He's got the heavy riffs and virtuoso blues solos. With his long, Robert Plant-style mane and his two sidekicks, Jared James Nichols, armed with his Gibson LesPaul on which he prefers to play fingerstyle without a mediator, has already won the hearts of guitarists everywhere. But the young prodigy is far from finished with music. By modernising a timeless style that has already been heard millions of times, he is eager to prove his worth.

With his denim waistcoat and motorbike jacket on, Nichols is easy to dismiss as the blues-rock he's so fond of, or as dusty hard rock. On closer inspection, however, this is not the case at all, and his ambitions cover a much wider spectrum than the box in which he is often pigeonholed. What he likes is heaviness in all its forms. From grunge to metal, and even rock with a sullen edge, he steps out of his box and explains that he wants to "break down all the walls" and transcend elements that "as an artist and guitarist are almost expected".

And he does it with mad talent and a flurry of notes that would make some of his idols, Joe Bonamassa and Jonny Lang, break out in a cold sweat. Accompanied by Dennis Holm on drums and a bassist who changes with each new album, the old-school power trio blows everything out of the water. And even though the awards are starting to pile up, they're still aiming to bring a rock'n'roll freshness to the popular music that is the blues.