If the joint is jumping, the Bluefish must be running.

Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish return Saturday to the Blue Goose Dance Hall on Route 1 in Northport. The Massachusetts-based group will be in town for an all-ages, smoke- and substance-free dance organized by the Mid-Coast Dance Club, beginning at 8:30 p.m.

The MCDC has brought Hoy’s band to the Blue Goose a half-dozen times before, and it’s a venue the singer really enjoys.

“That’s a great dance hall,” Hoy said in a phone interview. “They all dance from the first song on. There’s a great energy there. There’s no booze, no smoke, nothing to do but have a great time.”

The majority of the dance club’s events benefit area nonprofit organizations. Hoy, the band’s singer and harmonica player, enjoys the atmosphere at benefits.

“Those are the best shows anywhere,” he said. “You get our fans that come out to help a good cause, then you get another group that comes to help out and gets to enjoy the band. Also, the two groups discover each other.”

The event also will serve as a CD release party for the group’s third Tone-Cool album, “Walk the Plank,” which came out May 7.

“Walk the Plank,” which is composed largely of Hoy’s originals with a few covers added, continues the evolution of the Bluefish sound.

“I wanted to mix it up, to do some of the more honky-tonk and country stuff I’d been writing, to showcase more of my influences,” Hoy explained. “I also wanted to do those singer-songwriter songs in more of our raw, live sound.”

Hoy’s sound is roots music, a collection of the influences with which he grew up.

“I read about a study that showed that people’s musical tastes are formed in adolescence, and that’s certainly true for me,” Hoy said. “It’s jumbled up in my head, and it comes out as it comes out. I’ve never been into pop. I love that raw, heartfelt, honky-tonk sound.”

Hoy’s musical education got accelerated at the Shaboo, a Connecticut club which features such blues greats as Muddy Waters, James Cotton and Freddy King. As a 16-year-old, Hoy would get in disguised with a fake mustache and a floppy hat.

“There was a real renaissance of roots music and blues going on at that time,” he said. “It was a good sounding room, and guys were in a good mood when they came through, so they would let down their hair and let it rip.”

In the early ’80s, Hoy formed a garage-band version of the Bluefish, but he set music aside to work as a mason and a fisherman.

“We built the house and got over the hump,” he said simply.

About eight years ago, he got the itch to make music again. Rather than just supporting that decision, his wife, Barbara, came along, becoming the Bluefish’s bassist.

“She’s been branching out and has a couple of bands of her own now,” Hoy said. “We’ve been having to get by some without her, but she’s making this trip.”

Rounding out the Bluefish, which tours mostly along the East Coast, is keyboardist Jeremy Berlin, guitarist Paul “The Kid” Size and drummer Taurus Biskis, although another drummer will be filling in at the Blue Goose.

Saturday’s event will mark the end of an era, as Howard Gallagher, who has been organizing the Mid-Coast Dance Club’s events for the past five years, is stepping down. He will be focusing his energies on his business, The Maine Gathering and Finest Kind Candies, which has moved to a new location at 21 Main St. in Camden.

“It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s been a lot of work as well,” Gallagher said. “Because of my business, I’m going to have to put it aside for a while. Down the road, I may use the [music] contacts I have made, and do something different with them.”

Admission for the MCDC dance is $10 for adults, $18 for couples, $7 for teens and students, $2 for ages 12 and under and $20 for a family pass. For more information, call Gallagher at 338-3890.