Ryan Flaherty has put in the hours to hone himself into a razor-sharp guitarist and polish his songwriting craft. Now, with two albums on the books and a busy gigging schedule across the Seacoast, those hours are paying off.

During a recent show at The Blue Mermaid in Portsmouth, Flaherty did not allow the absence of several regular band members to slow down the music. Instead, he executed his own patented brand of gypsy jazz and indie folk—we’ll call it gypsy Americana—in a small trio format that played with fire and sweat.

Flaherty, wearing a mesh baseball cap pulled low over his eyes, sat hunched over his acoustic guitar, which he strummed with dexterous rapidity while crooning his original songs into the microphone.

To his right stood Laura Balladur on accordion, and to his left stood Phil Bloch, who alternated between violin and a vintage ’57 electric mandolin. Missing from the equation on this particular evening were bassist Duane Edwards, guitarist Michael Arciero, and mandolinist and backup vocalist Jennie Backstrom.

Even at half-strength, the band sounded remarkably full and clean on June 23. Flaherty often beat the wooden body of his guitar for percussive effects, and Bloch’s mandolin solos drew yips and hollers from guests. Balladur supplemented her own fine playing with occasional handclaps and harmony vocals.

For Flaherty, achieving this crisp sound came after years of dedicated training. He was living in Knoxville, Tenn., when he discovered the music of regional gypsy jazz band Ameranouche. The ambitious young musician contacted virtuosic lead guitarist Richard Sheppard one day, and the two played for each other over the phone. Not long afterward, Flaherty left Knoxville and moved to New England to join the band.

“I was just really itching to learn how to play that music really well,” Flaherty said prior to the show. “I moved up here to be in that band.”

He served as Ameranouche’s rhythm guitarist for the next six years, from 2005 to 2011, and toured around the nation. As a member of the band, he opened for acts like Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and even performed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2008. Along the way, he learned how to incorporate various European and Arabic styles into his playing.

“It definitely made me what I am today as a guitar player,” he said. “It kind of gave me the tools I needed that I didn’t have before to produce my own music.”

Flaherty released his first solo album, “Hungry Moon,” last year, cultivating his own unique sound. His second album, “Here Comes Everyone,” was recorded live during a single three-hour session at Acadia Recording Studio in Portland, Maine. He submitted the finished disc to The Wire’s 2012 RPM Challenge, which urges musicians to record a full-length album in the month of February.

Flaherty said the follow-up album is more cohesive than the first, more embracive of the gypsy jazz sound and less scattered across the stylistic map. That cohesion was evident at The Blue Mermaid, where the trio maintained a fast-paced, string-heavy, hot-club rhythm through two sets of feverishly fast music.

Though Flaherty is often described as a flamenco guitarist, he demurs from that label. He has picked up just a few techniques from the notoriously complex flamenco style, but that training has given his playing an exotic flavor. His brisk, percussive strumming is mesmerizing to watch, requiring an acrobatic show from his fingers.

While deeply rooted in gypsy jazz, Flaherty also brings contemporary folk components to his distinctive sound. One song early in the second set had a Mexican flair, calling to mind David Wax Museum. Another would have seemed at home ringing across the stone alleys of an Italian piazza. Integrating traditional ethnic styles into modern Americana is a trend that appears to be growing, and Flaherty pulls it off nicely.

Perhaps, with the benefit of a full band and a second guitarist, Flaherty would have had more freedom to solo. It would have been nice to hear him let loose with some improvised notes to pepper his swift barrage of chords.

But, in Portsmouth, he left that duty mainly to Bloch, who rose to the occasion with several inspired solos on electric mandolin, serving up some of the show’s top highlights. Balladur brought another dynamic on accordion, rounding out the evening’s worldly sound with an instrument rarely utilized in American bands.

During the second set, Balladur sat out a couple of songs while Flaherty and Bloch played instrumental tunes on guitar and violin, as if reincarnating Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in a smoky French café, circa 1940.   

Flaherty is close to settling on a name for his current band, but he remained tight-lipped at The Blue Mermaid. He’ll have other chances for a formal announcement, though. He plays every third Saturday of the month at the Dogfish Bar and Grille in Portland, and he’s got a slot in the Cochecho Arts Festival’s summer concert series at Henry Law Park in Dover on Friday, Aug. 3.