A good rule of thumb when going to a Mindy Smith concert, bring a hanky, a tissue or an extra sleeve. Your tear ducts don’t know the difference between laughing tears and crying tears and you’ll likely be doing both. “Humor is how I compensate for singing so many sad tunes back-to-back,” says Smith.

Mindy Smith is a Long Island-born, Americana award winning, Dove nominated, Nashville based singer-songwriter with a clear and honest passion for Americana, jazz, pop, rock, blues, and folk. As a recording artist, she has sold over 750k albums and singles and amassed over 175 million streams to date. She has played some of the most prestigious festivals in the world including Cambridge Folk Festival, Maverick Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, MerleFest, Austin City Limits, South by Southwest, Bonnaroo and more. Smith has also appeared on The Grand Ole Opry over 20 times.

Songwriter, singer and guitarist John Sieger has a long resume. His band the R&B Cadets ruled the dance floors in Milwaukee in the 1980s, playing a mix of his originals and obscure soul tunes unearthed by bandmates Paul Cebar and Robin Pluer. Their debut, “Top Happy,” for Twin/Tone Records, turned out to be their finale. In the late 80’s his band Semi-Twang recorded for Warner Brothers Records. Both bands have regrouped in recent years and since then, Semi-Twang has released three more collections of his songs, most recently and ode to his hometown, “Kenosha.”

Other Sieger songs have been covered by a long list of great artists including Dwight Yoakam (Don’t Need It Done), Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads (Rev It Up), The Bodeans (The Strangest Kind), Flaco Jimenez (I Found Out), Robbie Fulks (You Break It – You Pay), Phil Lee (I Hope Love Always Knows Your Name, Neon Tombstone) and Greg Trooper (My Bluebell, Real Like That and others). Recorded but still waiting to be released, is a version of “Salty Tears,” sung by Etta James.