Three weeks ago writer Caleb Johnson gave one of his stories to Tuscaloosa musician Blaine Duncan, who developed a song around it to act as its soundtrack.

Saturday at 7 p.m., the two artists will collaborate for a performance at the Alabama Art Kitchen. Duncan will play some of his music acoustically and writer Johnson, a UA alumnus, will read a few of his short stories in his first public reading.

“It’s going to be a real relaxed thing,” Johnson said. “We’re going to crowd as many people in the room as we can, joke, talk and sing a little bit.”

Duncan, who usually plays with his band Blaine Duncan and The Lookers, said he has never played a show with a fiction author.

“I’m going to focus on a few of the stories that go along with the songs,” Duncan said. “I’ll give background information about how the songs came to be and offer a little insight about what inspired me to write them.”

Johnson said he is looking forward to collaborating with Duncan.

“I’m excited to have Blaine there with me playing his songs,” Johnson said. “The way he writes songs, they’re narratives in themselves with music along with them. I think my fiction will level with it.”

He said his work is primarily Southern fiction, “if that still exists.” Much of it is inspired by people and stories from the town where he grew up, Arley, Ala, though not all of his stories take place there. He describes it all as fiction interspersed with biographical elements.

“I think what writers try to do is show a window to the world through their eyes and their words,” he said. “I try to provide something everybody can see and relate to.”

Johnson said he hopes to get feedback from the crowd about his work, something writers don’t often have the opportunity to do. Musicians get responses when they play shows, but writers have to wait until their work is published to get a reaction.

“Writing fiction is much more internal, and the payoff isn’t as immediate,” he said. “Your readers aren’t right there in front of you as it is with a band. You can’t see the look on people’s faces and their reactions.”

The event begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to all ages. Bologna and cheese sandwiches and tomato pie will be provided for those who come early.

The founders of the Alabama Art Kitchen strive to provide a space where, like Johnson and Duncan, artists, writers and musicians can experiment with their crafts.

“The thing that sounded most interesting to us is that [this event] involves the collaboration of reading and music, and we’re really into having both of those things happen at the Art Kitchen,” said Allison Milham, a co-founder of the Kitchen.

Milham said she and co-founder Claire Siepser, both graduate students in book arts, have tried to host one or two musicians each month at the Kitchen; most performances were either experimental or acoustic.

“There isn’t really a venue for that in Tuscaloosa, but I think our space lends itself well to interesting music,” she said.