Most good blues music is infused with a spiritual element, an arcane factor gliding along just under the surface.

But in Nate Myers’ case, providence seems to have jumped into the driver’s seat. In the two years since he launched his solo project, Nate Myers & The Aces, the harmonica wiz has enjoyed a suspiciously linear journey, and now sits on the brink of breakthrough success.

“I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason. God has a plan for everybody and all things happen for a purpose,” Myers says. “I ask a lot of questions. ‘God, is this what you want? Is this what I’m supposed to be doing?’ I doubt it sometimes, but honestly, everything has been forward movement since the day I started playing.”

The story starts in the mid-’90s when the tattooed, shaven-headed punk rocker got his first dose of real blues – I’m talking Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf – spoon-fed to him by an old blues guitarist he met while taking an afternoon stroll through the city.

“He took me to his place and played a couple of tunes for me, and I fell in love with it at that point in time,” Myers recalls. “I wanted to get a guitar, but I couldn’t afford it. So he said, ‘Well, here’s a harmonica. I don’t know how to play it. See if you can make it work.’ And I thought, ‘Well, I’ll try to figure this out until I can buy a guitar.’ Basically, that was it. I never touched a guitar.”

And just like that, like it was dropped from the sky above, Myers found himself with a harmonica in his pocket and a newfound passion for the blues in his soul. Sure, his soul was only about 20 years old at the time, but now, at the more blues-appropriate age of 30, he can make that harmonica tell stories that’ll put a tear in your eye.

Eventually, Myers started venturing out into the live blues circuit, and soon ended up joining the local blues veterans in Krypton City Blues Revue. During that stint, he gained invaluable experience as both a showman and a blues player. But before long he felt another desire tugging at his sleeve: it was time to go solo.

“I needed a little bit more than Krypton was willing to do. I had a lot of creative desires, so I used this thing as a side project for a while, and then it got to the point where I felt like if I didn’t commit myself fully to it, it wouldn’t go where I wanted it to go,” he explains. “I can say personally that I was riding the fence because I was a little bit afraid of leaving Krypton City, because the name is well known. But I also knew that if I didn’t take a chance and try to establish my own name and try to pursue what I felt in my heart was the right thing, then I’d never know.”

And so, Myers seceded from the mighty union. And, to his surprise, most of Krypton City Blues Revue came with him. After a little tweaking, the lineup now includes bassist Pete Netznik, drummer Mike Noll, guitarist Dave Groninger and pianist deluxe Trent Peechatka.

This month, the band will release its second album, The Lonesome Plowboy, which features cameos from luminaries like bluesman Big Jack Johnson and Jimbo Mathus, known best as the frontman of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The record will reflect Myers’ penchant for rollicking blues with just a twinge of rockabilly driving things along.

“That’s a big thing we’re trying to work into our show, all those roots influences. It goes together, man. Early rock, rockabilly, blues, soul music, R&B – all that stuff,” Myers says. “I want this band to be known as a party band. Not in the traditional sense really, but with our own music.”

With a new album, a fiery passion for the blues and, apparently, the endorsement of God himself, Myers is understandably excited about the coming months.

“Really, this is the birth point for us. Hopefully we’ll be moving on. Our efforts are to see how far we can go with this thing,” he says. “It may blow up, it may not work, but we really want to try to just keep progressing forward. We’ve been real lucky. We’ve been real blessed.”