Busy playing over 200 gigs a year for the past few years, the Ryan Montbleau Band seems finally on the verge of acheiving a national reputation. One reason they’ve remained on the edge of fame is the difficulty in categorizing the band’s music, which has been described as Martin Sexton—by way of Stevie Wonder and Van Morrison—and “a funk bass player channeling John Lee Hooker…and a healthy helping of Robert Plant” (Boston rock-n-roll zine The Noise). With his beginning playing Boston area coffeehouses as a solo artist, Montbleau’s music is also firmly planted in the folk tradition of percussive, fingerpicking guitar work and sweet lyrics. But the addition of the four other members makes for a powerful blues-rock dynamic that runs the gauntlet of 70s, 80s, 90s and new millenial sounds. The Ryan Montbleau Band plays at Nietzsche’s on Saturday (Dec. 8), at 10pm