UPPER LAKE, Calif. — A musical legend is joining the line up for a Labor Day weekend music festival in Upper Lake.

The Blue Wing Blues Festival is a three-day annual event taking place over the Labor Day weekend starting at 6 p.m. each day in the shaded garden between the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Restaurant.

As a treat just added to the program, Barry “the Fish” Melton will be making a guest appearance with the veteran luminaries of The Blues Project Band as the grand finale to this year’s Festival on Labor Day Monday, Sept. 1.

Melton celebrated his 20th birthday in June 1967 during the “Summer of Love” in San Francisco.  

A few days later, he and his band, “Country Joe and the Fish,” were rocketed onto the world stage at the Monterey Pop Festival with such luminaries as the Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas and Papas, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, Simon and Garfunkel, the Who and a relatively unknown guitarist named Jimi Hendrix. 

And 50 years ago, in 1969, Melton appeared at the historic festival in Woodstock New York and is immortalized in the movie bearing the same name.

“These are my guys,” said Melton. “The Blues Project is a great band and I’m really looking forward to re-uniting with many of my old musical buddies and having a lot of fun at the Blue Wing Festival.”

The original Blues Project sold out venues from Greenwich Village to Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium in the 1960s and 1970s.

Led by percussionist Roy Blumenfeld, the group includes guitarists David Aguilar and Mark Newman with Ken Clark on keys and Tim Eschliman on bass.

The admission price of $75 plus tax includes a barbecue dinner and an opening band (on Monday it will be San Francisco based Lucky Losers) plus a full barbeque dinner.

Tickets can be purchased online at eventbrite.com or by calling the Tallman Hotel at 707-275-2244.