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Molten Mike Can't Get Over Down Under

The local guitarist is heading back to Australia for more.

Photo from Molten Mike

Tampa-area guitarist Molten Mike is taking his second trip to Australia.

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By CURTIS ROSS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 13, 2009

Tampa-area guitarist Molten Mike heads off to Australia this week for a five-week jaunt, his second stint through the land down under.

Oz greeted him fondly the first time, Mike says, and the feeling was mutual.

"I fell in love with the place. I didn't want to come back," Mike says.

"Getting on the plane to fly back to the states was like leaving family behind," he says.

"The countryside is as beautiful as you could imagine," Mike continues. "The thing is the people are so nice. That's the main thing. Everyone smiles all the time. Everybody is so super friendly."

Mike's been a mainstay of Tampa's blues scene for years, so his next album, still in the works, might surprise some people.

"My next record, which I'm writing now, is 100 percent country," Mike says. "I've fallen in love with the pedal steel, and I find the music to be challenging to write. It's considerably different than R&B."

Mike stresses that he won't stop playing the blues.

"I'm not leaving the blues. I'm just adding on," he says.

Actually, he's done that all along. On albums such as "Molten Mike – The Movie" and "Chameleon," he's incorporated rock, funk, Latin and jazz, and he's more interested in writing songs than soloing endlessly, although he's got the chops for it should the mood hit him.

Whatever style he plays in, rest assured that his guitar will be front and center.

"I knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was 5," he says. Not surprisingly, that's the age at which he got his first guitar.

When he's not playing himself he's teaching others to play, something he's done since he was 15.

"My love for the guitar is a true blessing," Mike says. "I look forward to playing it every single day."

Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

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