Micah Kesselring, 14, has heroes most kids his age have never heard of (such as guitar gods Duane Allman and Dickey Betts) and a dream they've never considered: leaving his Hocking Hills home and heading to Nashville, Tenn., an oasis of slide guitar and record contracts.

He's moving toward that dream in baby steps.

In February, Kesselring cut his first album, Dobro Blu e, a self-produced, acoustic solo collection of mostly original songs. A few months later, his MySpace page was featured in the May issue of Guitar Player magazine.

Last week, Arizona Jeans announced that Kesselring was among four winners of a music contest conducted by the company. His song Jam for Duane, a tribute to Allman, can be heard on the Arizona Jeans Web site.

Kesselring doesn't make too much of the accolades -- nor of himself. When he talks, he's a sheepish teen.

When he plays, though, he is something else.

"I can express myself a lot differently (with the guitar) than I can anywhere else," he said, sitting under a gazebo at Getaway Cabins, where his mother, Lisa, works. "I can just really express how I'm feeling."

He had just ripped through an electric-slide guitar rendition of Statesboro Blues, written by Blind Willie McTell in the 1920s and made famous almost 50 years later by the Allman Brothers.

He doesn't move much when he plays. His hands flicker up and down the instrument -- his left middle finger capped with a small glass bottle to produce that slide sound.

Beyond that, there's only a pursed lip here, a flared nostril there.

He's a perfectionist, said his father, Mark.

"When he decides he's going to play this song, it isn't that song in a weird way," Mr. Kesselring said. "It's lick for lick."

Nick Collura noticed something similar when he recorded Kesselring's album at Insea Sound Shop, which Collura owns in Nelsonville.

"The boy was very focused -- had a plan," he said. "We'll call him a one-take wonder, if you will -- which you don't see much in this trade, for sure."

His skill level, Collura said, stands out.

"There's a lot of good talent in here, but Micah sure is on the top of that list."

Kesselring, who finished his freshman year at Logan High in May, is the youngest of four children. He inherited the music gene from his father, who has drummed since he was a boy.

At 9, Micah got his first guitar: an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. that he played and played until the fret board blew out. Within a year, he could slash through Stairway to Heaven note by note on a 12-string.

"I never really thought I was that good at guitar," he said. "I just had a bunch of people telling me I'm really good. I thought everybody picked it up at that level.

I guess I was doing pretty advanced stuff at 10 or 11 years old."

He dipped into the Southern rock pool about the same time, and, with a nudge from his dad, discovered the Allmans and the slide.

He hasn't come up for air since. He loves the slide, but his favorite is another old-time stringed instrument: the dobro.

Kesselring has a few other interests: He plays right field during baseball season, has a girlfriend, does well enough in school -- but otherwise just jams day after day, usually on the family's back porch.

Sometimes his dad sits in on the drums. Sometimes his friends play with him, although they usually get bored with the marathon sessions much as Kesselring tires of their lack of expertise.

Mostly he fiddles by himself.

Kesselring, who performs solo twice a month at Millstone BBQ in Logan, is looking to write more songs, to spend less time absorbing the creativity of others and more time letting loose some of his own.

"There's a bunch of little things that keep on happening that are building up to something big, I hope."

amccullough@dispatch.com