The Country Strings was basically a commercial country contract band, playing gigs in the Baltimore-Washington and surrounding area.
Band members included Sandy Taylor (manager, frontman and lead singer), Clarke Rice (guitar), Sonny Hunley (steel guitar), Phil Carter (bass ex-Bobby Brown band), and Leon Long (drums). When they needed a female singer, they usually utilized the talents of Carol Avery.
About 1974 Ben Smith began subbing as bass guitarist, as Carter had developed some Nashville connections and was out of town a lot. Eventually Smith joined the band on a regular basis.
By the late ‘70s Smith moved on to play in a Westminster based pop trio led by Elliott Burger, and with a country music house band at the Bolero Lounge featuring Carol Avery… He then returned to the Country Strings.
In the early ‘80s Taylor left the group, and the remaining four members re-formed as the Silver Dollar Band. Silver Dollar continued until about mid-1987.
In the early ‘80’s, Hunley underwent a heart transplant. He did well for some time, returning to regular gigs, but passed away in about 1988. Taylor retired and moved back to West Virginia, his home state, where he continued performing as a dobro player.
Rice and Carter later formed the Half Moon Band. Smith went on the road as a solo using the name Act I, playing mostly in Arizona. His wife Connie Smith (not the Nashville star) later teamed up with him calling themselves Act II, starting out in the southwest, then summers on Maryland’s eastern shore (Ocean City), and winters in central Florida.
