Like many young musicians, Mike Zito concentrated on his guitar playing. Playing guitar can be key in making the transition from rock musician to rock star.

“I took singing for granted,” Zito says in a phone interview with VDT View. “I spent all of my time focusing on my guitar playing.” His live performances featured long guitar solos.

His girlfriend at the time shared a hard truth with Zito. She told him to concentrate more on his voice. “She said, ‘You should sing more. I like your voice. Girls want to hear a singer.’”

Zito took her advice. It led to more gigs, and his recent recording contract with the Eclecto Groove label, which released Zito’s CD, “Today,” earlier this year.

With “Today” under his belt, Zito is hitting the road, playing gigs, such as tonights show at Bas Bleu as part of Downtown Valdosta’s Art After Dark.

“I’ve been playing a long time,” he says, “but most people don’t know who I am. So, playing new places gives me a chance to reach more people. … It’s been going well. Not to brag, but people seem to like (the new album).”

While music may sound like a recent thing for Zito, what with the new label and playing more dates, he’s actually been playing the club circuit for the past dozen years, and has independently recorded a few CDs.

Zito grew up learning music in St. Louis. He started playing and singing at the age of 5. A boyhood birthday present of a Van Halen album led to his discovery of electric guitar. He grew up in the gritty St. Louis music scene, according to his label bio. Working at a guitar shop, he met several real-life guitar heroes, from Chuck Berry to Bennie Smith. At 19, he started playing the St. Louis scene and was soon touring throughout the Southwest. He now lives in Texas. Keeping at his music and striving to make it, led to being signed to a label.

“Today” reflects Mike Zito’s bluesy rock. That advice to concentrate on his singing has paid off with a voice that has the rock soul of a quieter Springsteen. He wrote a dozen of the 13 tracks on “Today,” and the one which he didn’t write is the unexpected, slow-simmer cover of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.”

One might think the advice on his vocals may have affected the tone of his songwriting, but it didn’t, Zito says. He was already trying to write tight, rock songs. What the vocal advice did was change his live performances of those songs. During a show, if the mood struck, Zito might go into a long guitar solo. Upon focusing more on his vocals, he curbed some of the impromptu guitar solos and kept more to the song.

As for the gal who gave him the advice, well, she’s no longer his girlfriend. She’s his wife.