Northern Renegades

Wes continued with a variety of songs for all factions of the audience including Ballads, Uptempo and Easy listening numbers e.g, Fields Of Athenrye, Amarillo By Morning, Mercury Blues, Baby Likes To Rock It and King Of The Road. However for me he saved two of his best numbers till the end, When I Close My Eyes, a No 2 hit for Kenny Chesney in 1997 but first recorded in 1991 by the late Keith Palmer who tragically died of cancer, aged 39, in 1996 and Tracy Lawrence's, How A Cowgirl Says Goodbye which reached No 4 in 1997 Country charts.

Wes has been coming to several venues in this area for a few years now and always receives a very warm welcome for a very pleasant show.

As usual he kept the dancers active all evening and listeners happy with his singing.

Both Line and Western dancers especially enjoyed, Gone Country, If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Cherokee Boogie, I Need A Breather, Tall Tall Trees, Okie From Muskogee, All My Ex's Live In Texas and loads more.

As is his custom, Wes joined in with dancers on several occasions and encouraged members of the audience to participate in the show by playing one of the many musical instruments he always brings. Tonight Chris, one of our visiting group from Chesterfield , played the Washboard for ' Louisiana Saturday Night.'

Sheffield based Wes is one of our most popular visiting entertainers and always gets a good reception from our audience. Tonight was no exception as he produced a programme to suit all dancers and listeners alike.

Dancers filled the floor to the Mavericks ' All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down', Tracy Lawrence's ' I See It Now', Daron Norwood's ' Cowboys Don't Cry', Mel McDaniels ' Louisianna Saturday Night' and Roger Miller's ' Tall Tall Trees'.

Partner dancers were also catered for with Keith Whitley's ' Don't Close Your Eyes', Brad Paisley's ' We Danced' and another Tracy Lawrence number ' Texas Tornado'.

Requests included Garth Brooks' ' The River' and ' The Dance', Paul Overstreet's ' Seeing My Father In Me' and Blake Shelton's ' Some Beach'.

Everyone joined in with the Bellamy Bros ' If I Said You Had A Beautiul Body', Moon Mullican's ' Cherokee Boogie', Brooks and Dunn's ' Neon Moon ', Alan Jackson's ' Livin on Love' and Kenny Rogers ' The Gambler'.

As we have come to expect , Wes gave us yet another fine all round performance to confirm the reputation he has here.

April 7th 2005 ARIZONA WES

We are always pleased to welcome' Wes' to our club as he is a strong believer in audience participation. The Sheffield singer / guitarist was only here at the end of December but received a very warm reception again from our members tonight.

From the off ' Wes' was prepared to mingle with the dancers and listeners whilst continuing to sing. With ' Cheokee Boogie ' Moon Mulligan's 1951 hit, he produced his Indian wig and Tomahawk to encourage an ' Eh -Oh- Aleena'.

A poncho adorned him for Willy Nelson's 'Seven Spanish Angels' and once again all sorts of small musical instruments were distributed for the audience to provide accompaniment to his singing.

His programme consisted of predominantly of more recent music, most of which was from the last twenty years. Some of his songs are hardly ever heard from other singers: eg Tracy Lawrence's ' If The Good Die Young' and ' Texas Tornado' ; Dwight Yokam's ' 1000 Miles From Nowhere' and Garth Brooks's ' The River'.

Other songs new from 'Wes' included Paul Overstreet's ' Seeing My Father In Me' and Eddy Raven's ' Cowboys Don't Cry'.

As is his wont, he gave us loads of Alan Jackson numbers and kept the dancers on the floor all evening, albeit for line or partner dancing.

Smartly dressed as usual, Wes and his rich country - style vocalising gave us another super night's entertainment.

Cyril Insley.

To see out 2004 we welcomed another of our favourite artistes, the songster from Sheffield , Arizona Wes. Though only a petite person, Wes has a mighty powerful voice capable of delivering ballads and up-tempo numbers with similar ease.

Picking songs that suit his voice, his program has a nice blend of old and new material. Wes makes no secret of his admiration for Alan Jackson; so it was inevitable lots of his Favourite singers numbers would be included in his act, not just the established popular ditties like ' Gone Country', ' Little Bitty' , ' Tall Tall Trees', ' Mercury Blues', ' Summertime Blues' 'Chattahoochie' and ' Livin' on Love' but also his more recent recordings like / ' It's Five O'Clock Somewhere', Wes's first public airing of that beautiful ballad ' Remember When' and the less common ' Tropical Depression'.

Wes likes to involve himself with his audience, occasionally dancing along with members on the dance floor e.g. ' Neon Moon' ' The Chair' and Brad Paisley's ' We Danced'.

He also distributes any number of instrumental accessories like Castanets, Maraccas, Tambourine, etc.and invites the audience to participate in the songs such as ' Cherokee Boogie' ' Dance the Night Away' and ' Pizzarica' older songs included Willy Nelson's ' Funny How Time Slips Away' Don Schlitz's' The Gambler' ' Folsom Prison Blues' and ' Okie From Muskogee'. Newer songs featured, included, ' Beer For My Horses' and ' Wooden Crosses'.

As always Wes's dress and presentation was immaculate, and his performance included no fewer than forty- five full -length songs to produce a splendid feast of real Country Music to keep dancer's, listeners and singers happy all night long.

Tonight we welcomed the return of Sheffield based Country singer Wesley Redfern better known on the circuit as ' Arizona Wes'.

He has been singing Country music for 34 years and like several other artistes became professional following a couple of excursions in the Karaoke field.

Smartly dressed and differently, for each of his three acts, Wes gave a well balanced concert to keep the whole audience content all evening.

An ardent admirer of Alan Jackson, he included several of his songs and it was pleasant to hear the less common ' Meat and Potato Man' and ' It's 5 'o' clock Somewhere'.

A smaller than usual number of visitors still managed to keep the dance floor full for most of the evening. Particular favourites included ' Folsome Prison Blues' Cherokee Boogie, 'Gone Country' and the Bellamy's ' Beautiful Body' song.

More recent songs included ' Three Wooden Crosses ' Beer for my Horses, and 'Brokenheartsville' which were all well received.

A wonderful evening's entertainment was concluded after Wez delivered his fortieth full-length song to a very appreciative reception.

Tonight was the First Anniversary of the Club's move to Shobnall Sports and Social Club.

To mark the occasion a grand party was organised. The evening's guest entertainer was a guy from Sheffield(the city of steel) Arizona Wes.

Anyone who has seen him before knows that he worships Alan Jackson, so it came as no surprise that his show was dominated by the latter's songs. Wes soon got into the party mood, joining in several of the dances but still continuing to sing whilst on the dance floor. Though slight in stature, he has a powerful voice and his repertoire of songs which included George Strait, Mavericks, Neil Diamond and 2003 newcomer Award Winner Joe Nicholls' numbers kept the party swinging all night long, pleasing dancer's and listener's alike.