Along with Robert Cray and Joe Louis Walker, Kenny Neal was touted in the mid-'80s as the Next Big Thing in the blues, someone who could pick up Stevie Ray Vaughan's legacy and finish taking the blues to the top of the popular charts.

Now Neal, who turns 51 next week (and is playing with the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue at the Belly Up Tavern on Oct. 4), said he finds himself touted as the "legendary" Kenny Neal ahead of shows.

"It's a trip, because for years and years, by me being the way I look, people thought I was younger than I was," the guitarist and singer said last week by phone from his home in Palo Alto. "For years, I was the young and upcoming blues artist. Now all of a sudden, I'm traditional, legendary Kenny Neal.

"It's kind of strange, because now I feel like I'm getting into that seat where Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters and all those guys I used to look up to sat. I got kids 25, 30 looking up to me, and it's unreal."

That dream in the blues community of taking the blues to the same point in the popular culture where its Southern cousin -- country-western music -- resides has been sidetracked in the years since Neal first was touted as one of the music's potential saviors, partly because of the collapse of the business model used by the record labels.

But Neal, who also has a new CD out, "Let Life Flow," sees a silver lining in the difficulties the record labels are facing.

"Back then, you'd get a record deal, and the record company would go out there and pump you and work their artists.

"Now, with the new techology, it's good for the artists -- you can reach the world so much faster because of the Internet.

"It just got really crazy because of the big boom to the technology. … I think the technology and the communication moved so fast on us. It's great for musicians."

Neal also said Vaughan's influence, even after his untimely passing in an airplane crash in 1990, gave the blues a huge boost in popularity among young people that has lasted to this day.

"You had these blues bands all over the place after Stevie Ray, which really helped out tremendously with the blues. I don't think Buddy Guy ever thought he'd be a millionaire one day."

But if Vaughan's pervasive influence helped make the blues more popular, Neal said it also put more of an emphasis on the modern blues-rock hybrid that Vaughan played as opposed to older forms.

"It kind of got diluted -- there were a zillion Stevie Ray Vaughn wannabes across the country. They really hadn't identified themselves, had no identity to being their own musicians."

But Neal said the traditional forms of the blues are coming back into popularity. Neal, who grew up and still owns a home in Baton Rouge, La., said he's getting more calls from promoters because of his reputation for playing a roots-based style of blues.

If a traditionalist, Neal is no purist, though. That the blues today is more popular among white fans than in the black community that created the form a century ago doesn't seem to bother Neal -- in fact, he's glad to see the music finding new fans wherever it can.

"When Dan Aykroyd and them came out with the 'Blues Brothers' movie, that's when the white kids just flipped and wanted to be part of it. That's good, because we almost had a culture that was lost. And I think that was the best thing that could ever have happened to expose it to a broader audience.

"Even with Jonny Lang, I remember when he used to open up for me when he was 13! It was good to see that, to see him grab hold of it and have that culture survive. Because it's only a truly a handful of us that are left" in the black community.

"I just left Moscow (the) Saturday before last. I was out in the park playing for about 15,000 people. And they were saying, 'Please come back for our next year's blues festival.' They really gave blues a home.

"The Russian bands were really serious about that Freddie King sound -- they were kicking butt. I just hope they stick to the pureness of the music itself.

"Japan was the same way. I think blues is going to be secure. I'd like to hear what it's going to sound like in 50, 60 years."

The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue featuring the Tommy Castro Band, Magic Dick, Kenny Neal and Deanna Bogart

When: 9 p.m. Oct. 4

Where: Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Ave., Solana Beach

Tickets: $15-$17

Info: (858) 481-8140 or bellyup.com

Web: kennyneal.net