Count Smokula - Entertainers & Shows
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Smokey Miles was born Robert Miles in Brooklyn, NY. He began playing music and writing songs at an early age, accompanying himself on guitar, harmonica, zither, and accordion, inspired by Elvis Presley' s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He also taught himself ventriloquism and puppetry and created a puppet theater. The highlight of his budding show business career was charging the local neighborhood kids a nickel each to see his pregnant mother emerge naked from a shower . Hearing a Bob Dylan record changed his life and, as his grandfather lay dying in the next room begging him to stop playing the horrible record, the Milesian brain was sufficiently warped as to learn all the verses of Dylan's epic "Desolation Row", which served him well when he sang it on a dare a few years later and won a beer. In 1968 Miles entered Princeton University with plans of becoming a neurosurgeon. However, the summer before he had the fortune of meeting his idol Dylan who encouraged him to keep writing and performing. He took care of Dylan's house in Woodstock, NY during the first Woodstock Festival and was a house guest of the Dylans many times over the next few years. Upon graduating from Princeton with a degree in painting, art, and archaeology, Bob Miles hitchhiked west armed with a guitar and Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", performing wherever he could in coffeehouses and nightclubs. He opened up for the legendary bluesman Freddie King in Boulder, Colorado and then hitched a ride out California where he performed on the streets in San Francisco, wrote songs to the trees in Big Sur and did impromptu rooftop concerts on Wilshire Boulevard. Miles returned to New York City where he performed and headlined at such legendary Greenwich Village haunts as Gerde's Folk City, the Lone Star Cafe, the Bitter End, Richie Havens' Cafe Wha, and The Speakeasy, and also uptown at The Upstairs at the Downstairs. He wrote the play, "The Navel Observatory", which was produced off-off Broadway at The Direct Theater and Gallery Players Theater and composed music for several plays, children's theater and industrial films. Miles traveled around North America and Europe writing and performing his roots-based folk/blues/country/rock material, as soloist and bandleader. He fronted the bands Olduvai Gorge, Bob Miles and the Otters and The Bob Miles Band and was featured with Vassar Clements' Band. Miles performed with Louisiana Red, Odetta, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and emerging singers such as Susanne Vega and Shawn Colvin. Miles spent four years as musical director of The Cottage Marionette Theater, writing and producing scores for puppet shows - "The Peter Pan Game", "The Reluctant Dragon" and "The Colorado Kid" for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and Cultural Affairs. A highlight of that experience was when John Lennon, Yoko Ono and their son Sean came to a performance and then visited backstage raving about the show. He recorded in Nashville with Randy, Gary and legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs and got signed to Warner/Atlantic custom label Emerald City Records by Charlie Greene who had discovered and produced The Buffalo Springfield, Sonny and Cher, Iron Butterfly and The Troggs, but the record company disappeared one night under mysterious circumstances shortly after a man had come in to bang Greene's kneecaps with a baseball bat. Around that time Miles met a then unknown singer/actress named Madonna and read Tennessee Williams scenes with her in Manhattan's famed Music Building. During this time, Miles attended sessions at The Actor's Studio, HB Studio and the Gene Frankel Television Workshop. He was musical director and featured performer in "Terrible Jim Fitch" and "The Village Wooing" in Rip Torn and Geraldine Page's Sanctuary Theater, and appeared in such films as "Crocodile Dundee" and "When the Mountains Tremble". In 1986, Miles won the lead role in "Dylan: Words and Music", which brought him to back San Francisco. Billed as the world's only authorized rock multimedia stage bio of Bob Dylan, it rocked the Zephyr Theater and received standing ovations every performance. There was flurry of international publicity, radio, television and newspaper interviews. Special guests who joined Miles on stage for duets included The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Maria Muldaur ("Midnight at the Oasis"). Miles migrated to Los Angeles in August, 1987, and became widely known as Smokey Miles, again performing in many venues including the Breakaway, where he produced and hosted "Smokey 's Living Room Hoot", a weekly series of jam sessions with new and established talent, and appeared on "The Breakaway First Year CD" which was put out by Mountain Railroad (Capitol Records). He also created, produced and hosted a weekly live one-hour acoustic music and comedy local origination program on Continental Cablevision, "The Smokey Miles Music Hour" which won an ACSSE Award, and hosted "Inside Tracks" and "Sutton Place Presents" on Century Cable. Some of the shows also taped on location and he produced a 3 1/2 hour live benefit show for the homeless. These programs featured local and well-known artists. In 1990 Miles teamed up with legendary Otis Blackwell (writer of the biggest hits for Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Peggy Lee and James Taylor - that is "Don't Be Cruel", "Great Balls of Fire", "Fever", "Breathless" and "Handyman") who produced Miles' album "Alien World" in Nashville. Just prior to the completion of the album, a tragic stroke left Otis Blackwell paralyzed and speechless for 12 years until his death. All along there has been interest in the album, but it is still yet to be released. The next few years kept Miles playing the blues and original music as leader of The Smokey Miles Band regularly performing in Hollywood, Lake Hughes and Lake Arrowhead. He also wrote songs for films ("The Edge of Seventeen", "Return to Two Moon Junction"), tv shows (HBO's "First and Ten", "Calamity Jayne's Asylum") various records and comedy songs for The Premiere Radio Network (top producers of comedy material in the U.S.) He has recently been performing regularly on Academy Awards Nominee/Golden Globe Award winner "Sally Kirkland and Friends" cable tv show in Los Angeles, and wrote her a show theme song. He is also currently working on some original material for Karen Black's musical stage show. Smokey Miles composed the score and two original songs for Todd Felderstein's multi-award winning documentary "Magic(s)" and won Best Soundtrack Award 2006 from the Los Angeles Independent Film Awards. He also composed main songs for and appeared in "The Black Cat Cabaret" which ran for a year and a half at The Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica which won The Los Angeles Music Awards Best Stage Musical of the Year (2005). An actor, Miles also played the role of Moses in "Rock and Roll Heaven" at Theater 68 in Hollywood which won Los Angeles Music Awards Best Stage Musical of the Year (2006). Smokey Miles continues to write fresh material and audiences of all ages still enjoy hearing his poetically infused story songs and authentic blues stemming from his wide range of experiences.

Among other cities, Count Smokula may serve the following areas: Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Southern California, Long Beach, Pasadena, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Inglewood, Burbank, City of Industry, Santa Monica, Whittier, Torrance, Canoga Park, Northridge, Woodland Hills, Alhambra, Lakewood, Lancaster, Pomona, Carson, La Puente, Palmdale, Sherman Oaks, Venice, Beverly Hills, Compton, El Monte, Encino, Hollywood