Times Union!

By ROGER BULL,

Ben Robinson had his brush with stardom when he was only 12. He was on national TV just about every week as part of the Nickelodeon network's house band. He was playing in concerts as hotshot young guitar player, another blues prodigy.

Look on YouTube, and you can see him playing the Apollo Theatre when he was 16.Eventually, that came to an end, and he took a break from it all.

Now he's getting close again, and he's still only 22.He's one of 10 finalists for Guitar Player magazine's Guitar Superstar contest. Next week, he will fly to San Francisco to perform in front of the crowd and judges Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Elliot Easton, pretty decent players in their own rights.

Andy Summers of The Police is the host.

Robinson spent much of childhood in Jacksonville before moving to California and doing the whole Nickelodeon thing. He's back living here now but has only played out a few times.Instead, he's been recording a CD, his third but the first for Jacksonville's 633 Records