In 1994, "Smith 'N' Kontras" released a 12 song cassette of all original material. Country music had become very popular and was starting to crossover into the pop charts. We played some mainstream country songs and although our live show was basically oldies, classic and pop rock, the country songs we did were well accepted. The songs on our cassette were very mainstream with a country "feel" to them. They were loaded with vocals and guitar parts. The cassette sold well at our gigs and people requested songs from it constantly.

 

In August of 1994, we had the privilege of performing at the famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville for the first time. It was their "Sunday Writer's Night" which draws people from all over the country.

Imagine coming from Colorado or New York just to play 3 original songs hoping to be discovered by someone important in the music business. Because that has happened to so many at the Bluebird, it is the most popular writer's night in the country. The Bluebird was also featured in the movie "A Thing Called Love" which certainly added to it's popularity. "Smith 'N' Kontras" performed there on three different occasions.

In 1995, we were fortunate enough to be selected to perform on the "Charlie Daniels' Talent Round-Up" TV show on the TNN network. It was a talent show and contest with different categories for band, vocal group and soloist. We entered as a vocal group but we wanted more than two voices.

We enlisted the help of a strong tenor who was a good friend of my partner's and, believe it or not, had the same last name! So when we appeared on the show, we kept the name "Smith 'N' Kontras". (This confused Charlie a little, since there were two "Smiths" and only one "Kontras".)

We got past the first round of the contest but did not make it past the semifinals.

Charlie was nice enough to autograph a photo for me. All in all, this was a great experience!

In November, Smith 'N' Kontras performed at the very large electronics store, "Incredible Universe". Our stage was a complete video sound stage that could send a live performance to any TV in the store. Fortunately, we were able to obtain some video.

The end of 1995 brought an end to "Smith 'N' Kontras". My partner decided he wanted to go solo, doing gigs on his own. I had grown a lot as an entertainer and writer during my time in "Smith 'N' Kontras" and now was the time for me to put my own show together. I promised myself that I was starting over for the last time.

Click here to visit the Smith 'N' Kontras historical website.