Chuck Mitchell could hardly be called a careerist. A seminal figure on the '60s folk scene in Michigan, he and his ex-wife have traveled very different paths.

Joni Mitchell became a huge star and influential singer-songwriter with hit records and major tours. Chuck Mitchell became an actor, fixed up old houses and continued performing, but he made only two self-released records.

"I'm singularly unfocused. She was intensely focused," laughs the 65-year-old singer-guitarist, who returns to his Michigan folk roots Saturday with a performance for the Flint Folk Music Society at the Greater Flint Arts Council.

Mitchell was a fixture on the Detroit-area folk scene in the 1960s, sharing stages with the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Rush, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and his now-famous ex-wife, whom he married in 1966. They performed together and separately at Flint's Sippin Lizzard coffeehouse several times.

"There were lots of interesting clubs, so we worked them all. When Joni first came in on the train from Toronto - I picked her up in Windsor - one thing I enticed her with was that we could get these gigs for $25-$40 a night at places like the Sippin Lizzard, where she was a huge draw. So was I," Mitchell recalled from one of his two homes, a 19th century house on the Mississippi River in southeastern Iowa (he has another home in Wisconsin).

Folk society President Jim McTiernan heard about those gigs, which is why he tracked down Mitchell in Wisconsin for the society's Sippin Lizzard concert series. "We wanted to bring in someone who played here in the past," McTiernan said.

Mitchell's looking forward to it. "I have no clue as to whether I'll draw 10 people or 100. If I draw 50 I'll be happy," he says.

There was a time when he could attract a much larger crowd. Those days are long gone. Chuck and Joni Mitchell divorced in 1968. He started performing around the country soon after.

He turned to acting in the mid-1970s, with varying degrees of success, mostly in theater. He continued performing, but also turned to artist residencies at colleges and universities to help pay the bills.

Mitchell, a devotee of songwriter Stephen Foster ("Camptown Races," "My Old Kentucky Home"), and actor David Marion, a Mark Twain aficionado, put together a show about the two 19th century giants. They toured "Mr. Twain and Mr. Foster" throughout the 1990s, including a four-day run at The Ark in Ann Arbor in 1991 (Mitchell will perform there May 12).

Mitchell is an easygoing, friendly guy who doesn't seem at all bothered by questions about his ex-wife, with whom he hasn't spoken in several years. (He has since remarried.)

"Periodically I'll send up a signal, but it's kind of a one-way pipe," he said.

Mitchell doesn't want to become a folk music trivia question. He typically performs about a dozen shows a year, but says he's starting to pick up the pace.

"I decided I'd better get cranking and enjoy the things I took for granted 20 years ago," he said. "The one thing I really miss is performing."

These days, he blends old concert staples such as "Mack the Knife," "The Bilbao Song," "Tennessee Stud" and "The Hippopotamus Song" with new songs from contemporary artists he's excited about, including Rodney Crowell, Cheryl Wheeler and Fred Eaglesmith. "It's fun to try to pull that kind of material off," he said.

Mitchell knows that his lack of recorded material has obscured his legacy. He hopes to remedy that by preserving the classic folk, show and cabaret songs that are so important to him.

"There are so many songs I do that will be lost once I hit the trail," Mitchell said. "I'd love to have some kind of record album out there."

Chuck Mitchell
* Where: Greater Flint Arts Council, 816 S. Saginaw St. (Flint Folk Music Society concert series)
* When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
* Tickets: Free for children under 12, $7 for Flint Folk Music Society members, $10 others, at the door
* Details: (810) 238-4096, (810) 238-ARTS