Head over to the Cat’s Cradle tonight if you’d like to hear some blues with a feelin’, and support the Jaycee Burn Center’s dedicated healin’.

That’s The Willie Painter Band, from Durham, with a fiery live cover of the classic “Born in Chicago” by Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

Painter’s tough little blues combo, along with fellow longtime Durham R&B stalwarts Rebecca & The Hi-Tones, plus The BilliTones and The Claptones, will share the stage tonight at Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle for “Healin’ With a Feelin’ – A Night of Burnin’ Love.”

“It’s really about trying to familiarize the community with the tremendous work that the Burn Center does,” said co-organizer and burn survivor Kim Anderson, “and it’s also about raising funds for aftercare supplies for burn survivors.”

This marks the fourth such musical benefit put together by Anderson and his wife Stephanie. In March 2010, they learned firsthand, and dramatically, about the fine work of the Jaycee Burn Center, after a fire at the couple’s Chapel Hill home.

“Unfortunately, I thought that, perhaps, I could be a fireman for an evening, which was not the best choice,” said Anderson, “And I went back into the house to see if I could keep the fire from spreading, and was seriously, critically injured in what they call a ‘flashover.’”

Now, every year, their gratitude to the Jaycee Burn Center for the four-and-a-half months of treatment he received is being paid back – and forward – with a night of some killer local blues at The Cradle.

“I was constantly amazed by the professionalism, by the dedication and skill of the doctors, the nurses, and the rest of the staff,” said Anderson. “It takes really special people to work up there.”

Anderson loves music, and has a large circle of musician friends in the area, going back decades. So when he and Stephanie starting thinking about ways to raise money for the burn center and other burn victims, an annual musical benefit was the natural way to go.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with a silent auction of donated goods and services. The bands begin at 7.

Click here for more information about the benefit.