Young blues rocker embodies innate talent, fearlessness

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Mike Imbasciani At his parent's house, a sprawling two-story home in Port Charlotte, Mike Imbasciani plugged in his new Schecter Hellcat and played "Purple Haze."

About three-quarters of the way through the Jimi Hendrix hard-rock standard, the intrepid 12-year-old flipped his black electric guitar behind his head and played it backwards. No sweat.

The young performer's favorite song is "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," played in true Eric Clapton style. That's because, Mike said, "It's seven minutes long and I get to improvise." He can riff on Clapton's blues-rock chord structure all day long. And he's also a proficient rhythm guitar player. "You have to be able to do both to survive in the guitar world," the young man said.

On Wednesday nights, his parents take him to jam at The Buckingham Blues Bar open-mic jam session in Lee County.

But his talent is in demand. He is paid to play at a variety of venues in South Florida bars and coffee shops. Last Saturday night, Mike treated the crowd at Nita's Sweet Bean Café in Fort Myers to a soulful session of blues and rock. He also played lead guitar and sang at the Aug. 15 Punta Gorda Xtreme Makeover festival.

"He'd love to break into the blues festival circuit," said his mother, Chris, who works as a nurse. "He actually started playing when he was 5. He liked Bob Dylan and the Beatles. He started playing out, and started to listen to more Eric Clapton. He'd sit in on music jams. At a lot of those jams, the musicians would play blues. It just started to really flow from him. He really seemed to like Stevie Ray Vaughan, and some of the earlier '60s music like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cream, Hendrix."

Mike doesn't feel too nervous playing in front of a crowd anymore, because he loves to play, and because he does it two or three times per week, sometimes more. He's been heard at Gaspar's Grotto in Tampa; Tobacco Road in Miami; Bert's Bar & Grill in Matlacha in Lee County; the Yucatan Beach Stand on Fort Myers Beach — and other places. And his parents accompany him to every performance.

At an early gig at Tobacco Road, a bar in Miami, Mike remembers being a little weirded-out by an overabundance of tattoos.

"The first time I play at a new place, I'm always a little nervous," he admitted. "Will the owner like me? Will I get another gig?"

During the day he is home schooled, learning subjects like science, math and English. To take care of himself, he has earned a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do and practices Kenpo karate.

"If he gigs out late, he can always sleep a little late," said his father, Joe, an attorney. "He doesn't have the rigid time schedule that school kids have."

Mike is also taking guitar and voice lessons — paid for by his performance income.

"It feels good, as a kid, to be able to make money," he said. He's also working on paying off the guitars, amps, drums and recording equipment that fill his music room at home. His favorite guitar is a toss up between the Schecter Hellcat and his first, a Fender Squier electric he got when he was 7. He added some new components to improve the sound on the Squier.

"I put in new Fender locking tuners and Seymore Dunkin pickups," said Mike. "My Squier sounds just as good (as the Hellcat) actually, now that it's been updated."

He has six guitars in all, including an acoustic that — along with a harmonica — he prefers when playing Bob Dylan songs. Mike has 40 or 50 cover songs in his repertoire, all memorized. And right now there is nothing else he would rather do than be a musician. "A couple years ago I thought I'd just play music and be a photographer on the side," he said. "But really, now I just want to play music. What's weird is I can memorize all these songs, but I can't remember what I did in science (class) Friday."

You can see 12-year-old Mike Imbasciani play Sept. 25 at Gulf Coast Town Center in Estero. Or visit his Web site at mikeimbasciani.com.