This week we welcome the multi-talented, Kelly Smith, from Ozarks LIVE and Ozarks Pickers!
Kelly Smith has been a professional singer for 27 years. She knew she wanted to be a performer at a very early age. When she was eight she began singing and performing for anyone who would listen. Later Kelly started playing the piano and writing her own material This led to her joining a couple of bands and performing in local talent shows.
In 1991 her road to Branson started with a job performing with Branson's founding show, the Baldknobbers.
After that, Kelly joined the cast of Legends in Concert and traveled with them all over the US and Australia as Cher, Shania Twain, and Olivia Newton-John. Her amazing ability to recreate Cher led to her being chosen to sing the voice of Cher for the television movie "And The Beat Goes On":
In 2004, Kelly also performed with Tony Orlando and his famed Branson Christmas Show, and also sang back up for Roy Clark's Christmas album.
Kelly now works for KOLR 10 TV and KOZL 27 in Springfield, Missouri as a Co-Host for Ozarks Live, a lifestyle program highlighting what the area has to offer! She is also co-Host the very popular Ozarks Pickers that airs on KOZL 27z. Kelly's husband, David Smith, is also a very talented musician and can be seen performing with Raiding The Country Vault at the Starlite Theatre.
You can catch Ozarks LIVE Monday through Friday at 3pm on KOLR-10. Ozarks Pickers airs Sunday nights at 6pm on KOZL-Z27. For more information visit: OzarksFirst.com.
This week we also welcome back to our stage, Country Music recording artist, Dennis Stroughmatt!
Fingers and bow flying, Dennis Stroughmatt takes listeners on a musical odyssey not so different from his own musical journeys into Upper Louisiana Creole Culture. Taught to play fiddle by local Creole fiddlers Roy Boyer and Charlie Pashia in the tradition of their fathers, Dennis gradually became an adopted son of the French Midwest Creoles living along the Mississippi River near St Louis.
A vibrant blend of Celtic, Canadian and Old Time sounds, this music bridges the gap between contemporary Canadian and Louisiana Cajun styles. Preserved by families in the Ozark foothills, the music remains largely intact and true to the traditions that have been passed down for over three centuries.
A medley of music, language, stories, and culture secreted away in the Missouri Ozarks now has a voice in the tapestry of this world. With the blessing of the Creole people of the Midwest, Dennis Stroughmatt et l'Esprit Creole are its passionate ambassadors, expanding interest and excitement in a region that has been, in may ways, ignored by the history books. What many have considered to be long lost is alive and kicking.
It'll make your soul jump, your head spin, and your heart glad to know that it is still here. As they say in the hills, "On est toujours icitte: We are still here!!
For more information on Dennis, visit his website: CreoleFiddle.com.
