Blues and "shred" are not mutually exclusive. Blues is a style of music (state of mind) and shred is a technique. Ignore shred at your peril! Being able to play fast "flurries" of notes is an important technique just like bending, vibrato, legato phrasing etc. It can be very expressive and most people who say they don't need it usually can't do it. Sweep picking and fast percussive runs are signature styles of the flamenco guitarist (Paco de Lucia, anyone?) and flamenco is deeply emotional also check out John McLaughlin, he fuses blues and "shred" and plays with passion.