He'll be back in our neck of the woods Saturday, when he and his band will headline the SoulJourn Living Earth Music Fest at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro. Also on the bill is Chapel Hill's Fescue 911. The festival is a benefit for the new Biofuels Degree Program at Central Carolina Community College.

Paste Music Magazine ranked Mallonee 65th in its list of the top 100 Living Songwriters Poll. He began his career in the alt-rock scene of Athens, Ga., with the band Vigilantes of Love. His lyrical style and throaty voice became one of the band's signatures.

After releasing 24 records during 16 years of touring with Vigilantes of Love, Mallonee was drawn back towards his roots in folk and county. Drawing on his early influences by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and Johnny Cash, he began writing and touring as a solo artist.

"If I can reach into those parts of what makes me a human and describe it passionately, then it's my hope that it will resonate (horribly over-used word!) with others who are walking in the same skin," he said.

Fescue 911 has been, the band says, "responding to bluegrass emergencies" in the Triangle since 1993. The band blends bluegrass and country, old standards and new songs, focusing on new and unique vocal arrangements.

Vocalist Janet Ray, guitarist Rick Fannin and bassist Darl Pothoven founded Fescue 911 in 1993, mostly for fun. The addition of banjoist David Tate and mandolin player David Crabtree completed Fescue 911, and the group quickly gathered a strong local following.

Influenced by the fathers of modern bluegrass -- the Stanly Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, and Bill Monroe -- Fescue 911 also includes favorites by modern bluegrass artists like Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch.

Fescue 911 kicks of the music at 6 p.m., following a daylong auto show that will feature some of the latest advances in fuel technology. Mallonee is scheduled to play at 7:30 p.m.

Now in its 6th year, the Sustainable Energy Program at CCCC has built community partnerships in Chatham County, including working with the North Carolina Biofuels Center to build a production facility on campus to be used not just for education, but also for fueling the campus vehicles and equipment.

Tickets are $10 for the music show only or $25 for the auto show at 9 a.m and the music festival.

Information about the festival is at www.souljournmedia.com.