Tunnie Smith

During the summer youth program of 1970 and 1971, a young Tunnie Smith was singled out by Father George Artist for his outstanding singing abilities. He was then introduced to Joe Delpit and Reginal Brown to sing along with their show and dance band "The 13th Amendments. It didn't take long before Tunnie was a full member of the band and became a featured singer performing throughout Louisiana. After a year and a half of performing at nightclubs, military bases and universities Tunnie landed a record deal with Rick Hall's Fame/UA record label. His first single from 1973 was a mid-tempo number entitled "Finders Aren't Always Keepers" flipped with "Do That To Me" It gained National distribution and had some good success. Tunnie left Fame records and was introduced to Stax record executives Al Bell and John Smith. After signing with Stax Tunnie met legendary writer and performer David Porter where they recorded an album which was scheduled for release around 1973/74. Unfortunately Stax's association with CBS came to a halt and the project got shelved. Tunnie went home and carried on performing around the Louisiana area with his new band Sweet Music Orchestra"