Michaela Rae is a 14-year-old guitarist who has been playing for 10 years. She has played with musicians like Kenny Neal, Bob Margolin, Billy Branch, and Colorado guitarist Dave Beegle, and even got to play at this year’s IBC in Memphis. She recently released her first CD, called Blues With A Backbone (Hapi Skratch Entertainment).

Her guitar work is pretty impressive. She’s obviously influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughan, judging by some of the tunes covered (“The Phonebook Song,” “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” and “SRV Shuffle”), but she’s not just a SRV imitator. On tunes like “Green Onions” and Robert Berry’s “Never Too Young,” she shows she is developing her own style as well. She also wrote a couple of songs as well (with Beegle, who also produced the disc, played guitar and Hammond B3), the blistering instrumental title track, “Sin Nombre,” a Latin-flavored instrumental, and “Big Easy Blues.”

Vocally, she’s still a work in progress, but the main thing she seems to lack is confidence. That will come with experience. When it does, watch out! There’s no lack of confidence involved with the guitar however, so blues guitar fans will find plenty to enjoy here.