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Video: Local rancher falls short on ABC show

Ken Swick sings Life's a Gamble on the ABC television show 6 Degrees of Martina McBride

See video from ABC

Meet Ken Swick

See video from ABC

About the ABC television show 6 Degrees of Martina McBride

See video from ABC

Ken Swick got a little more than 15 minutes of fame.

Swick, who works at Strawberry Park Farm outside Steamboat Springs, was the first contestant to be sent home from “Six Degrees of Martina McBride,” an ABC News special that aired Monday night. But he did make it through the first hour and a half of the program.

In the two-hour program, six contestants had to try to get in touch with country music star Martina McBride by contacting six people or less. The contestants who successfully completed the “six degrees of separation” task would get to audition for a record deal.



All six contestants earned the audition before a live audience at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. Swick was the third person to perform, singing “Life’s a Gamble.”

After the auditions, three contestants were sent home. Swick went first. The remaining three contestants then got to make demo tapes with McBride and judges chose a winner from those tapes. DeAnne Roberts of Dickens, Texas, won the contest with the song, “Can You Hear Me.” Roberts received a chance at a recording contract with Sony-BMG.



Though he did not win, Swick said he enjoyed being on the show. He called it “an adventure.”

“The whole thing, in a nutshell, was a wonderful experience,” Swick said. “I made some wonderful friends and contacts inside the music business.”


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