Kurt Lee Wheeler is a Canton, Georgia-based singer/songwriter that crafts raw, vulnerable portrayals of life in the American Southeast. He is also a middle grade teacher at an alternative school.
The son of a cattleman and homemaker, Wheeler taught himself to play guitar and soon began recording his own songs reel to reel, then to cassettes, then to four track-tape whenever he could catch a break from helping with the cattle and playing sports.
In the mid 80s, he enlisted in the Air Force and along with his fellow airmen formed Hint of Insurgence, a band influenced by the burgeoning sounds of college radio and the classic rock he cut his teeth on growing up.
In 1992, he released his first album Bama Motel, which included new, folk-tinged originals and rock-oriented songs. Shortly after its release, Kurt began teaching school and took an indefinite hiatus from music to focus on raising a family.
However, in the mid 2010s, Kurt began playing live in the North Georgia singer/songwriter scene and writing music again, taking on a more stripped down acoustic sound and approaching it with the same ethos as teaching students: to help create positive change in others’ lives.
Recently, Kurt took to Facebook to do a live show to raise money for the free and reduced lunch program for the school system where he teaches. He raised over $24,000 during the 45 minute live event. The money went to help provide food for students that could not attend school and get food as a result of school closure because of COVID19.
