really thought a lot about songwriting and basically studied it really hard,” Brauns said of her approach to the new disc, titled “House of Snow.” “I had a lot of time last winter to just dig in really deep with the songwriting process.”

Brauns will have a chance to show Seacoast fans what she’s learned when she returns for a concert on Saturday, Oct. 8, at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Called “Voices of Vision,” the show will benefit the New Hampshire Association for the Blind. It will also feature local band Wooden Eye and Scott MacIntyre, the first blind performer to become a finalist on “American Idol.”

Brauns became involved in the concert after her friend Andrew Leibs, a blind journalist, encouraged the association to include her. “When they decided to have this fundraiser, he swayed them into booking me,” she said.

Brauns’ work as a musician has put her in touch with several blind people over the years, making the cause personal for her. She said the blind tend to have a strong connection with music.

“That sense for them is so heightened,” she said. “They have an attraction to music, particularly, as an art form, and that has definitely gotten me connected with a lot of blind people.”

Blindness is also personal for Wooden Eye front man Mike Rogers, who lost his vision more than 30 years ago. Formerly a teacher, Rogers gradually went blind around 1978. He agreed that being without sight can heighten one’s appreciation of music.

“You learn to use your hearing,” he said. “It’s not that you’re hearing is greater than other people’s, but you make more use of it because you have to.”

Rogers has participated in a number of benefits for people with disabilities, including work with the Maine Arts Commission’s Accessibility Task Force. He sings and plays harmonica for Wooden Eye, a bluesy Americana band that also features his son, Joe Rogers, on drums. A friend of his son’s who is involved with the Association for the Blind invited the band to take part in the upcoming concert.

“We were happy to do that,” Rogers said.

Both Brauns and Rogers have performed on The Music Hall’s stage before. Rogers has played there twice, once with John Perreault and once with Jim MacDougall & The Funky Divas of Gospel. Brauns opened for Patty Larkin at the theater in 2006.

MacIntyre has toured across North America and around the world. The singer-songwriter and pianist finished eighth in “American Idol” in 2009 and released his latest CD, “Heartstrings,” in 2010. This will be his first show in Portsmouth.

It’s been about a year since Brauns last returned to the Seacoast. Her parents still live in the Lakes Region where she grew up, and she tries to come home about once a year. She paid a visit in September 2010 and played a gig at The Red Door in Portsmouth, where she used to book shows in the Hush Hush Sweet Harlot series. After moving to Oregon, she started a band called the Sweet Harlots.

“We did a lot of Americana and covers and stuff. People in this town like to dance and drink and talk and it was sort of more of like a party band,” she said.

Her latest solo album represents a new summit for Brauns, with lush string arrangements draped from her stirring folk melodies and tremulous vocals. She plans to move to Portland, Ore., this winter and reignite her solo career. “A new album is a great starting point to jumpstart the solo thing again,” she said.

Brauns is looking forward to the concert at The Music Hall, where she hopes to see plenty of familiar faces.

“I feel really blessed. What an incredible opportunity,” she said.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Oct. 8 at The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, 603-436-2400, www.themusichall.org. Tickets are $25 in advance, $35 day of show.