Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s and '70s, guitarist and vocalist Zac Harmon says, "The thing about the blues is that it wasn't something you heard and said, 'Oh, I like that.' It was part of the culture, so when I started playing, it was only natural that that's what I played.

"Blues was like air," he adds. "And if you breathed, you was gonna get it."

With JazzNow.com lauding his "soulful vocals and breathtaking showmanship" and the Edmonton Sun describing him as "the closest the blues gets to a heavy-metal star," it's clear that Zac Harmon got it good ... even if it did take a while for people to realize it. Following two decades as a Los Angeles-based studio musician, writer, and producer, Harmon released his first solo CD -- Live at Babe & Ricky's Inn -- in 2002, and four years later, at age 49, received the Blues Music Award for best new blues artist.

"It's kind of funny," says the musician, during our recent interview, of his relatively late emergence in the blues spotlight. "Folks sometimes say, 'Oh, wow -- he's an overnight success!' But overnight in the music business can sometimes be 20 years."

"I started gravitating toward the blues in about 1969," says 60-year-old vocalist Shirley King. "What happened was I'd moved to Chicago from California -- I'd been staying with my dad and came back to stay with my mom -- and I was supposed to be getting married to a boyfriend I'd been liking ever since I was small. So I pretty much followed him here to Chicago to get married ... and he decided he'd had a change of mind, and wanted to marry my girlfriend.

"So I think that must've pushed me over to the blues!" exclaims King, with a deep laugh, during our recent phone interview. "Because, man, I got it then!"

Did she ever. For nearly 20 years now, the Chicago-based King has been a staple at area blues clubs; a popular touring artist who has performed in Canada, Italy, France, and even Iceland; and a darling of blues fans and critics, with Prevue magazine describing her as "a musical gem" and the Web site MNBlues.com lauding, "King sings with passion, energy, and power."

But what's surprising about King's reminiscence is that she didn't get the blues before that heartbreak of her youth, considering that her dad is the King of the Blues himself -- B.B. King.

Every act on both stages Friday is a descendant of a blues legend.

The Kinsey Report, 5 p.m.

MySpace.com/kenkinsey

The Kinsey brothers -- guitarist/vocalist Donald, drummer Ralph, and bassist Kenneth -- developed their funk-oriented blues sound from a lifetime of working together on stage and in the studio. Their father and musical mentor, the late Mississippi-born Lester "Big Daddy" Kinsey, introduced his sons to gospel and blues early on. As youngsters, they saw firsthand the emotional power of music in their grandfather's church in Gary, Indiana. By the time Donald was 13, he was an accomplished guitarist who performed with Big Daddy around Gary. During the late 1960s, Big Daddy began taking the family act on the road. In 1972, Albert King recruited Donald as his rhythm guitarist.

Steady Rollin' Blues Band, 1 p.m.

Just five weeks after winning the Quad Cities round of the Iowa Blues Challenge, the Steady Rollin' Blues Band emerged victorious from the final round of the state challenge in Des Moines on May 22. The prize package includes studio recording time and a slot at the IH Mississippi Valley Blues Festival for July 3, as well as money to help support the band's trip to Memphis next January, when they will represent Iowa in the International Blues Challenge.