Never mind the current cold snap, we’re about to get hit with some warm, melodic, honey-hued breezes this Friday, when Hawaiian music great John Cruz brings his soulful blues to the Island. But for now, it’s still freezing. And on Monday afternoon, when the beloved bluesman called from Northhampton, Mass., where he’s writing his third record, it was really, really cold. “This morning had to be in the one-digits,” he groaned. “It’s brutal here.”

Mr. Cruz, whose melting pot music runs the gamut of soul, blues, pop and traditional Hawaiian, knows this northern Island well. The Grammy-winning guitar player spent a decade — 1986 to 1996 — calling it home for six months out of the year. What should be noted: Those six months rarely included January. “Januarys on the Vineyard are fantastic — if you can handle them,” he laughs. Normally Mr. Cruz shares the same migration schedule as his other passion, fish. “Me, I’d last ’til about when the fish took off. When the fish took off, I took off.”

But the sensitive, skilled guitarist with a voice which soars somewhere between those of John Hiatt and James Taylor says he rarely allows too much time pass between visits. “I come back as often as I can to the Vineyard. At least twice a year.” The Island, it seems, holds a special place in Mr. Cruz’s musical heart. Although Mr. Cruz grew up as one of 12 musical children — he has seven sisters and four brothers — to musically inclined parents, a country-singing father and a Motown-loving mother, “the Island is where I sort of cut my teeth,” he says. From the Rare Duck to the Hot Tin Roof to house parties, “I was sweating it out every night.”

In addition to his solo career, he also spent some time as an original member of Entrain with Tom Major and Judd Fuller. Perhaps because the Island offered such fertile musical ground for the young musician, he continues to cite Mr. Major, Mr. Fuller and Islander Joe Keenan as his inspirations.

It’s fair to say Mr. Cruz, whose spirited, celebratory live shows tend to leave audiences beaming as if they’ve spent a day at the beach, serves a similar purpose to his peers. His first record, Acoustic Soul (1996), sold over 100,000 copies in Hawaii alone. His eagerly awaited follow up, One of These Days (2007), was also well-received and critically acclaimed. In between those recordings, the musician took home a Grammy for his song Jo Bo’s Night, on the disc Slack Key Guitar Volume 2, which won the first Grammy for Hawaiian music. Then there’s the song Island Style, which is so soothing and infectious it’s become, unofficially, a Hawaiian anthem. If you haven’t heard it, give it a spin. It’s about as close as one can get to the tropics without ever leaving home.

As if that weren’t enough, there was even a movie about Mr. Cruz entitled Made of Music, The Story of John Cruz, which features cameos from Jack Johnson, Jackson Browne and Kelly Slater. Speaking of that other notable Hawaiian musician, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Cruz laughs. “Oh, it’s great to play with Jack, because he’s got thousands and thousands more fans that you do.”

When Mr. Cruz returns here this final weekend of January, he plans to stay in Chilmark and do what he loves to do here best. “I just like to spend time with friends, have lots of good friends there eating, fishing, cooking, playing music.” Which certainly sounds like a good way to spend a few cold Island nights.

And about that third record he’s writing: Mr. Cruz says it will drop this summer, which, of course, is the perfect season for a John Cruz album to make its way into the world. While it’s a little too early to talk specific themes, he says this one will be “more introspective than the last.” It will also include one subject dear to his heart. “Love,” he says. “Oh, yeah. It’s always about love. Love lost, gained, the promise of love, the big fat lie of love — all those things.”

Does this mean the songwriter’s currently in love’s embrace? “Ah, we’ll see,” he says. “We’ll find out when I get to the Island.”

John Cruz performs tonight, Jan. 28, at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 or $35 for reserved seating. For more information, visit johncruz.com.