Spooner Rodeo Entertainment

Amanda Payne

Sponsored by Essentia Health - Spooner Clinic

From the famed family of the award-winning One Arm Bandit Company of Shidler, OK, comes the superbly skilled and talented Amanda Payne. She crawled into the saddle when just an infant and hit the road as an entertainer at the tender age of 18. Now an exciting performer in her own right, Amanda Payne executes precise riding and round-up techniques on likely critters, horses, mules and long horn cattle, and unlikely ones, too, such as a pair of wild buffalo.

With bull whip cracking, she takes control of the animals in the rodeo arena. Then after putting them through their paces, she loads them, not in, but atop a tall trailer designed especially for the performing members of the One Arm Bandit Company, headed by Amanda’s father, the amazing John Payne.

Amanda Jane Payne is carrying on the traditions and standards set by John Payne, who miraculously returned to life after being electrocuted in a home accident, then went on to be named PRCA Specialty Act of the Year an unprecedented 12 times. Spooner Rodeo audiences have thrilled to John Payne’s talents in prior years and this year, our 60th anniversary, will now have the chance to be equally awed by Amanda’s unique skills and abilities..

John Harrison - Rodeo Clown

Sponsored by Johnson Bank - Spooner

Rodeo Clown John Harrison has been selected to perform three times at the prestigious Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, NV. Six times he has been nominated for Comedy Act of the Year, twice nominated for Coors Man in the Can, and twice for PRCA's Clown of the Year.

John became a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in 1999, as a trick and roman rider, and trick roper. He has since diversified and added barrelman to his PRCA card, too. Today John entertains with his walk & talk comedy. Backed by his quick wit, and with his strongest acts, Miss Rodeo Universe and Comedy Trick Riding, he keeps his audiences delighted at every turn of
a phrase and in every astounding maneuver. With 2010, a new breed of magician hit the rodeo trail, and he performs a disappearing feat that would leave even the great Harry Houdini guessing.

John Harrison lives in Soper, Oklahoma with wife, Carla, daughter Addison and son Cazwell. He has a degree in Ag.-business and is a certified equine massage therapist. He was six years old when he received his first trick riding lesson after watching a trick rider perform at a nearby rodeo. Since then he has trained and performed with many of the best trick riders in the world.

Kelly Kenney, Rodeo Announcer

Spooner Rodeo is pleased to have rodeo announcer Kelly Kenney back to help celebrate our 60th year. His silky smooth baritone, his quick wit, his down home humor and his ability to connect with an audience made him a special part of Spooner Rodeo for most of the years since his professional debut in 2001. The chance to win, the crushing blow of defeat, the excitement, the thrills, the lights, the noise, it’s all around you, at Spooner Rodeo, and you are pulled in to become a part of it when Kelly Kenney is your arena announcer.

His tremendous knowledge, born of years of experience as a competitor at all levels and his years of professional announcing, guarantees Spooner audiences they will have more than a good time when Kelly is behind the microphone. They’ll have a chance, too, to learn more about professional rodeo as he explains the odds and the outcomes, and the whys and the wherefores of this glorious sport to them. Astride his favorite horse, Kelly not only informs Rodeo fans but gives them, too, a chance to know about every part of the production, from behind the chutes’ activities to the ups and downs of the exciting action in the arena itself.

As a former team roper and steer wrestler himself, Kelly knows about competing in rodeos from first-hand experience and from the standpoint, too, of a rodeo coach, a job he held on the college level while on his way to attaining his career goal of professional rodeo announcer.

Honored to do his part at each rodeo performance, Kelly believes that he should always “give the fans the show they deserve because they are the backbone of the sport” itself. Kelly Kenney is a welcome and welcoming addition to Spooner Rodeo every time he rides into the arena here.

That’s why Spooner Rodeo Committee is particularly pleased to welcome Kelly Kenney back again this summer to help celebrate our 60th year.

MICHAEL D BAND

After each performance of the 2013 Spooner Rodeo, keep your excitement level high with the rowdy and rockin’ Michael D Band, appearing live nightly just outside the Rodeo arena.

Back again by popular demand, the men of the Michael D Band,
Michael, Kevin, Josh and Brent, will treat you to the perfect ending to a night of rough and rugged rodeo action - the rockin’, raucous and “Let’s Get Rowdy” sound of one fine band. With diverse musical backgrounds, wide experience in many styles of music, and years of professional performance on the road, this band has a driving and edgy sound and manner all its own.

They have the “Reputation,” so that “By The Moonlight” what “Seemed Like A Good Idea” will turn out to be one of your best ever when you stay to rock with the men of Michael D.

Based out of Lexington, KY, the Michael D Band plays its music, as far away as Mississippi and Arizona and as nearby as Hayward, Chetek, and Superior.

If you like your music rowdy, rambunctious, and downright rockin’, you won’t want to miss the Michael D Band at this year’s 60th annual
Spooner Rodeo.

Give them a preview listen on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and iTunes.

To learn more about them, see their website at:
www.themichaeldband.com/