![]() Dan Smith maintains there have been many talented bands who made it to the brink of stardom, yet because of unexpected circumstances, were never able to break beyond the boundaries of regional notoriety. This is a phenomenon he has witnessed on many occasions, not only through his work as a talent booking agent, but also his career in Riverrock, a popular Kansas City area country band that was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. While in high school in the late 1960s, Smith learned to play the drums and briefly performed with a band called Pflash. He explained that they took their name from a premium fuel that was sold at a Fina station where his older brother was working at the time. “I graduated from high school in Overland Park in 1971, later attended a community college and then went to work as a salesman for a real estate company,” he said. “But then I went to work for a place called Midwest Inventory, and that’s where I met Jim Blanton, who shared similar musical interests.” Blanton, who was also a fan of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was learning to play the fiddle. After about a year of discussing the possibility, the friends decided to form Riverrock and began rehearsing as a five-piece band with John Mumma, Paul Mumma and Steve Hall. “I decided to learn to play the washboard because the drums just seemed to overpower the acoustic performances we were doing,” Smith explained. “That worked out well and set us apart from a lot of other bands.” He continued, “We played our first performance live on July 4, 1974, and only had about an hour’s worth of music, but everybody loved it.” His mother, Janet Smith, initially helped as their booking agent and worked to find venues where they could share their unique fusion of bluegrass and country. They soon were able to make a five-song demo and took a copy of the cassette to a bar in the River Quay District (now River Market). After the owner of the bar heard their music, Riverrock was given a job as the house band and began performing six days a week. As Smith explained, such repeated performances helped them refine their craft as musicians. One evening when Riverrock was playing before a small audience because of wintry weather outdoors, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was in town and one its members, John McEuen, came to see their show. He was invited to sit in with Riverrock, leading to a lasting friendship between Smith and McEuen. “Around 1976 we had a booking agent that went to conferences for county fairs, and we ended up getting a bunch of dates from that,” Smith said. “For several years, we were busy doing shows and shared the stage with a lot of acts. We opened for groups like the Oak Ridge Boys, Pure Prairie League, and Hank Williams Jr., among others.” In the late 1970s, Riverrock earned some widespread attention by appearing on the Tulsa Opry Show. They also had the opportunity to perform with Minnie Pearl, who, after one of their shows, expressed how impressed she was with Smith’s playing of the washboard. By this time, Riverrock had recorded two albums—one in 1975 at Sound Recorders in Kansas City and a live album in 1977. Then, while still highly popular in the Kansas City region, they recorded the album “Midwest Man” in Nashville in January 1980, featuring the vocals of Rick Harrelson. “Country music was kind of getting out of fashion in the mid-1980s and there was some conflict within the group, so after some change in personnel, I remained the only original member and decided to shut it down,” Smith explained. He added, “I had started my own booking agency in 1979 and began managing other bands such as Glow and Dixie Cadillacs. Glow was my brother’s band, and it came really close to making it to the big time, but it just never came to fruition.” Continuing his booking agency work, Smith decided to put a new version of Riverrock together in 1991. For a while, the group found some renewed success with LaRose, an African American R&B artist, as its lead singer. Regrettably, she later had to leave the music scene for health reasons. “I was still booking a lot of stuff and making a living as a musician, but by the early 2000s, Riverrock was only playing an occasional reunion,” Smith said. “I was also busy operating a recording studio and got to the point where I didn’t have a lot of time to play on the side.” Smith teamed up with Allen Blasco in 2009, a popular local musician whose mother wrote “My Happiness”—the first song recorded by Elvis Presley. They put together Riverrock for a show, which was at the time comprised of three original members. In 2011, Riverrock was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. Since then, Riverrock has continued to perform at shows throughout the Kansas City area with Smith and the Mumma brothers. “I believe every town has that kind of story like Riverrock, where a certain band almost makes it to the big leagues but just can’t get over that last hump,” Smith said. “Riverrock has survived a lot of changes in musical tastes, and it’s certainly been a lot of fun.” Smith reflected, “I don’t feel slighted in any way regarding our career in music; I’m just very fortunate to have been able to perform as long as I have and to have become friends with so many wonderful musicians.” Jeremy P. Ämick is the author of the forthcoming book “Movin’ On,” biography of the band Missouri.
