Artist description CONNIE'S CORNER is story-time! Get cozy and comfortable and treat yourself to 10 minutes of her mesmerizing true story of positive encounters with UFOs -- which caused her begin composing music, led to the love of her life, and inspires enormous optimism about the future of Earth and the human race! Soon to follow will be a sample recording of her booklet, PLANET EARTH PRIMER, as well as her METAPHYSICAL PRINCIPLES booklet sample arriving soon after that.

Music Style UFO-inspired, New Age, positive, spiritual, peaceful, powerful

Musical Influences Moody Blues, ELP, Gregorian Chants, Beatles, Bach, Sergio Mendes, Hair, YES, Paul Simon, Phil Collins, James Taylor, Crosby Stills & Nash, Chick Corea, Genesis, Segovia, Peter Gabriel

Similar Artists Yanni, Moody Blues, Enya, Ray Lynch, Kitaro, Riverdance!, Hildegard

Artist History CONNIE COOK SMITH enjoyed international acclaim in 1990 when she was featured on the front page of the September 4th edition of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.The reason? Her well-documented experiences with UFOs - plus the positive philosophy and lovely music that resulted from those contacts.The WSJ article generated dozens of interviews on radio and television - CNN, CBS's This Morning Show, Unsolved Mysteries, Nightside in Washington D.C. - as well as the onslaught of bags of mail from all over the world. She gleefully notes that soon after her lyrics were used to teach English in the former Soviet Union, "communism crumbled!"Connie's 1991 self-published booklet, Planet Earth Primer, sold out all 2,000 copies. In October of 1996, Way of the Peaceful Warrior author Dan Millman telephoned Connie to say that he periodically clears out his books, but this is one little item he can never let go of, and he recommended her to his publishers.Another flurry of media attention occurred in 1994 with the analysis of Connie's songs in Joseph Lanza's book from St. Martin's Press of New York. Despite his whimsical title - Elevator Music, A Surreal History - this serious work was favorably reviewed by the New York Times, Billboard, Publishers' Weekly and other major media, and it has become a research reference in university music departments around the United States.Prior to global exposure, Connie worked as a newspaper writer and occasional magazine contributor on a variety of social issues such as church/state separation, Native American rights, women's rights, youth drug prevention, and her proposed program to reduce teen pregnancy. Of her celebrity interviews, her personal favorite is a feature she published at age 19 after spending a day with Jim Morrison and The Doors.In recent years, she has been preoccupied with healing recurrent depression due to a neighbor's years of sexual abuse when she was a child, and with helping her daughter through the teen years. Mainly, she has been overseeing all the details of life with her beloved husband-and-partner. In 1997, Mark suffered a nearly fatal cerebral hemorrhage from a brain tumor, along with complications from brain surgery.Throughout all these challenges and Mark's difficult, ongoing recovery, her unusual experiences, the music, and mainly - her philosophy - have provided them with not only a sustaining perspective, but an illuminating overall perspective that offers a bigger picture and profound inspiration for a weary world.

Group Members Connie Cook Smith (www.hcsi.com/newage/conniecook)

Instruments Keyboads; Casio , ESQ-1 ENSONIQ, piano, acoustic guitar, human voice, Tabla, hand drums, drum set, tympani, assorted percussion

Albums Prairie Dolphins, Cook'N'Mark LIVE, Details of ET Contact (narrative, plus 4 songs)

Press Reviews "A dreamy sort of jazz and soft-rock fusion with lyrics." Robert Johnson, The Wall Street Journal. "There's something other-worldly about her songs." David Wild, Rolling Stone Magazine. "Moodsong with no terrestrial precedent." Joseph Lanza, Elevator Music, A Surreal History (St. Martin's Press), pp.183-187. Their music "is moving and inspired, with a very sweet quality of innocence." Heartsong Review Magazine (Eugene, Oregon). "Great songwriting skills – several tunes make the hairs on the back of one's neck rise!" And,"No one-trick pony here. One catchy melody is written around three chords in the style of the Beatles' ‘Ob La Di, Ob La Da.'"Keith "Birdman" Smith, People of Peoria Magazine. "Superb, fresh!" Igor Shpak, Molodaya Gvardia (The Young Guard) in Kiev, Russia. (Cook'N'Mark's "White Light" was used to teach English to Russian students.)

Additional Info The DOORS, Jon Anderson of YES, the COASTERS: As a cub reporter, Connie spent a day with Jim Morrison and the Doors just when Light My Fire hit #1. See her write-up on her website: www.hcsi.com/newage/conniecook/webdoc8.html Jon Anderson of YES telephoned Connie and Mark in December of 1987 upon receiving her UFO newsletter after a concert. Jon and Connie compared notes on ET experiences, and Mark and Jon discussed recording techniques. As a professional drummer, Mark played with the Coasters' reunion tour when they performed in central Illinois.

Location Canton, IL - USA

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