PORTLAND, Ore. -- Boz Scaggs is bringing his smooth, laid-back soul sound to the Oregon Zoo, Sunday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m., as part of the zoo's summer concert series.

Boz Scaggs as shown in a promotional photo.

"Whether Boz Scaggs is playing his earlier Delta blues or his more recent blue-eyed soul, his driving music and cool stage presence make for an amazing show," said Krista Swan, zoo events coordinator.

Scaggs began playing guitar when he was 12, and found a musical kindred spirit in his prep-school friend Steve Miller. In 1967, he joined the fledgling Steve Miller Band as a guitarist. After playing on the group's first two records, "Children of the Future" and "Sailor," Scaggs left to pursue a solo career.

Though he released a number of well-received solo albums during the late '60s and early '70s, Scaggs didn't attain widespread commercial success until 1976 with "Silk Degrees." Featuring a soaring, soulful voice that Rolling Stone said "could easily hold its own on any street corner in New York," the album reached No. 2 on the pop charts and featured hits like "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle."

With "Middle Man" (1980), Scaggs again made the Billboard Top 10 and notched two more hit singles, "Breakdown Dead Ahead" and "Jojo." It was a big year for the singer, as "Look What You've Done to Me," a Scaggs tune from the "Urban Cowboy" soundtrack, also hit the Top 20 and his first greatest-hits collection was released.

For much of the 1980s, Scaggs kept a lower profile musically, as he opened and ran the successful San Francisco nightclub Slim's.

In 1994, he released the highly regarded "Some Change," which Rolling Stone praised as a "return to strength" that "brings Boz Scaggs back, lit by the fire at the heart of cool."

"Hits," a 2006 update of Scaggs' 1980 greatest-hits collection, is his most recent release.

Tickets for the concert can be purchased at the Oregon Zoo for $24 each and they can also be purchased (with service charge) online or at Ticketmaster locations at area Fred Meyer stores. For more information on the concert schedule, to read artists' biographies or purchase tickets, please visit www.oregonzoo.org.

Here is the complete summer concert series lineup:

July 30 Habib Koité $10

Aug. 1 Matisyahu with the Builders and the Butchers $19

Aug. 3 Tower of Power with the Crusaders $22

Aug. 6 Oliver Mtukudzi $10

Aug. 13 Riders in the Sky $10

Aug. 17 Boz Scaggs with David Jacobs-Strain $24

Aug. 20 Amos Lee with Lucy Wainwright Roche $10

Aug. 22 Brandi Carlile with special guest $19

Aug. 24 Avett Brothers with Shawn Mullins $17