Dylan-Thomas Vance’s slide guitar conjures the peril of the old bluesman, but doesn’t quite convince.

Vance’s music sounds as intimate as a street-light serenade from a new lover.

The guitar echoes with the performer’s skill and his voice mimics the emotion inherent to the genre. If this Portland-based musician continues, he will settle into his skill. He demonstrates it with his little packages of brilliance, songs “Old Man Devil” and “Good Thing Goin’.”

The songs are a throw back to the Mississippi Delta Blues that Muddy Waters brought to and developed in Chicago. The concert will certainly rouse the ghosts of the Voodoo Room – a bar decorated as an ode to the Delta.

But like a new lover, Vance seems to be searching for his confidence.

Though almost there, he hasn’t quite developed the ability to play the silence, which can often carry as much emotion as the music. His slow slides are too slow and his quick songs are too quick.

Vance calls the slide guitar “a chorus of voices – lost and found souls, new life and departed lovers.” He is still learning to make them sing.

If you go …Who: Dylan-Thomas Vance

What: Slide guitar blues

When, where and how much: 9 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, Aug. 30 at the Voodoo Room, 1102 Marine Drive, $5 cover.

Scene: A man plucks the guitar resting on his lap as he croons softly around the urban campfire of the bar’s bourbon stock.