For years, WPFW DJ Rick “Da Gator” Bolling has brought to his Saturday afternoon listeners the latest in Southern soul and blues.  Not Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings—that’s R&B for rock fans—and not guitar solo-filled blues rock either. We’re talking artists with church-rooted voices and lyrics about lust like Miss Jody and Carl Sims, labels like Ecko, and recent songs like "Junk in the Trunk (I Like that)" and "Slap That Booty.” The Gator has also hosted the annual Gator Days at Lamont’s in Pomonkey, Md., with national and local performers. But since late summer, according to WPFW's Mama K, the Florida-raised Bolling has been absent from the airwaves due to medical problems that now have him in rehabilitation at Manor Care in Upper Marlboro.

In order to help Bolling with his medical expenses, Lamont’s is hosting a benefit Saturday night featuring an extensive roster of soul and blues acts, including Georgia singer Chick Willis (of “Stoop Down Baby” fame);  the James Brown-influenced "Soul Brother No. 2" Lee Fields, and others, including locals like guitarist Bobby Parker and beach-music faves the Hardway Connection.

The show, featuring  Chick Willis, Lee Fields, Hardway Connection, Bobby Parker, the Orioles, Memphis Gold, Jacques Johnson, Clarence "Blues Man" Turner, and others to be announced, starts at 6 p.m. Saturday at Lamont’s, 4400 Livingston Rd. (off of Indian Head Highway), Pomonkey, Md. $20. (301) 283-0225.

You won't need a metronome to guess that it was the James Brown-type grooves off the first record that kept the 9:30 Club audience (at $30 a pop) shaking and sweating past midnight on Saturday. Jones' show is structured along the lines of a gospel revue, a single extended exhortation that includes a lot of flop-sweat and audience participation. Anchored on the low end by a belch-y bari sax and on the high end by squealing trumpet and a two-guitar attack, Jones lays down her brash soprano with the confident intimacy of an old lover who sees right through you (cf. "What Have You Done for Me Lately?"). She sees right through herself too—ribbing things like her age (53) and her height (unspecified, though she notes that her legs are about half as long as Tina Turner's). That low center of gravity matches a barreling live presence, one not easily effaced by the occasional Wedding-band funk of her otherwise groovy associates.

Fittingly, this was also the throngingest crowd I've seen at the 9:30 Club. What makes one sold-out show more packed than another? Probably all that dancing. Sure, Jones played only a 75-minute set—a rollicking, heart-stopping, thoroughly exhausting set—as opposed to the marathon two-fers she's been known to pull on occasion. But that's not much to complain about. Especially since, for many couples, 75 minutes is a whole lotta foreplay.