The music and life of Bob Dylan and the movie “Singing in the Rain” were two of the biggest influences that led Chicago-born musician Michael Conley’s transformation into the unique concoction that is “Shoehorn.”

It began nearly 30 years ago, now Conley has traveled the world with his creation and will be bringing the show — which seems best billed at a boisterous auditorium or a New Orleans street corner — to the Collective Visions Gallery in Bremerton June 15. The party will mark the gallery’s June art exhibition featuring the vivid watercolor work of former sea voyager Michelle Van Berkom and Wanda Garrity’s Asian-influenced ceramic vessels.

Conley works as a master musician, one-man band-type, who plays jazz style sax and other instruments with a tap dancing back beat.

“The thing about tap and sax, it can pretty much go with anything,” Conley said, noting the plethora of musicians he’s been able to sit in with.

But the statement also applies to the venue and subject matter of his performances. Though he’s never played the Collective Visions Gallery before, Conley has played at numerous clubs, festivals, community theaters, and street corners around the world. Already a world traveling high school exchange student, Conley said his unique music and troubadour lifestyle has led him to more than 30 countries over the past 28 years.

“I basically invented my own style,” Conley said. “The sound of the tap shoes and the saxophone are so different, but they complement each other well … and the different textures I get out of both instruments — (people) are used to that with the sax, they are not so used to that with the tap.”

Playing jazz standards and quite a few originals on the sax, Conley also elicits a latin/island feel playing vibes, marimba, steel drums and more with his feet. With the advent of modern technology, Conley has been one of the pioneers of a Midi tap dancing platform which allows him to program sounds ranging from a regular drum kit to a xylophone.

“I always saw the potential of tap to play tones,” he said. “(Now) I’m able to play three parts at once in real time.”

Since the 1980s, Conley has been working with then-analog, now-midi tap platforms. For the show June 15, he’ll be bringing the Mark 7, the seventh such device he has built. The digital sounds offer an expanded freedom to a style of music which he said is constantly evolving.

Along with solo performances, like the one he will be bringing to Collective Visions, Conley is also a band leader of Shoehorn’s Hatband in Portland — which recently played the Rose Festival — and he has jammed with the legendary likes of stringer Baby Gramps.

“I’m constantly refining what I do, and I do it whether I have a show or not,” Conley said. “It’s all been fueling a greater journey, the tap and sax has given me an opportunity to explore the world.”

It all began when he was a kid, growing up in Chicago amidst the musical period of ‘70s rock. He used to play harmonica, while walking, utilizing footsteps and shoe scuffs as rhythm.

Then, he saw Gene Kelly in 1952’s “Singing in the Rain,” and a tap dancing instrumentalist was born, he said.

On a trip to New Orleans in 1979, Conley picked up his first pair of tap shoes, put them on immediately and hit the streets.

“I absorbed a lot of that (New Orleans) influence into my music,” he said, noting parade beats and the atmosphere of southern jazz and blues. “There, there’s not really a line between blues, jazz, rock, country like there would be on your record store bin or even on internet category. For the cats who play this kind of music … its all part of the music, its all part of the vibe.”

Now Conley will be matching his vibe with the artwork of Berkom and Garrity from 7-9 p.m. June 15 at the Collective Visions Gallery, 515 Pacific Ave. in Bremerton. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door. Info: www.collectivevisions.com or call (360) 377-8327.