Kicking It in the Music Business: The Music of Mike Neer
Mike Neer, who has been kicking it in the music business for more than twenty years, will be teaching at
Centrum's Dobro Intensive, July 10-13, 2008.
Equally at home in myriad styles of music, Mike made a name for himself playing Hawaiian steel guitar with The Moonlighters from 2004 through 2007. “I fell in love with the instrument years ago, but after a few failed attempts to play it, I kind of gave up. It wasn’t until I found the Moonlighters and my National Tricone that I had a purpose for playing other than my own enjoyment. I now had a voice.”
Mike used his knowledge of jazz and old-time Hawaiian music to great advantage by fusing them together, much in the same way that the early masters like Sol Hoopii and Benny Nawahi did. “I like to approach the instrument fresh every time I play, and I like to improvise most of my parts. It’s just the way I’ve always been. I guess I have a pretty small attention span, but that’s resulted in me having better ears.”
