Blues, Brews and Barbecue makes its debut at Monterey County Fairgrounds.

The inaugural Blues, Brews and Barbecue festival features a truckload of barbecued meats and small river of craft beer. But it’s the power of the blues – and the nine acts which will bring it – that put forth its best chance of becoming a local tradition.

On Saturday, San Francisco soul crooner Terrie Odabi, Memphis Gold (and special guests), blues vocalist Paula Harris and Blues Hall of Famer Joe Louis Walker all perform. Walker rides in on a colossal wave of material that spans 25 albums since 1985.

“You spend your whole life waiting to make your first album, so you’re prepared when the time comes,” Walker says. “When you make your 25th – if you’re fortunate enough to make 25 records – it’s much different. By then, the musical landscape has changed so many times.”

Walker credits his ability to traverse that ever-changing topography to his experience as a musician coming up in San Francisco circa the mid-60s. He saw local shows boasting diverse bills like Albert King, Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Fillmore and Love with The Yardbirds at The Matrix.

“There were so many unique artists who had their own voice,” Walker says. “That’s what I like about music, everyone can do it their own way.”

When Walker began making a name for himself around San Francisco as a blues guitarist, he scored opening gigs for everyone from John Lee Hooker to Steve Miller. But performing before Thelonious Monk at the Fillmore West remains the most memorable.

“I admired [Monk’s] originality and uniqueness, which is what was coming out of the scene in the Fillmore district,” Walker says.

As a member of the Thelonious Monk Institute Of Jazz, Walker performed in April in Osaka, Japan, alongside Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and John Schofield, and as part of the Monk Institute’s annual International Jazz Day.

Before heading to Japan, Walker unleashed record No. 25, Hornet’s Nest, a rule-breaker Monk would’ve loved. Traditional 12-bar blues are reconfigured and ramped up, yielding more of a Black Keys muddied pop-distortion feel, or as Walker calls it, “today’s blues,” his nod to modern blues trend-setters like Jack White and Gary Clark Jr.

As his career demonstrates, the blues is a living entity, a constantly evolving, organic force – but there’s one element that never changes, at least according to Walker. “Guitar is the one thing in blues music that remains constant and acceptable no matter what generation is listening,” he says.

Elsewhere on the festival lineup, Oregon soul singer/harpist Curtis Salgado – performing Sunday on a bill that includes swamp blues vet Kenny Neal and the legendary Elvin Bishop – has had the kind of life that’s so unbelievable you couldn’t make it up. Salgado claims he was John Belushi’s inspiration for the characters that became The Blues Brothers. He was the co-leader of Robert Cray’s band before Cray even recorded an album. He was also told that he had six months to live unless he had a liver transplant. Without insurance, the operation’s $100,000 price tag was unattainable – until two fans came forward and donated their entire life savings. The selfless act did much more than give Salgado many more years.

“I really have a lot more patience now,” he says. “I have a new view. It has a way of centering you on what’s a waste of time, what’s bullshit, what’s important and how to treat one another. I get up in the morning and think, ‘What a beautiful rainy day.’ I feel like I owe the universe.”

That wouldn’t be the last time Salgado faced his own mortality: In July 2012, a cancerous growth was discovered on his lung. After it was removed, he recovered again. His voice emerges better than ever, as proven on his fifth solo record, 2012’s Soul Shot.

“I wanted to make a soul record,” Salgado says. “That’s what started the whole project.”

In addition to four R&B-laced originals, Soul Shot features seven carefully selected tracks that Salgado knew he’d be able to master. From George Clinton’s obscure funk treasure “Gettin’ to Know You” and Otis Redding’s emotionally-charged “Love Man” to the Detroit Emeralds’ deep cut “Baby, Let Me Take You in My Arms” and Bobby Womack’s fiery album opener “What You Gonna Do?,” the seasoned singer makes every tune pulse with distinct heartbeat.

“I want to be able to sing something that people believe,” he says.

Salgado explains the tedious process he endures before he’s ready to share a song with the world.

“I sang [The O’Jays “Let Me Make Love to You”] over and over and over again in my living room, then took it to the studio and sang it over and over again – probably 18 takes and still didn’t have it right,” he says. “Then I did 20 takes the next day and the last five I finally believed. It just started floating. I was in a zone and believed what I was singing.”

Hopefully some of Salgado’s resilience rubs off on a local blues community still hoping to fill the void created by the loss of Monterey Bay Blues Festival. Talents like Walker and Salgado provide the best chance yet.

BLUES, BREWS AND BARBECUE, noon-7pm Saturday, July 26, and 11:20am-7pm Sunday, July 27. Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. $40/advance; $45/door.www.bluesbrewsandbarbecue.com