Mike Hamer joins Louise Kessel for a special music and storytelling performance that includes a disability awareness component.

"People are still talking about you and Mike. Everyone comments on how the group was drawn together by Mike's sing-alongs and how warm and happy it all felt."        Lynn Houser, Fairhope Alabama Public Library

Mike plays hammered dulcimer, harmonica and percussion along with Louise's stories. Songs and Stories swap off as Mike sings (and gets us ALL SINGING!) folk songs and his own original tunes. Mike is disabled as a result of a diving accident and uses a wheelchair. In performance Mike provides a great model of a disabled person living a full and active life.

Louise and Mike have performed together for schools, libraries, retreats, folk concerts, faith communities, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, and more. When performing in schools a disability awareness discussion  and a question and answer session following the performance are included with this program. 

Songwriting Workshops

In addition to teaching songwriting at East Carolina University, Mike conducts community-based songwriting workshops with one goal in mind: give participants the tools and space to create their own song, even if they've never written a song before. Workshops range from half-day sessions, or over the span of a few weeks to allow for peer critique and revisions. Mike is also available for mentoring beginning or intermediate songwriters (and performers) on a one-on-one basis, much like a music lesson.

Mike has been writing songs for forty years and has studied songwriting with Fred Koller (who wrote "From A Distance"), David Wilcox formerly of Asheville, and Don Schlitz (who wrote "the Gambler"). Mike has also hosted the Greenville Songwriters Group for many years and has organized several songwriter showcases in Greenville, NC. 

Nursing Homes and Rest Homes

Mike has been singing old standards like "Blue Moon" and "You Are My Sunshine" and whatever songs he can get folks to sing along with him since 1974. He has performed at Rest Homes, Nursing Homes and Community Meals On Wheels programs in Pitt County, NC, where he lives, and other places in North Carolina and Vermont, his place of birth, which he is fortunate enough to visit each summer. One of Mike's specialties is singing classics from the Hoagy Carmichael Songbook, with some Irving Berlin and Louis Armstrong thrown in for good measure. 

The Zen Revelators

Take six strong voices, add two guitars, a hammer dulcimer, an accordion, a wailing harmonica and some percussion, and there you have it: the Zen Pimp Revelators.  The band sings a wide range of tunes from twenties standards to those of the new Millennium. From old Hoagy Carmichael numbers to a cappella Beatles to contemporary folk originals to gut-bucket blues, this is an ensemble that's sure to get everyone in the crowd smiling and wanting to join in on the fun. Band members include: Bob Clyde, Dave Turner, Sue Luddeke, Jim Watson, Bill Reddding and Mike Hamer.       

Mike Hamer and the Rhinoceroses with the Angelic Choir is an Americana-Roots-Rhythm and Blues Band with irresistible dance-driven melodies that mix humor with pathos, Latin rhythms with swing and jungle boogie blues.

Simply said, the Rhinos make a sound party you can dance to.

The Rhinos got together 22 years ago at a benefit concert for Mike, not long after he was paralyzed by a diving accident. Mike sang a set at the benefit, and they all had so much fun they haven't quit yet. The band features drummer Bob Aiken and singer Sue Luddeke (of the Lemon Sisters and Rutabaga Brothers); Bill Newton (from Becca and the Hightones) and numerous other bands on harmonica and sax; Guitar legend Willie Painter (from The Boomers and the Willie Painter Band), and Craig Dittmar on bass (also from the Boomers and the Willie Painter Band). From time to time other musical monsters including percussionist Jim Roberts, singer Erica Plouffe, keyboardist Robert Turner and singer Kim Wilson beef up the ensemble.

Eight Wheels and Nowhere To Go

Eight Wheels and Nowhere to Go is a program that combines the
poetry of Marty Silverthorne and the music of Mike Hamer. Silverthorne is
author of Dry-Skin Messiah, Pot Liquor Promises, No Welfare No Pension Plan.
He has published in numerous literary journals. Hamer, a musician, has
released seven albums on the Black Swamp Music label.  They are co-lyricists
on Hamer¹s three latest CDs.

The "Eight Wheels" in the title refers to the fact that both Silverthorne and Hamer are quadriplegics using wheelchairs. They first met at the Pitt County Memorial Rehabilitation Center in 1985, and they have been friends ever since. They began to collaborate on songs in the mid-90's and performing together at poetry readings, rehabilitation centers, disability arts programs and children's programs. They¹ve also played for the general public for the past six years at the Emerge Gallery in downtown Greenville.  Each ³Eight Wheels² program always features their latest work.