Mike Beeson Guitarist in The Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

Mike Beeson Guitarist in the Shotgun Band (Wilkes County)

The first time that I met Mike Beeson who lived at the time in East Bend North Carolina was when The Shotgun Band was first organized.  Mike was a real talkative and likable guy. Mike also had a great family and Mike was a family man. Mike's profession was that he was a building contractor. Mike performed with Bruce from their past in the band called The Nomads from Mount Airy North Carolina. Mike was real talented and added a lot to the band. Mike began as our lead guitarist and he began to add several other instruments into the band and our songs. The bad thing about playing all of these instruments was that he had to set up and transport a lot of equipment each performance. Mike was also a great lead and baritone singer. We performed a lot of Alabama tunes at the time and Mike was right there with the harmony. Mike brought with him two electric guitars. One was a popular Gibson sunburst Les Paul and the other was a Fender Stratocaster. He brought with him a fiddle in which we played "Play me some Mountain Music" by  Alabama. He brought with him a banjo, pedal steel guitar and an organ and an old Wurlitzer electric piano. Each of these required an amplifier. It took Mike as much time to set up and tear down each performance as it did our drummer. Each instrument however added to our sound and Mike could play each one of them real well. Bruce and Mike had a lot to reminisce about  from the days of old when The Nomads performed. We got to hear a lot of good stories. 

Mike and Keith Hamlin performed with us for about six years and both left at the same time and we reorganized within weeks to continue on. I really missed those guys. We made a lot of good music and money over that period of time and hopefully made a lot of people happy. We had a lot of good times together and we all bonded like brothers. Mike I believe now lives in Rock Hill South Carolina.