WES YOAKAM

Wes began his professional music career in the fertile music ground of Athens, GA. He was the founder of “Catfish Jenkins” a rock/pop group that released their first cd “Normaltown”, (produced by Athens legend John Keane) through Birmingham, AL-based Kudzu Records. The band sold out the local 1000 seat Georgia Theatre consistently and toured the country from Georgia to New York to Colorado to Michigan and back again. The band was included on the AWARE II compilation along with Hootie and the Blowfish, Edwin McCain, the Verve Pipe, and Vertical Horizon which garnered them national attention. Lead track “The Wishing Time”, received college and AAA airplay, and the band toured and performed with The Verve Pipe, Hootie and the Blowfish, Vertical Horizon, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Samples, Blues Traveler, Cowboy Mouth, The Freddy Jones Band, Jupiter Coyote and many others at clubs, theatres, and big festivals like Atlanta’s Music Midtown, and Birmingham’s City Stages.
In 2003, Wes released his second album, “Four Star Explosion”, with his group “Big Atomic” to rave reviews and much critical acclaim. Track three “Breathe”, placed 5th out of 10,000 entries in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, while other tracks “A Postcard” and “Evaporate” were selected by Smithereens frontman and B.E.A.M. chairman Pat DiNizio to earn a B.E.A.M. grant for emerging artists. Three songs from the album were also featured in director Ben Taylor’s feature film, “In the Flesh” that was accepted into film festivals in the U.S. and Germany and earned a national distribution deal. Even MTV recognized the band: power rocker “When Sparks Fly” was featured in the “Making of the Video” program for Brittany Spears’ “Stronger”. The most recent release album release “Wrestling the Dragon and the Rat” has sold almost 4000 copies and is set for its second pressing.
Wes is currently touring the country, most often performing in his favorite cities Atlanta, Vail, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee, while writing songs for a new solo album and instrumental themes for TV and film. He is also a guest performer with the Southeastern Festival of Song, a world class group of classically trained musicians and opera singers that, from show to show, will perform anything from Mozart to Bruce Springsteen! Wes has appeared in the SEFoS performances of “The Great Escape” at Emory (Atlanta), “Secrets of the Sky and Sea” in the Berkshires(MA) last summer, and was with them in Bar Harbor, Maine as part of the annual Bar Harbor music festival this summer.