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![]() Somewhere at the confluence of sociology, archaeology and pop culture is where New Jersey native Robert Bruce chooses to hang his professional credentials. In recent years, his appearances on the AMC television series “Comic Book Men” exposed his talent for locating and marketing unique collectibles ranging from furniture to comic books and toys, and grew into an interest he strived to parlay into a robust business endeavor. Comic Book Men ran for seven seasons and followed daily interactions at the Secret Stash—a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey, co-owned by movie director, actor and author Kevin Smith, who directed such films as Clerks and Mallrats. A self-identified “pop-culturist,” Bruce excitedly described his fascination with memories of his youth, bouncing from discussions on film iterations of Zorro and the toys and collectibles associated with the character, and quickly making a segue to reflections of when he first saw the spicy 1968 science-fiction film “Barbarella” decades ago. “My mother’s side of the family has a legacy in the U.S. dating back to the 17th century,” he proudly remarked. “My father’s family settled in the Rumson, New Jersey, area in 1840, and I graduated in 1977 from the same high school my father attended,” he added. Bruce recognizes that his greatest notoriety has come from Comic Book Men, for which he has received credit as a producer and procured collectibles used in a number of episodes. On several occasions, he made appearances on the show to provide appraisals for rare and exclusive items, which, he maintains, has been both a blessing and a curse. “The money that comes with a television series is certainly nice … but then you still have to make a living for the rest of the year,” he explained. “Also, it got to the point where people were hesitant to sell me any items because they thought I was getting something over on them.” After finishing high school in New Jersey, Bruce traveled to New York City, where he briefly became involved in the punk rock scene. For a short time, he was a roadie with iconic bands including the Clash and the Ramones. However, he soon embarked upon a path of greater stability when hired as a bicycle messenger for a large printing company. While performing his messenger duties, he was injured when struck by an automobile. The company placed him as a sales representative and Bruce later ascended to the position of a vice president of sales. He sold facility brochures and postcard printing services to customers like the Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “During this time, I really became intrigued by historical American furniture and American art pottery,” he said. “But I guess that I always had an interest in collecting because as a kid I collected coins, stamps, comic books and various other items.” He continued, “Sometime around 1986 or 1987, I began purchasing toys and attending the 26th Street Flea Market in New York. What I liked about that is that people would descend on that flea market from all over and I didn’t have to search for unique items outstate.” In the 1990s, while continuing to amass an assortment of thousands of collectibles, he opened a small retail shop in Red Bank, New Jersey, called the Groove Spot. Infrequently, he bid on storage lockers but soon chose to focus his efforts on visiting flea markets throughout the region to expand his inventory. “There always seemed to be despair associated with storage lockers—the owner has passed away and they are selling it, someone lost their job, someone went in the military and was sent overseas …,” he explained. “I got away from that because there’s just too much bad karma involved.” Bruce’s retail establishment had a healthy run for a number of years but rent soon became too high for him in the business district of Red Bank. He then chose to embrace the advent of online sales and opened a small warehouse (which he estimates to be only 20 by 30 feet in size) that is now packed with nearly 100,000 items. “There are certain items that people remember owning or playing with during their youth and when they get older, they want to find those items as a means to reconnect to the past,” he noted. “I really enjoy being part of that process.” His experiences as a collector have bequeathed him a wealth of knowledge regarding estimated values of thousands of rare items, resulting in his being called upon to pick specific pieces for notable collectors in addition to appraising estates that have later gone to auction. He said, “Personally, I have about 20,000 comics in my collection and focus on independent, underground and alternative press. For me, these comics truly represent the First Amendment … carrying forth our freedom of speech and, at times, pushing the boundaries of social norms.” Television has delivered Bruce a level of unexpected fame among a worldwide audience but, after seven seasons, he now enjoys a break from the show and his return to the thrills of collecting. The passion and the expertise he developed within a unique market has since inspired him to train a new generation of collectors. “I mostly sell online and continue to visit a flea market every Friday,” he said. “I am always on the search for rarer items, which is the thing that drives me—you never know what your are going to find.” He added, “Over the years, I have accrued all of these prices and values of thousands of items that are stored in my head. At one time, I didn’t want to share my knowledge but have now reached the point where I didn’t want it to be wasted. I have begun escorting those interested in the trade to flea markets and other venues to show them the entire process of finding an item, researching and then marketing." He concluded, “Now I view it as my responsibility to share what I’ve learned and am mentoring others who can take up the torch of the collectibles business.” The 62-year-old Robert Bruce died unexpectedly on January 1, 2022, but his knowledge and intuition related to pop-culture items lives on through re-runs of seven seasons of Comic Book Men. Jeremy P. Amick is the author of the upcoming book "Movin' On," which chronicles the legacy of the classic rock band Missouri. |
AuthorJeremy P. Ämick is an award-winning author and historian and dedicated to preserving music, military and local histories. Archives
June 2024
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