Tom Smith (filker) explained

Tom Smith
Birth Place:Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.[1]
Instrument:Guitar, vocals
Genre:Filk
Website:www.tomsmithonline.com

Tom Smith is an American singer-songwriter from Ann Arbor, Michigan, who got his start in the filk music community. He is a fourteen-time winner of the Pegasus Award for excellence in filking, including awards for his "A Boy and His Frog", "307 Ale", and "The Return of the King (Uh-huh)",[2] and was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2005.[3]

Career

His nickname, "The World's Fastest Filker",[4] comes from numerous instances of "instafilk",[5] i.e., quickly-written or improvised songs. He has improvised entire concert sets, and his album Badgers and Gophers and Squirrels Oh My: The 24-Hour Project, inspired by Scott McCloud's 24-Hour Comics Day, features seventeen songs written in twenty-four hours. In May 2006, he released the album The Last Hero on Earth, a comic opera which has twenty songs, all written in one day, to the same plot.

In August 2006, emulating Jonathan Coulton's Thing a Week, he began iTom, a project where he released a new song every week for a year, and continued sporadically after that. So far, he has collected four albums of those songs.[6]

He has parodied Christine Lavin songs[7] with her blessing. He authored the official song for Talk Like a Pirate Day.[8] [9] [10] He wrote "Enterprising Man" for the animated parody video Babylon Park: Grudgematch, as well as the official Transylvania Polygnostic University theme song for the comic Girl Genius by Studio Foglio.[11] [12]

Smith performs frequently at conventions across the United States, and has also performed in Canada and England. He has been featured frequently on Dr. Demento,[13] Public Radio International's Sound & Spirit,[14] and other radio programs. In 2007, he joined with comedy musicians such as Rob Balder, The Great Luke Ski, Sudden Death, Worm Quartet, and others in The FuMP (The Funny Music Project). Smith has appeared in concert with Dr. Demento and on the same bill as Chick Corea.[15]

In 2005, "A Boy and His Frog" was the subject of a mini-arc in the Something Positive webcomic.[16]

On June 7, 2008, Smith tore his quadriceps while attempting to take the stage at a Christine Lavin concert, landing him in the hospital and preventing him from performing for the next few months.[17]

Discography

Pegasus Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sirois. A.L. . The Last Hero on Earth . SciFi Weekly . SciFi Channel . July 4, 2007 . August 23, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070817030532/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/sound/sfw16165.html . August 17, 2007.
  2. Web site: Tom Smith. Pegasus Awards. Ohio Valley Filk Fest. September 3, 2007.
  3. Web site: Hall of Fame Inductees & Citations – 2005. Filk Hall of Fame. FilKONtario. 2005. September 3, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070705220251/http://www.filkontario.ca/2005.htm . July 5, 2007.
  4. Book: Prucher, Jeff . . . 2007 . 978-0-19-530567-8 . 64.
  5. Web site: Misfit Minstrels. Nash. Alanna. Alanna Nash. Wired News. Lycos. March 2006. August 23, 2007.
  6. Web site: MP3 Downloads. Tom Smith Online. July 15, 2008.
  7. Web site: Wish I Couldn't Read Her Mind. MP3.
  8. Web site: Talk Like a Pirate Day. MP3. November 9, 2006. November 9, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181109185406/http://www.tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/TLAPD-Streaming064.mp3. dead.
  9. Web site: Tomorrow You'll Pay a Buccaneer for Corn?. Paul Majendie. Reuters. September 18, 2007. September 21, 2007.
  10. Web site: Arrr Matie! Wednesday is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ann Arbor News. Michigan Live, LLC.. September 18, 2007. September 21, 2007.
  11. Web site: Transpolygnostic University Fight Song. MP3.
  12. Web site: Girl Genius Online Comics. August 23, 2007. March 21, 2007.
  13. Web site: The Dr. Demento Show #07-03. August 23, 2007. January 21, 2007. (and many others)
  14. Web site: The Lord of the Rings. September 28, 2010. Sound and Spirit. WGBH Boston. (click on audiolink)
  15. Web site: Concert Poster. JPEG. sponsored by Subway.
  16. Web site: Sad Songs Pt. 2. August 24, 2007. Something Positive. R. K.. Milholland. R. K. Milholland. January 9, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140109070948/http://somethingpositive.net/sp08032005.shtml. dead.
  17. Web site: "Mr. Smith Goes to the Hospital" Fundraiser Effort. June 21, 2008. Partially Clips. Rob. Balder. Rob Balder.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tom Smith (filker)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.