Curtis Salgado's getaway remains clean.

It's nothing short of a miracle that the soul singer is alive, let alone well enough to resume a busy touring and recording schedule. Salgado opens the free Bluesdays! summer concert series Tuesday, July 7, at the Village at Squaw Valley.

“The older I get, the older I wanna get,” the 55-year-old Salgado said. “I'm having a great time. I'm preparing a couple of records.”

Salgado was told he had eight months to live after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Seven months later, a donor was found, and in 2006 the singer received a liver transplant. He was told there was a 50 percent chance the cancer had spread.

Salgado later learned the cancer had, in fact, spread to his lungs. He had another operation to remove a tumor. Since that operation, he was tested every three months. Now he's tested every every six months.

“You're looking better with each year that goes by,” Salgado said. “One of the top doctors at Omaha goes, ‘Curtis, there's a young man who I operated on 10 years ago who had the same thing you had, and 10 years later it came back, same thing.' So you don't know. It can be nerve-wracking if you let it be nerve-racking. So really, the most intense thing for me at this stage of the game is when you go and get checked.”

Salgado spoke to Lake Tahoe Action while en route to a show in Fort Smith, Ark., to play on a bill with Robert Cray and Roomful of Blues, a band he once fronted. It was the first time Salgado and Cray united onstage since a fundraising concert for Salgado nearly two years ago. Salgado did not have health insurance when he had the transplant and has a huge medical debt.

Salgado performed regularly in Eugene, Ore., when John Belushi, who was in town to film the movie “Animal House,” discovered him. The actor was so enamored with Salgado that he took on some of his persona and came up with the idea for the movie “The Blues Brothers.” Belushi heard Salgado perform five songs that eventually made their way onto the first Blues Brothers album.
Salgado said he never gets requests for songs he played from his set list in the 1970s.

“They don't make the connection,” Salgado said. “They don't go, ‘Hey dude, “Messin' with the Kid.” They're usually really gracious and give compliments or say something like, ‘I can see why Belushi really liked you.' ”

Salgado's style has matured over the years. His 2008 album, “Clean Getaway,” opens with the personal and appropriately named title track. Tony Braunagel, the longtime member of the Phantom Blues Band who recently joined Robert Cray's group, produced the album, which includes a cover of Al Green's “Let's Get Married.”

“Curtis is one of the top five soul singers in the world,” said Tommy Castro, another bluesman with a soul bent. “He's up there with Solomon Burke and Otis Clay.”

The Blues Foundation nominated “Clean Getaway” for four 2009 National Blues Awards, including Male Artist and Soul Blues Album of the Year.

Slide guitar great Roy Rogers, who last summer brought Salgado onstage for a song during Coloma Blues Live! in June, said, “Curtis is looking great and playing great. He's got one of those golden voices.”

Salgado's longtime bass player, Tracy Arrington, added, “When I joined the band, my grandma said, ‘He may be white, but he sounds just like B.B. King.' ”