A dozen Portland musicians are coming together to put on a concert celebrating rock icon David Bowie, who died Sunday at the age of 69.

The show is titled “We Can Be Heroes: A Celebration of the Life and Music of David Bowie” and is scheduled for Jan. 23 at Port City Music Hall on Congress Street in Portland. Tickets are $10 and were scheduled to go on sale Thursday.

The performers will include at least two Portland musicians who recorded with Bowie, Spencer Albee and Dave Gutter. Both were in the Maine band Rustic Overtones at the time.

The band was making a record for Arista in New York in 1999 when Bowie showed up and worked with them on two songs. Tony Visconti, who was producing the Rustic Overtones record and had worked with Bowie, called Bowie and sent him some of Rustic Overtones’ music to listen to. Impressed, Bowie came to the studio.

Besides providing his vocals on two Rustic Overtones’ songs, “Sector Z” and “Man Without a Mouth,” Bowie spent time over the next couple of months with the young Maine musicians, taking them to lunch and talking music with them. He made the band members feel like musical equals, Gutter said.

The concert at Port City Music Hall will be a benefit for the Maine Cancer Foundation and will feature performers doing versions of Bowie songs. Gutter said he and others will collaborate on the two Rustic Overtones’ songs Bowie sang on. He didn’t want to say what other Bowie songs he might perform, so the audience will have some element of surprise.

Besides Albee, who came up with the concert idea, and Gutter, other musicians scheduled to perform include Jeff Beam, Dominic and the Lucid, Neil Collins, Sunset Hearts, Five of the Eyes, Mat Zaro, Lyle Divinsky, Weakened Friends, Sean Slaughter, Dean Ford and Michael “Miek” Rodrique.

Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com

Twitter: @Ray Routhier