Tom Smith (filker)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Tom Smith

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Born = Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.cite web
last= Sirois
first= A.L.
title= The Last Hero on Earth
work= SciFi Weekly
publisher= SciFi Channel
date= 2007-07-04
url= http://www.scifi.com/sfw/sound/sfw16165.html
accessdate= 2007-08-23 ]
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Instrument = Guitar
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Genre = Filk
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URL = [http://www.tomsmithonline.com www.tomsmithonline.com]
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Tom Smith is a singer-songwriter from nobr|Ann Arbor, Michigan, who got his start in the filk genre. 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)", [cite web
url = http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/people/tom-smith.html
title = Tom Smith
work = Pegasus Awards
publisher = Ohio Valley Filk Fest
accessdate = 2007-09-03] and was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2005. [cite web
url = http://www.filkontario.ca/2005.htm
title = Hall of Fame Inductees & Citations - 2005
work = Filk Hall of Fame
publisher = FilKONtario
year = 2005
accessdate = 2007-09-03]

Career

Smith has written songs in many musical moods and styles, from dramatic to silly to romantic, and from operatic to hip-hop to Klezmer. In performance, he tends towards comedy folk-rock, usually with many references to films, literature, popular culture and politics, frequently using puns.

His nickname, "The World's Fastest Filker", [cite book
last= Prucher
first= Jeff
authorlink= Jeff Prucher
title= Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction
publisher= Oxford University Press
year= 2007
pages= 64
isbn= 9780195305678] comes from numerous instances of "instafilk", [cite web
url = http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/posts.html?pg=6
last = Nash
first = Alanna
authorlink = Alanna Nash
title = Misfit Minstrels
work = Wired News
publisher = Lycos
month = March | year = 2006
accessdate = 2007-08-23 ] 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. [cite web
url= http://www.tomsmithonline.com/dl.htm
title= MP3 Downloads
publisher= Tom Smith Online
accessdate= 2008-07-15]

He has parodied Christine Lavin songs [cite web
url= http://tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/MO-WishICouldntReadHerMind.mp3
title= Wish I Couldn't Read Her Mind
format= MP3] with her blessing. He authored the official song for Talk Like a Pirate Day. [cite web
url= http://tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/TLAPD-Streaming064.mp3
title= Talk Like a Pirate Day
format= MP3] [cite web
url= http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1888712020070918?=undefined&sp=true
title = Tomorrow You'll Pay a Buccaneer for Corn?
author = Paul Majendie
publisher = Reuters
date = 2007-09-18
accessdate = 2007-09-21] [cite web
url= http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2007/09/arrr_matie_wednesday_is_talk_l.html
title = Arrr Matie! Wednesday is Talk Like A Pirate Day
work = Ann Arbor News
publisher = Michigan Live, LLC.
date = 2007-09-18
accessdate = 2007-09-21] 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. [cite web
url= http://tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/TPUFS.mp3
title= Transpolygnostic University Fight Song
format= MP3] [cite web
url= http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070321
accessdate= 2007-08-23
title= Girl Genius Online Comics
date= March 21, 2007] His song "Rock Me Amidala" was used in the independent movie "Saving Star Wars".

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 [cite web
url= http://dmdb.org/cgi-bin/plinfo.pl?drd07.0121.html
accessdate= 2007-08-23
title= The Dr. Demento Show #07-03
date= January 21, 2007 (and many others)] , Public Radio International's "Sound & Spirit", [cite web
url= http://www.wgbh.org/pages/pri/spirit/shows/059play.html
accessdate= 2007-08-23
title= Playlist: The Lord of the Rings
work= Sound and Spirit
publisher= WGBH Boston] 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. [cite web
url= http://www.tomsmithonline.com/presskit/images/DragonCon2004Subway_25.jpg
title= Concert Poster
format= JPEG sponsored by Subway.]

In 2005, "A Boy and his Frog" was the subject of a mini-arc in the "Something Positive" webcomic. [cite web
url= http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp08032005.shtml
accessdate= 2007-08-24
title= Sad Songs Pt. 2
work= Something Positive
first= R. K.
last= Milholland
authorlink= R. K. Milholland]

On June 7, 2008, Smith tore his quadricep 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. [cite web
url= http://www.partiallyclips.com/tomsmith/
accessdate= 2008-06-21
title= "Mr. Smith Goes To The Hospital" Fundraiser Effort
work= Partially Clips
first= Rob
last= Balder
authorlink= Rob Balder]

Discography

* "Mr. Smith Goes To The Hospital (tribute album)", 2008 (download)
* "Songs of The FuMP, Vol. 1", 2008 (download)
* "iTom 4.0: Smith and Legend", 2007 (download)
* "iTom 3.0: True Love Waits", 2007 (download)
* "iTom 2.0: Transitions", 2007 (download)
* "iTom 1.0: And So It Begins", 2006 (download)
* "The Last Hero On Earth", 2006 (CD)
* "Sins of Commission", 2006 (download)
* "Homecoming: MarCon 2005", 2005 (download)
* "And They Say I've Got Talent", 2004 (CD)
* "Badgers and Gophers and Squirrels Oh My: The 24-Hour Project", 2004 (download)
* "Live At GAFilk", 2004 (download)
* "Debasement Tapes", 1999 (CD)
* "Plugged", 1997 (CD/cassette)
* "Tom Smith and his Digital Acoustic Compilation", 1998 (CD from the two cassettes below)
* "Domino Death", 1994 (cassette)
* "Who Let Him In Here?", 1991 (cassette)

Pegasus Awards

*34 total nominations since 1988
*Best Performer 1991, 1993
*Best Writer/Composer 1991, 1994, 2005
*Best Filk Song 1991: "A Boy and His Frog" [http://tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/BoyFrog.mp3]
*Best Filk Song 1994: "PQR (You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet)" (tied with "Drink Up The River" by Kathy Mar)
*Best Filk Song 2005: "Rocket Ride"
*Best Filk Song 2007: "Rich Fantasy Lives" (with Rob Balder)
*Best Classic Filk Song 2006: "I Want to be Peter Lorre"
*Best Food/Drink Song 2000: "307 Ale" (tied with "My Jalapeño Man" by Debbie Ridpath Ohi of Urban Tapestry)
*Best Fool Song 1999: "Operation Desert Storm"
*Best Genre Crossover 1992: "Return of the King, Uh-Huh"
*Best Media Song 1988: "Superman's Sex Life Boogie"

References

External links

* [http://www.tomsmithonline.com/main1.htm Tom Smith Online]
* [http://www.thefump.com/artist.php?id=4 Tom Smith on the FuMP]
* [http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue47/cool.html Cool Sci-Fi Stuff] Review of Tom Smith Plugged & Stupid Filk Tricks on the SciFi Channel's website
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=77f8wDf_Sdg Live performance] of "A Boy and His Frog" at DragonCon 2007