Blues Guitarist Shepherd Plays Well Beyond His Years

If life experience remains a crucial ingredient in the blues, allow Kenny Wayne Shepherd to make a case for pure, euphoric virtuosity.

The 18-year-old guitarist’s mastery of the form could not be denied at the first of his two shows at the House of Blues on Saturday. Shepherd has created dauntingly high expectations, and this time the comparisons to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix have some merit, though Shepherd’s 75-minute performance was too loose and natural to be simply derivative.

Performing music from his “Ledbetter Heights” debut album, Shepherd was fiery and emotional. The Shreveport, La., native stood tall onstage, often losing himself in the moment of a lengthy solo as his face fell behind the curtain of his straight blond hair.

Backed by a band of capable bluesmen (including singer Corey Sterling), Shepherd picked up an acoustic guitar for some Delta slide work on Bukka White’s “Aberdeen” and even took a quiet vocal turn on “Riverside.” He also adopted the seething rhythm of Vaughan for “Born With a Broken Heart.”

It was a memorable set, even if it didn’t quite carry the weight of Vaughan’s final days, when concerts took on an almost spiritual tone. For now, Shepherd is at least a formidable contender in the blues guitar realm, and the prospect of his going the way of Hendrix and creating a monumental style of his own is that much more exciting.