Birthday shows are not unusual for Michigan singer-songwriter Annie Capps, but she admits this year’s performance is special. She’s turning 50, so she plans to celebrate by doing what she loves best—making music—Saturday night at The Ark. (Note: Annie and Rod Capps will also play a free lunchtime show Aug. 12 as part of the AnnArbor.com Summer Concert Series.)

Capps’ last headlining show at the folk-acoustic club was in 2007. Besides her many Ark performances in the past (including Open Stage shows early on), music fans may also know her from her tenure with local songwriting collective the Yellow Room Gang or for the “My Folky Valentine” shows she has organized at The Ark in recent years.

Capps will perform with music her husband / musical partner Rod Capps and guitarist Jason Dennie (who also shares the same birthday), plus a posse of guests. Her birthday is actually June 22, but weekends make a better night for a party, she noted.

“It’s not a big deal any more … I think 50 is the new 20, honestly. It’s a good excuse to have a party, a good excuse to have a concert,” Capps said of the milestone event.

Members of the Yellow Room Gang and other musical pals are expected to be on hand. There will a full band, with a hootenanny atmosphere prevailing at times as other folks—among them Shari Kane and Dave Steele, Joel Palmer (Capps plays a little snare drum in his swing band), Kalamazoo’s Allison Downie and East Lansing singer-songwriter Barb Barton—join Capps and her husband on stage.

“It will be kind of a love-fest,” Capps laughed, “with cake.”

The singer-songwriter has another reason to celebrate in addition to her birthday. A new, five-song EP, “Take Me To The Fair,” is finished and will be available at the show.

“I’ve been writing with a circus-y / fair / carnival metaphor in my head, so a few of the songs have that kind of a vibe to them, but overall the overwriting theme of the record is songwriting, so the songs tend to be songs about songwriting, which is really fun,” she said.

The CD was laid down in the studio in just six hours, by the two Capps, plus Dennie. “Nothing fancy, just us playing our tunes. … We’re just going to do a very small run of it right now because we’re not sure what we’ve got here will evolve into a full-length disc,” said Capps.

“It’s kind of a snapshot of what’s going on with us right now,” she explained. “We’re evolving a little bit. … We’re always inspired by new styles of music, and always looking to change things up a bit. We’re certainly exploring songwriting really seriously. … I’m writing a lot more slowly and thoughtfully, I think. I’m also just listening to all different styles of music—I am loving that Gypsy jazz vibe, and of course we get very much into this rootsy, roots-rock sound.”

Meanwhile, Capps has plenty of friends around town happy to sing her praises in honor of the event, including former Ark program director Dave Siglin and fellow Yellow Room Gang-er David Tamulevich.

Siglin observed that Capps "sings with a relaxed, clean Midwestern twang, sliding you into the middle of lives and situations that are always interesting and dotted with real insight."

Tamulevich agreed: “She’s fun and infectious on stage, with an ease that only comes from a lot of hard work off stage. Annie is a true student of the craft of songwriting and performing, and that is how you get good—and she has.”

For the future, Capps plans on keeping on doing what she loves and evolving as a songwriter. “I just want to keep getting better at this. I think that’s what makes us the happiest,” she said.