On Aug. 5, she performs with Steely Dan at Pala Casino's Starlight Theater, where she'll contribute soulful backing vocals and, perhaps, get a brief solo turn.

But tonight you can catch Russell in the spotlight, when she and her trio headline at the all-ages Dizzy's. The intimate downtown venue is an ideal setting for her enchanting singing and irresistible repertoire of vintage jazz and blues.

Russell, who also counts David Bowie, Donna the Buffalo, Paul Simon and Madonna among her former employers, isn't a flashy singer. She doesn't mangle lyrics or club them into into submission, nor does she engage in the shrill, ear-numbing acrobatics that have sadly become de rigueur in this post-“American Idol” era of histrionical braying.

But music is in her blood, literally and figuratively.

Her father, pianist Luis Russell, was the musical director for Louis Armstrong from 1935 to 1943 and was also a noted composer, arranger and bandleader. Her mother, Carline Ray, is a Julliard graduate who in the 1940s played bass and sang in the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a pioneering all-woman big band that was profiled in an acclaimed 1986 film documentary.

Not surprisingly, Russell – whose resumé includes work with jazz greats Wynton Marsalis and the late Mary Lou Williams – has a penchant for music from her parent's era. Expertly produced by ex-Bob Dylan guitar ace Larry Campbell, her second solo album, the recently released “Sentimental Streak,” is a delight.

It opens with “So Little Time (So Much to Say),” a 1938 Armstrong chestnut for which she used her father's original arrangement. The album also includes her sterling renditions of Hoagy Carmichael's sultry “New Orleans,” Willie Dixon's rollicking “I Don't Care Who Knows” and Nellie Lutcher's oh-so-sly “You Better Watch Yourself, Bub,” as well as the blues-drenched “Luci,” a Russell original.

Her long-overdue solo debut, 2006's “Cat,” features versions of the Grateful Dead's “New Speedway Boogie” and the Dinah Washington favorite “My Man's an Undertaker, and He's Got a Coffin Just Your Size” so inspired they surpass the originals. If her first two albums offer an accurate indication, Russell's gig at Dizzy's tonight should be one to savor.

CATCH HIM BEFORE HE VANISHES AGAIN

A protegé of acoustic guitar icon John Fahey and a contemporary of fellow Minnesota six-and 12-string guitar wiz Leo Kottke, Lang released his acclaimed debut album, “The Thing at the Nursery Room Window,” in 1972. He recorded two more albums and continued to earn rave reviews until the early 1980s, when he abandoned music to raise a family and work at a variety of jobs, including as an animator who created ads for MTV and Target.

Apart from his blink-and-you-missed-it 1986 album, “American Stock,” Lang did not record again until 2002's “Dharma Blues.” He has since released four more albums, which means his recorded output in the past six years has already surpassed his album total from the previous three decades, combined.

Lang, who performs Sunday night at the all-ages AcousticMusic San Diego in Normal Heights, doesn't try to impress you with instrumental razzle-dazzle or blinding licks. But he's an accomplished folk-blues champion, equally adept with finger-picking and bottleneck. He's also an engaging vocalist and a walking encyclopedia of music with a nicely skewed sense of humor (his first album included the songs “Young Man, Young Man, Look at Your Shoes” and “Bituminous Nightmare”).

It's unclear when Lang last played here, and it's anyone's guess when he might return. But I can't think of a better way to celebrate the fifth anniversary of AcousticMusic San Diego than spending a night listening to Lang.