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MIKE

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Mike has been playing guitar and other stuff since he was 12. He caught the bug after seeing a friend of his step dads play, after which he bought a Gibson melody maker and 5 Ventures albums and a portable Sears record player and learned the albums mostly note for note. He practiced every day !!!

Mike was greatly influenced by the Ventures, and later Duane Allman, Dickie Betts, Gary Rossington. Carlos Santana, BB King, Buddy Guy, among others. He played his first public performance at a folk festival in Franklin NC, when he was 14 and as a result was asked to play lead guitar in a band called "Little David and the Vyneriders" well, was the divine riders – ha! He played all kinds of clubs in north Georgia even though most of the band wasn’t old enough to get in. Besides playing the guitar, he started some singing at that time. That continued mostly through high school, and he played a stint with the family gospel group and even recorded an album with them. That was when Mike learned how to sing harmony. He comments There's NOTHING like family harmony!!!!"

After this, he and some friends formed "The Shades" - after the Beatles tiny sunglasses. He moved to Highlands NC and was in "Low Rent Inc" good little band! A few years later a high school friend introduced him to a life long friend, Ken Beck who was the premier musician etc in Sylva, N.C. at that time.

Together, he and Ken formed a band called "Greenscreek" along with other members: Bill Moore, Chuck Russell, Mark Claxton, and Donald Ashe. Donald didn’t stay long and they found Niles Galloway (what a picker) - aolong the way they also had a few female singers too, including Terry Lynn Queen, and Peggy McClainey. GREENSCREEK recorded quite a bit back then and had a regional hit that was played on the radio and juke boxes for a few months but didn’t get much further. A lot of the songs in this band were originals.

After DISCO came along and other career responsibilities arose, came along GREENSCREEK finally split up. After they broker up, Mike tried some other bands, including another one with Ken and his brother Tim, Robbie Keener and Susan Lewis, but it just wasn’t the same since Mike had moved to Asheville and the distance was too much ! He later played with a very good band called Sweeten Creek which did a demo of one of Ken's songs that was used to marketl Ken's song in Nashville.

25 years later, he ran into Ken and had a reunion and discussed reviving they musical involvement. They decided to give birth to another band which was to include Ken, Chuck and Mike (from GREENSCREEK) and added Jerry Moody and Kevin Jamison, both local musicians. Since most of the members now had quite a few years on themselves, they decide to name this new band THE ELDERLY BROTHERS.

Sadly Jerry had to leave the THE ELDERLY BROTHERS with a debilitating disease. They replaced Jerry with Skip Almond, aother bassist, who was mostly known from another local band THE FLUID OUNCES as well as others through the years Since that time the THE ELDERLY BROTHERS havebeen honing their song list and are bringing back the music they love and grew up on. The crowds are responding very positively to our music, since a lot of them remember the same music that we do - and the younger generation also loves it - whether their parents played it when they were very young, or whether it is JUST GREAT MUSIC!

This just proves that the good stuff endures. Y'all come on out to hear us and let us know what YOU think!!!

Mike also has also written a number of at least 15 original songs & probably more. Here are several. Click on the name of each song to hear an MP3 clip from each one.I'll keep adding more as time allows.

~ MORE TO COME ~