A Blues Music Award-winning songwriter, vocalist/guitarist Mike Zito rocked the Sarasota Blues and Music Festival in September as part of the super group Royal Southern Brotherhood.

But Zito is also a force as a front man.

Last year, he turned in a sizzling performance as the special guest during Damon Fowler's Sugar Shack Mondays at Aces Live.

Zito performs with his band The Wheel at the same Bradenton venue on Friday. Expect to hear material off his outstanding new album "Greyhound."

It features Zito's emotive vocals and detailed, self-penned songs about life's trials, tribulations and triumphs.

"Greyhound" opens with the wanderlust stomp of "Roll On," recently featured on the hit FX show "Sons of Anarchy," and then -- boom -- the show-stopping title track.

Singing over a rollicking back-beat and hellish-hot guitar licks, Zito revisits his days of booze and pills and powders. He's stolen a guitar and a credit card and making his blind getaway by bus.

"I'm scared and all alone, don't know right from wrong," he sings with haunting fervor.

Other highlights include the acoustic, road weary "Motel Blues," the reconsider-baby blues of "Stay" and the dancing-in-the-face-of-eternal-doom rocker "Judgment Day."

One of the more original voices in the contemporary blues world, Zito takes listeners on a memorable ride with "Greyhound."

Rebecca Bird will open the show at Aces Live.

Details: 9 p.m. Dec. 14, Aces Live, 4343 Palma Sola Blvd., Bradenton. Tickets: $10 (advance), $12 (door). Information: 941-795-3886 or aceslivemusic.com.

Wade Tatangelo, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-745-7057. Follow Twitter.com/wtatangelo.