Montalvo has partnered with Santa Cruz-based radio station KPIG, known for its live deejays that spin whatever they choose 24 hours a day, to bring 10 legendary acts to Saratoga for a daylong festival that will celebrate the unconventional singer-songwriter who survives in a world of pop.

Headlined by blues queen Etta James, the Songwriter Festival will range from country to bluegrass sounds, from blues to jazz, and will feature acts both young and old. Spread out over four venues on the Montalvo grounds, the festival allows music-lovers to wander from stage to stage, hearing a little bit of everything.

Etta James

Most everyone has heard the song's moving melody, "At last, my love has come along ... "

"I first heard Etta James' voice in the early '60s, coming out of the radio. That soaring voice, it was like taking a ride into the stars," renowned Hollywood film director Martin Scorsese said of James' song "At Last," in the seven-part documentary The Blues he made for PBS. " 'Blues to the Bone' is right," he said of the title of one of her albums. "That's how deep her voice cuts."

Since her voice was first discovered during her teens, the Los Angeles-born singer has roared to the top of the rhythm-and-blues charts countless times during the more than four decades she has been at the business of music. She has two Grammy awards and has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Now, with her sons Donto on drums and Sametto on bass backing her up, James is touring the country yet again, including a stop in Saratoga.

Charlie Musselwhite

Charlie Musselwhite grew up in Mississippi and landed in Memphis when the music scene was exploding. Hanging out in town, he would often find himself at parties alongside Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. When money was low, Musselwhite would sell moonshine out of the back of his 1950 Lincoln, and he eventually moved to Chicago to find a factory job. Instead, he found himself living in the basement of Delmark Records and playing the blues with Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

Today, Musselwhite is a legend in his own right, and experiments with many genres.

"I come from a history of playing blues, but I've experimented with other kinds of music, like Brazilian, Cuban, jazz, folk, anything that's in the roots category," he says. Musselwhite says too many people get the wrong idea when they hear the words "the blues." "Some people that have never heard the blues think it's something sad. But it's actually to get rid of that feeling. Trust me, everyone will go home with a smile on their face."

On many occasions, Hollywood actor Dan Ackroyd has credited Musselwhite with being the inspiration behind his famous character from the movie The Blues Brothers.

"He's told me that personally, and I've read many interviews where he's said it more than once," Musselwhite confirms. "I used to play up in Canada in a town where he was going to college, and he would come and see me. That's where he first got the inspiration."

Musselwhite, who now calls Sonoma County home, is looking forward to joining all the acts in the Songwriter Festival--including his old friend Etta James--and bringing everyone a little bit of the blues.

Sonny Landreth

Fans of slide guitar will not want to miss the day's performance by Sonny Landreth.

Landreth's bass player, Dave Ranson, once said in an interview that one of his favorite moments during a concert with Landreth is to look out into the crowd and see the amazement on people's faces when they watch Landreth play slide guitar.

"You just see people standing there with their mouths open; it's great," he said. Even better are some of the comments people make after the show. "I play a little slide guitar, but after seeing [Landreth], I'm going to go home and break all my slides," Ranson says many will say.

Landreth says he has been inspired by many of the great storytelling songwriters of his time, such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon.

"For me, it's more about writing a song that will stand the test of time, rather than pop songs you hear on the radio that are here today and gone tomorrow," Landreth says.

Landreth says sticking to his three-piece band helps him achieve that goal.

"Live music with a three-piece band is very honest, and harder to do, whereas a 'wa-wa' pedal is very '70s, a synthesizer is very '80s," he adds.

This year, Landreth released his first live album, Grant Street.

"I had a sense [the fans wanted it], but it's also something I'd really wanted to do for a long time. I've been wanting to get back to the live sound, versus the production [albums] I've done before," he explains.

Landreth will undoubtedly be showing off a bit of the slide guitar at the KPIG Songwriter Festival.

Mary Gauthier

Although she has less than 10 years of songwriting and performing under her belt, compared to the decades that many of this festival's other artists have, Mary Gauthier--pronounced "go-shay"--presents music that has all the pain and struggling of her 40-plus years seeping out of it, and it's what her fans love about her.

Growing up in Baton Rouge, and making the long journey to Boston in a drug-induced haze, Gauthier turned 18 behind bars, sent there for stealing a bottle of pills out of someone's car. Although she had some sober months--such as when she graduated from culinary school and opened her own restaurant, Dixie Kitchen--Gauthier found staying that way was her life's biggest challenge. It wasn't until she found the comfort of songwriting in the mid-'90s that she finally found the strength to leave it all behind.

Nowadays, Gauthier uses her music to reach out to others, and give them something to relate to, something she so desperately needed in her darkest times.

"People come up to me, and they're amazed at how real the songs are. The overwhelming thing for me is that people listen to the words; people really listen. When someone takes the time and gives me their full attention, they're really giving me a gift. I'm honored to be able to say there are people who listen to my songs. That's what every songwriter hopes for," Gauthier explains.

A festival of sound

Joining James, Musselwhite, Landreth and Gauthier on stage for the Songwriter Festival are six other acts from across the nation--award-winning singer, songwriter and guitar player Bill Miller; soul singer Emory Joseph; roots singer Corinne West, who blends country, bluegrass, Americana and folk to get her sound; the multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, who will give one of his trademark electro-acoustic performances, blending sounds from around the world; singer-songwriter and master guitarist James McMurty; and the local trio Devil Makes Three from Santa Cruz, who likes to "push the boundaries of acoustic music" and combines elements of old-time country, blues, ragtime and bluegrass for its own, unique genre.

SONGWRITER FESTIVAL
COMING TO MONTALVO

The KPIG Songwriter Festival is on Aug. 21, from noon to 7 p.m. Tickets range from $45 to $55 and are available online at www.montalvoarts.org or www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling Montalvo at 408.961.5858.

Carriage House Theater
Noon-1:30 p.m.--Devil Makes Three
2-3:30 p.m.--Bill Miller
4-5:30 p.m.--Sonny Landreth

The Villa
1-2 p.m.--Emory Joseph
2:30-3:30 p.m.--Corinne West

Garden Theatre
12:30-2 p.m.--Mary Gauthier
2:30-4 p.m.--David Lindley
4:30-6 p.m.--James McMurty

Front Lawn
3:30-5 p.m.--Charlie Musselwhite
5:30-7 p.m.--Etta James