Road Doesn’t Give This Girl the Blues

The road is no place for amateurs. Consider the long hours between gigs. The snow and rain. The all-night rides. Flat tires. Ditches. Which all sound pretty good right now to 14-year-old Shannon Curfman, who is leading her own blues-rock band on a cross-country journey.

“I’m having a blast,” Curfman says. “I want to be on the road all the time.”

The road has just taken her to New York, where she was the only rock act invited to perform at the Teen People magazine party. There she mingled with the likes of Hanson, Jessica Simpson, 98 Degrees and other teen pop stars. But attending the party also meant missing out on a stretch of road trip that had her band and crew crossing ice-covered highways and unexpected ditches. She caught up later by plane.

“They had a heck of a drive,” Curfman says with a laugh. “I missed it all. They stayed in the haunted hotel. I dig that stuff. I wish I would have been there.”

That’s an attitude well-suited for the life she’s chosen, building her career one club date at a time. Curfman’s guitar playing and raspy vocals have already earned comparisons with Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge, making music rooted in both classic rock and the blues. Her debut album, “Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions,” has already earned her some airplay on rock radio with the single “True Friends.”

And the reviews have been enthusiastic. Billboard described Curfman’s sound as “endearingly rough and ready.” And the New York Post praised her “swaggering style,” while comparing the singer to such icons as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.

Curfman, who performs at the Roxy on Wednesday and the Coach House on Saturday, is doing it at an age when most teenagers are just beginning to discover music. She does spend her free hours before show time cruising on her in-line skates, and her mother is along for the ride. But Curfman sounds like any other new artist, brimming with confidence and excitement.

“You tend to forget about age when you’re just talking to other musicians,” Curfman says. “Whoever you’re hanging out with is who your peers are, you know? I’ve just never thought of it in age groups.”

Curfman discovered music while growing up in Fargo, N.D., listening to her parents’ classic-rock record collection. The legacy of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Santana and others provided a rock foundation. From there, she discovered such blues immortals as Robert Johnson, Albert Collins and B.B. King.

The young musician was ultimately drawn to “the rawness and the truthfulness” of the blues, she says now.

“It’s very blunt. The structure is pretty simple. It’s just the feeling that goes over it is that really makes the difference.”

But it was the career of hometown hero Jonny Lang, then a teenage blues guitar prodigy, that had the most direct influence on Curfman. Now barely 20, Lang has been a champion of Curfman’s career, and last year told Rolling Stone magazine, “She scares me.” He also played guitar on several tracks on “Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions.”

Late last year, Curfman toured with John Mellencamp and was regularly invited to duet with him on the song “Pink Houses.” The reaction she won from younger audience members suggested that contemporary teens might be open to hearing straight-ahead blues and rock after all.

“After the show we would be mobbed with kids,” says Curfman’s manager, Jake Walesch. “We get a lot of e-mails from kids and a lot of correspondence. Musically, it’s not the obvious thing that kids like these days. They like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. But right now it’s so flooded with that music that it’s going to run its course. Some kids think it’s cool to be playing guitar.”

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Walesch first saw Curfman play a club gig, based on a tip from Lang’s father. By then Curfman and her family had moved to Minneapolis, largely to help the young musician pursue a career. Her engineer father transferred jobs, and Curfman soon began home schooling and a regular Tuesday-night club residency.

“They were pretty hesitant about it at first,” Curfman says of her parents. “I guess it was pretty obvious that this is what I wanted to do. But I think they were just nervous and didn’t know how to get into it and how to go about everything.”

Curfman recorded an independent release for Walesch’s label, Pop Sense. Then Arista Records signed the young musician and re-released the album last fall with three new tracks.

In the few months since then, it’s become a full-time endeavor not just for Curfman, but also for her mother, Mary, 45. While chaperoning her daughter on the road, she also handles tour merchandise. Curfman’s father catches up with them on the road when he can.

“It’s exciting for her, and it’s exciting for me to see that,” says Mary Curfman. “When she’s up there playing, sometimes it just brings tears to my eyes. She’s got a lot of feeling and soul, and sometimes it just hits you what’s going on.”

Her daughter has no complaints and expresses no regret about spending her teenage years working. She doesn’t miss the interaction of others at school, and free time is available whenever she needs it. When this current leg of the tour ends in March, she’ll get a short break. Then it’s off to Japan with blues guitar deity Buddy Guy.

“You have downtime if you want to have it,” Curfman says. “The work, you can’t always expect it to just be there. You have to take advantage of it when you can. You just have to worry about that stuff when it stops.”

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* Shannon Curfman plays Wednesday at the Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 9 p.m. $10 in advance, $12 at the door. (310) 278-9457. Also Saturday at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, 8 p.m. $10. (949) 496-8927.