Nichols + Hamer + See You Tuesday

Location: R.A. Fountain

From our promo for this 3-in-1 concert:

Saturday night’s musical showcase features two of the region’s best singer-songwriters in Mike Hamer, of Greenville, and Chet Nichols, of Wilson.

Opening act See You Tuesday is Luke Whisnant on guitar and Erica Plouffe Lazure on vocals.

Nichols, who studied art at ECU, has been called an “eastern Carolina Springsteen.” He writes and performs gritty narratives from the blue collar tobacco- and cotton-belt cultures as opposed to Springsteen’s better known tales from the rust belt.

“Chet’s had more to say about the war in Iraq than any singer-songwriter I’ve encountered,” said Albright. “He has a strong feel and empathy for small folks who get caught up in the larger machinery of society that’s pretty much out of their control.”

Nichols, who plays guitar and mandolin, has recorded two CDs, Somewhere Out There and The Local Vocal Sessions. Both consist of all original songs.

Like Nichols, Hamer favors the performing of original material. Most of his previous Fountain appearances have been with some of his many musician friends from the area, but tonight’s show will be almost exclusively a solo set.

“I’ll do a couple of songs with Luke and Erica,” he said, “and they’ll do a couple with me, but other than that, it’s going to be all solo.”

And, as antidote to Valentine’s Day just passed, Hamer said he’ll play a few “songs for the broken-hearted.”

Hamer, who plays hammered dulcimer, has released three CDs of original songs, Crow in 1998; Love Dust in 2004; and Rhinos Doin’ the Wild Thing (with the Rhinoceroses & Angelic Choir) in 2005. He plans to debut during this show a couple of new songs, penned during his recent trip to Puerto Rico.

Openers See You Tuesday take their name from a fiction writing workshop at ECU that met on Tuesday evenings. They perform original covers of classic rock and folk artists.

Whisnant, an English professor of creative writing, has been performing music as a hobby since his high school days in Charlotte. Lazure, who writes for the ECU News Bureau, has been singing since she was a child.

The two met in 2004 and performed together informally at social gatherings for a couple of years before debuting their act professionally last December at Fountain General Store to great acclaim.

See You Tuesday will perform for about a half-hour, starting at 7:30. Hamer and Nichols will then present solo sets of about 45 minutes each.

Tags: acoustic Carolina, alt country, Concert, country, folk, original