Shannon Curfman has been singing since she knew how to talk.

By the time she could sit on a stool, her grandma had her taking guitar lessons.

She grew up playing with vinyl rather than Cabbage Patch Kids, fiddling with her parents’ classic rock collection. She discovered country, then went on to funk.

With her teen years fast approaching, she experienced what every girl her age goes through — her first crush.

Only Shannon’s wasn’t on the Backstreet Boys.

“My cousins talked me into going to this concert by the river in Fargo [North Dakota],” she says. “This young kid comes up there with long blonde hair, and I just went, ‘Ahhh.’ I was totally love struck. Then I heard him play, and it blew me away. I was like, ‘He’s somebody so young and he’s up there. That’s what I want to do.'”

And that’s exactly what she has done. Just listen to the several critics who are already dubbing her “Fargo’s next Jonny Lang.”

Shannon Curfman is an amazing 13 years old — five years younger than the golden boy of blues. But you would never guess it.

Within a year of seeing her Fargo neighbor, her crush grew into a friendship, and she now speaks of Jonny more like a parent than a love-struck kid.

“He’s a great guy; he has his head on straight,” Shannon says. “Whenever I have questions about something, I always give him a call. He’s great about that stuff. Our careers have been pretty similar, but they’re also very different.”

Shannon may be 13, but she speaks so maturely that only when she giggles does her age occur to you.

Conversation with her is so pleasant, it’s easy to forget that she wails on her guitar with the same fury as Hendrix at Woodstock.

Shannon just finished her debut album, for which she sings and plays lead on every track. She co-wrote over half the songs with help from Kevin Bowe, Bruce McCabe and Lang, who also added his guitar flavor to three numbers.

“It’s a mixture of all the different styles of music I like and love playing,” Shannon says of the record. “We shaped our style of music by writing and seeing where that took us.”

Still untitled, the record blends conventional blues with sultry funk, gritty R & B and Memphis soul. Shannon’s vocal prowess — a bluesy Sarah McLachlan — beautifies the songs in a way a male blues singer could only dream.

Shannon recorded the album with a Who’s Who of Minneapolis musicians. Prince never showed up, but several of his producers and studio musicians did, including Sonny Thompson, Tom Tucker and Michael Bland.

“It was awesome,” she says. “They’re teachers; they offer you advice. That way you don’t have to learn it the hard way.”

But her music cohorts have become more than teachers. They are her friends — even if they are three times her age.

“There’s definitely always screwing around about being a 13-year-old,” Shannon explains. “They’ll ask, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to Chuck E Cheese.’ I think, because of my age, it lets them have a little more fun. They get to be kids, too.”

Shannon has taken her crew on the road, where she has shared stages with legendary players Steve Miller, Jeff Healy, Buckwheat Zydeco, Tab Benoit, Delbert Clinton and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Friday, she will join Iowa blues bands Scarlet Runner and Big E and the Killer Bees on the Taste of Veishea Stage.

“I just love playing live,” Shannon says, digging into a deep thought. “I don’t care if it’s in front of 30 people or if it’s in front of 100,000 people. It’s not about numbers to me. If you can get the people into it and they’re loving it, that’s what matters. I just love being on stage.”

Some could say Shannon isn’t a typical teenager, but she doesn’t see it that way. Sure, she’s home-schooled, but she liked the idea of that before she ever got deep into music.

“I definitely don’t miss public schools,” she giggles. “I have always been more interested in having a one-on-one situation instead of one teacher and 30 students. This way, I can go at my own pace.”

As for extracurricular activities, aside from being the next Jonny Lang, Shannon Rollerblades and shops at the mall with friends.

“It’s not really any different,” she says. “I just have more time to do what I love to do. Going to school all day and doing homework and having only a few hours to do music, it just wasn’t enough time to accomplish everything I wanted in a day.”

Like many teen musicians, Shannon’s mom is her road manager. (“She’s with me 24-7.”) Her dad works outside the music industry but rarely misses seeing his daughter play.

“They’re definitely really involved in everything,” Shannon boasts.

Her family recently moved from Fargo to Minneapolis to make life easier for Shannon.

And while her phone rings off the hook with club owners and musicians who want a slice of Shannon Curfman before she’s a household name, the budding musician has kept her focus the same as it was from the beginning.

“I just want to have a career at this,” Shannon says. “I don’t want to go to the top and be a one-hit wonder and fall away into the galaxy.

“I think Sheryl Crow has a career with what she does. She’s balanced it well, with having hits, but also being more of a musician than a picture. When you watch VH1, you see all these horror stories of these teens who get so messed up, and I think I learn from those. I definitely don’t want to be like that.”

Shannon wants to be like Jonny. She’s followed his career from the beginning and admires his every achievement with unbounded respect.

As for the Backstreet Boys …

“I don’t listen to those kind of bands.”