If you watched the premiere of CMT’s newest show, “Can You Duet,” you might have seen local country duo Phil Vandel and Matt Snook (aka Vandel-Snook) on it. You’d have to look closely though. They only appear in crowd shots.
Vandel-Snook made the trip to Nashville in January to try out for the show, and they made the first round of cuts. The crowd of thousands was cut down to 200 duos, who were given a number and told to wait for a call.
“We were really pretty excited about it,” Vandel says, “thinking we at least had a shot of getting on there.”
A call did come, an “unofficial” one, telling the two not to change their hair or lose or gain weight and asking what airline they would be flying out on. Unfortunately, another call asking them to come back officially never came.
“What you see on TV is the top 80 and them narrowing it down to 14,” Snook says. “I really thought we’d be in the top 80.”
Even though you can’t see them on TV, you will be able to see Vandel-Snook live this weekend. They’ll be playing at 9 p.m. April 26 at the Buffalo Bar.
They didn’t make it onto TV, but Vandel-Snook has other projects keeping them busy. Besides a busy performance schedule — five nights a week— in St. Joseph and the Kansas City area, the two will be making monthly trips to Nashville to make connections and, eventually, land a record deal.
“I think we’re going to focus our efforts on going out there and ... continue to create and show them something they can’t turn down,” Snook says.
The duo also is focusing on their involvement with Project 091, a national organization that helps wounded soldiers. Vandel-Snook has performed for the organization before and has two appearances scheduled this summer in Washington, D.C. and Dallas.
They’ve also released their first single, “Welcome Home,” which was written for Project 091.
“When they approached us about writing this song for the organization, we just decided right then that regardless if we get a record deal, this is something we’re going to focus on,” Vandel says.
Project 091 could help them on their way to a record deal, though. Snook says “Welcome Home” might just be the single to help them hit it big.
“I have a feeling we could get published with that song and get a record deal with that,” he says, “but that’s probably wishful thinking on my part.”
Lifestyles reporter Lacey Storer can be e-mailed at lstorer@npgco.com
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