BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
On Dec. 10, the Punishers LEMC Three Rivers Chapter is hosting a poker run, Wes Jeans concert, silent auction and 50/50 AND raffle at their clubhouse off Friendly Pines Road.
Headlining the event is Blues recording artist Wes Jeans.
Second, the Millbrook Reserve Officers are now selling tickets for their inaugural Bost Butt Sale. The Butts will be available for pickup Dec. 30 between 6-10 a.m. the Memorial Center behind Village Green Park and next to the Millbrook Civic Center.
If you would like to buy tickets for the Boston Butt sale, please email Officer Matt Spradley at matt.spradley@cityofmillbrook-al.gov. Only 180 Butts will be available for purchase, so get your tickets well in advance. Special thanks to St. Michael and All Angel’s Episcopal Church for their assistance in preparing the butts for the sale.
From the Punishers LEMC Three Rivers event page: “We will be doing a shotgun blast style poker run starting and ending at our clubhouse benefiting the Millbrook Police Departments Reserves. Registration will be from 11 am-1 pm, first bike out a 1pm and last bike in at 5:30 pm. Registration fee is $20 for rider and $10 for passenger. We will be doing a 50/50, silent auction and best/worst hand.
Food will be available for purchase from the Seared Beard food truck and one of our favorite bar tenders Bridget will be taking care of all your beverage needs. Come out and help support OUR community.
We will have the Wes Jeans band performing at the after party. $10 cover charge for the after party if you did not participate in the ride. If you have never heard/seen his performance, you are missing out.
About Wes Jeans:
Wesley Jeans was born in the heart of East Texas on January 13, 1981, only fifteen minutes from where legendary Freddie King was born. Wes grew up in a musically-enriched family and showed an interest in performing at a young age. But it wasn’t until the age of fifteen that Wes chose his path. He found an old three-string guitar in his closet and began learning the beginning riff of “Sunshine of Your Love.” Wes’ natural ability to learn music by ear and his relentless passion for playing caused an explosion of talent that most beginners only dream of.
In 1996, after only playing nine months, Wes entered the International Jimi Hendrix Competition held in Austin, TX and placed an amazing second among fifteen hundred otheryoung guitar players. Special guest Al Hendrix, father of Jimi Hendrix, told Wes “In my eyes, you won because you played straight from the heart like Jimi!” The dream of playing music for a living, moral support from his family and friends, and the ever-encouraging words of Al Hendrix set this Texas tornado in motion. Soon, Wes was playing area venues and festivals, attracting booking agents and record labels.
In 1999, Wes signed a record contract with Ice House Records of Memphis, Tennessee and began work on his debut album HANDS ON (pictured above). Wes recruited Al Green’s bass player and drummer, John Williams and Lloyd Anderson, as well as Albert King’s former B-3 player, Gregg Redding, to record at Sam Phillips studio. After being mastered at legendary Ardent Studio, HANDS ON was released in the summer of 2000. It became the highest pre-sale of any Ice House release and reached ..26 on the National Blues Sales Chart. Along with Wes’ growing popularity came the demand for new releases. In response, in 2004, Wes and long-time friend and bassist, Syd Hydro, along with drummer Adam Hagerman, recorded a four-song demo (pictured below) at Night Song Studio in Knoxville, TN. The success of the independently-released demo fueled the group to film a live DVD. So, on New Years Day 2005, Wes and his band recorded LIVE AT JUANITAS DVD (pictured below) in Little Rock, Arkansas. This raw footage of Texas style Blues and Jimi Hendrix flare quickly became Wes’ number one seller.
Throughout his career, Wes has had the honor of meeting and sharing the stage with many musical greats such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, Billy Gibbons, Dick Dale, Eric Johnson, Hubert Sumlin, Lynryd Skynyrd, Robert Cray, Joe Bonamassa, Indigenous, Lance Lopez, Chris Duarte, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, just to name of few. After the October 2003 show opening for B.B. King in Shreveport, Louisiana, Wes’ performance received a standing ovation and B.B. asked Wes onto his bus where he told him “Son, you keep your head on straight, you are going places.”
Not only has he earned the respect of his peers, he has perked the ears of the media and has been featured by many newspapers, magazines and radio stations throughout the country and Canada. When a poll was done by Guitar Player Magazine in late 2003, readers voted Wes number three among the Young Gun Guitar Players in the nation between Jonny Lang and Kenny Wayne Shepherd (GUITAR PLAYER March 2004). In early September 2005, Wes performed and interviewed for a feature-length documentary that focuses on the guitars musicians have preferred over the past fifty years, Fender and Gibson.
