"I have been gifted with something," Stevie Ray Vaughan once said of the astounding power of his guitar playing, "and if I don't take it to its fullest extent, I might as well be farting in the bushes."

Louisiana-bred Kenny Wayne Shepherd may express himself more shyly than the rough-hewn Texan he's worshipped since meeting him at age 7, but on his new album, Trouble Is... (Revolution), Shepherd proves he hasn't been wasting any time stinking up the neighbors' hedges.

Shepherd, 20, has toured nonstop since his first album, Ledbetter Heights, struck gold in October, 1996. He's opened for Dylan, Aerosmith, and the Eagles, and joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for a leg of the G3 tour. The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band even played Clinton's inaugural ball. Along the way Shepherd has earned effusive praise from blues royalty like B.B. King, who called him "a pure talent" and "a star blues player, who reminds me of how I felt towards Stevie Ray in the beginning."

The little boy Vaughan once hoisted onto an amp case so he could watch him perform has grown into a sweet-faced young man with hair like wheat, a gentle manner, and the kind of huge honking tone, mature virtuosity, and gutbucket funkability possessed by Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and virtually no one else. If Vaughan were alive today, Shepherd would nolonger be an acolyte, but one of his very few peers.

It's a thrill to hear the immense growth in Shepherd's playing between Ledbetter Heights and Trouble Is.... Shepherd attributes the improvement to "mainly just touring. It really develops your playing and style and skills. I try to do something different every night so I don't get caught in a rut and I keep learning."

Of his commitment to the blues when many his age have abandoned guitar-band music for rap and techno, Shepherd says, "I like the fact that it's real music and it's about life, and also the fact that you play the music from your soul. There's just so much feel in the blues."

On Trouble Is..., Shepherd "wanted to do some stuff that was different. I started every song with an idea of the blues and tried to do something fresh with it, something you wouldn't normally hear--like changing the progressions."

He co-wrote most of the songs on the album and offers a startlingly crisp cover of Dylan's "Everything Is Broken." "It was already a shuffle. It was pretty easy for us to do and sounded really good," Shepherd says. Shepherd's been listening "to lots of Hendrix" lately and covered "I Don't Live Today" on Trouble Is... because "it's just one of those songs thatnot everybody has already done."

It was rumored after Shepherd ducked vocal duties on Ledbetter Heights that he would sing on his second album, but instead he tapped vocalist Noah Hunt, a Paul Rodgers-style smoothie.

"I'm still working on singing. I'm just developing my voice--trying to figure out how to make it do what I want it to do," Shepherd says in his soft drawl. Does he sneak away and practice where no one can hear him? "Um . . . yep," Shepherd admits, chuckling.

The inner fortitude that has helped Shepherd resist "a lot of pressure for me to sing" has also helped him weather the envy that rains on any cute young musician who shoots to the top, and the slings and arrows of some blues purists who were initially offended by the attention heaped upon a white boy who started playing blues gigs at age 13.

"There was some of that in the earlier days when I was sixteen and seventeen," Shepherd concedes, "but I think I've pretty much overcome most of it." Besides, Shepherd adds, "You get criticized for everything.

"It is kind of frustrating," Shepherd continues, "to have things go so well for me while other people I respect so much are kind of stuck, but that's why I do all that I can to help out this music and the people who aren't getting what they deserve."

Shepherd is a card-carrying, benefit-playing member of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and is quick to praise lesser-known players like "Bryan Lee, who is the guy who gave me my first chance to get up on stage. He's been doing it forever and he never really got the recognition he deserves. He's got an awesome voice and he plays guitar like Freddie King. He is unbelievable."

Shepherd invited several established musicians to play on Trouble Is..., including former Vaughan sidemen Chris Layton and blues elder James Cotton. "James is a really cool guy for such a legendary harmonica player," Shepherd enthuses. "We gave him two chances and that's all he needed. I mean, we would've given him more but that's all he needed."

The latest single from the album, "Blue on Black," is all over the radio and MTV. Shepherd romances Guess model Sasha Barrese in the video, but mention his burgeoning heartthrob status and you can practically hear him blushing as he mumbles that making the video "was pretty nice."

Above all, Shepherd says, "I would just like it if the fact that my songs are getting played would encourage blues to get played on the radio more, period. The only time you really hear it is if someone does a blues show, but there's so much good music out there that doesn't really ever get the recognition it deserves."

DEBRA DeSALVO