Kenansville native Wesko (Wesley Holmes) performs his original song, ‘Helene,’ in front of a crowd of 80,000 during the Concert for Carolina at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on October 26. Wesko co-wrote the song with his friend J.D. Williamson about a week after the hurricane devastated Western North Carolina. (Courtesy photo:Wesko)
Country superstar Luke Combs, left, greets Kenansville up-and-coming musician Wesko onstage at the Concert for Carolina in Charlotte. Combs, a North Carolina native and one of the organizers of the benefit concert, personally invited Wesko to take part in the show to sing his original song, ‘Helene.’ (Courtesy photo:Wesko)
Of his participation in the Concert for Carolina in Charlotte, Wesko says, ‘I truly feel blessed to have taken part in such an event for my own statesmen in need…’ (Courtesy photo:Wesko)
On Oct. 26, over 80,000 people crowded into Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium for the Concert for Carolina, which raised over $24 million for Hurricane Helene relief efforts. The star-studded event featured performances by, among others, Luke Combs, Eric Church, James Taylor, the Avett Brothers, Scotty McCreery, Sheryl Crow, and Keith Urban. But it was one musician, in particular, who succeeded in capturing the essence of what the evening was all about — and that musician was Duplin County’s own Wesko.
Born Wesley Holmes, 24-year-old Wesko performs under the nickname his granddad gave him when he was just three or four years old. About a week after Helene tore through and tore up Western North Carolina, Wesko teamed up with his friend J.D. Williamson and wrote a song about the storm’s devastation — simply titled “Helene” — and it was that song that earned him a spot in the spotlight alongside many musicians he considers to be his heroes.
What’s more, he’ll be lending his talents to another benefit concert on Nov. 15, beginning at 5 p.m., at Hayes Auditorium on the Lees-McRae College campus in Banner Elk. All proceeds from the Music For The Mountains show will go to the families of first responders in Avery County who were directly impacted by Hurricane Helene. Avery County borders Tennessee, so the concert will feature Wesko and another N.C. performer, Mikele Buck, as well as Tennessee’s Hayden Coffman.
In an email interview, Wesko said that when he and Williamson started their song-writing session shortly after Helene, they had no intention of writing about the storm. “But when faced with the endless opportunities of things we could write about, we chose to write about the one thing that was weighing heavy on both our hearts,” he said. “We’d seen videos on TikTok and the news about the devastation that was widespread and we felt the pull to write about the heartbreaking things our statesmen were going through.” They penned the song in about half an hour.
Wesko sent the song to his management team and to some friends, and all were in agreement that it needed to be posted immediately for people to hear. When the video started racking up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, “we all knew that we had something special here,” he said. “People from the mountains started to use this song in the background of videos, detailing the destruction and the things that they were seeing.”
With his song soaring in popularity, Wesko received an invitation from a relief organization based in Swannanoa to tour the devastation in that area. While there, he also did a radio interview in Asheville. It was after the interview, during the drive back to his Kenansville home, that he received a call from Luke Combs, who was in the process of working with Eric Church — both men are N.C. natives — to put together the Concert for Carolina. Combs shared with Wesko that he loved “Helene” and he “loved that the people of North Carolina had taken an ownership of the song.” With that, he asked Wesko to join him onstage during the upcoming concert to share the song with the audience there.
“This was an absolute shock!” Wesko enthused. “Not once did I ever imagine that I would be on the phone with one of the leading superstars in country music!”
What makes this experience all the more impressive is that Wesko has been working as a musician a relatively short time. Although his appreciation for music dates back to childhood, he didn’t learn to play the guitar until he was 19 and didn’t sing publicly until the age of 21. “I just decided one day that I needed a hobby outside of work [at the time, he was employed by a hydroseeding company], picked up a guitar, and started trying to play along to my favorite songs,” he recalled.
He immediately began writing songs, as well, and has worked on honing that skill over the years. “I’ve…found that pouring my heart out in each of my songs tends to make them much better!” he noted.
Having the opportunity to perform “Helene” onstage with some of his heroes wasn’t just the fulfillment of a dream; it far exceeded his dreams. “When it came time to play, I just leaned into the nervousness I was feeling and tried to take in the special moment,” he stated, going on to describe the audience response as “absolutely astounding.” After the concert, fans posted videos of his performance, which garnered thousands of views.
“I truly feel blessed to have taken part in such an event for my own statesmen in need, and to be completely honest, I would say that the cause meant more to me than the concert itself,” he said.
There are numerous ways to access “Helene” (iTunes Store, pandora, Spotify, etc.) and several ways to follow Wesko: on Facebook, Wesko; on YouTube @wesko2831; on Instagram @itswesko.
Wesko has pledged to donate 50 percent of all the proceeds from “Helene” to the North Carolina Community Foundation Disaster Relief Fund, to provide support in the coming months and years to communities in western N.C. that were affected by Hurricane Helene.
“This cause means the world to me just because these are our fellow North Carolinians that are struggling,” he explained. “It isn’t in some far distant place away from home. It is home. These are our people and it is our duty as North Carolinians to take care of our own.”
