Members of a country music band say they want to kick off their tour in Logan County.

Shawnee Smith and Missi Pyle of Smith & Pyle, an alternative country duo and both movie and television stars, said recently in an exclusive interview with The Logan Banner, that they would like for West Virginia to be where they kick off their tour and they would like it to start in Logan at the Coalfield Jamboree.

Smith said she'd love to see the band become a break-out success all sparked by a tour of West Virginia that could be kicked off in Logan.

"That would be great. I think it would be an awesome part of the Smith & Pyle story if West Virginia broke us. You know, these two actresses from Hollywood come to West Virginia and the people there broke their band," Smith said. "That would be awesome. It could happen. We've got to start somewhere."

"Our first tour was in West Virginia," Pyle said. "Our first concert was at the Fairplain Yacht Club (in Ripley) and there was no place to put the yacht in the water."

The duo recently performed in several locations throughout West Virginia on an unofficial mini tour and said they want to come back.

"I think we're still in withdrawals from leaving," Smith said. "We left a little bit of our heart and souls there.

"The people were so great," Pyle said.

Smith played Amanda Young in the "Saw" series of horror movies and starred as Linda in the TV series "Becker" with Ted Danson. Pyle has starred in several major movies and TV shows, including playing Mrs. Beauregard in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with Johnny Depp, the Ben Stiller comedy "Dodgeball" and on the sitcom "Friends."

Smith made an appearance at the Fountain Place Mall Cinema 8 to promote the opening of "Saw VI." Nearly 300 people lined up to meet Smith and have their photo taken with her. The group then performed at the Quaker Steak and Lube restaurant in South Charleston and at other venues throughout West Virginia.

The Coalfield Jamboree has hosted several major country singers and groups, including George Jones, Billy Ray Cyrus and Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys.

The group wants to also play on Mountain Stage in Charleston.

"Our pie in the sky in our artistic vision is to get up on that stage. It would be such an honor," Smith said.

Pete Stahl, the group's manager, said he has reached out to the manager and the host of Mountain Stage and are trying to get a chance to play there.

"That would be the perfect chance for a band so young as ours," Smith said. "It's a level of artistry to just get up there, to be on a stage where the greats have played.

"I think it would be a ridiculously, magical experience to share that stage," Pyle said. "At our core, we are artists and to be somewhere where so much magic has already taken place would be great. There's something about playing a stage like that and the ghost and the energy of that would be absolutely thrilling to me."

Mountain Stage has hosted such acts as REM, They Might Be Giants, Norah Jones and many others.

"The artists who have performed on Mountain Stage are storytellers," Stahl said. "These girls have great songs and we'd love to get them up there to tell their stories to everyone."

Smith & Pyle was recently featured on the Jay Leno Show.

"That was really cool," Pyle said.