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Tom Smith (filker)

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Tom Smith
Musical artist

Tom Smith is a singer-songwriter from Ann Arbor, Michigan who got his start in the filk genre. He is a thirteen-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)", and was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2005.

Tom 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, with frequent puns.

His nickname, "The World's Fastest Filker", comes from numerous instances of "instafilk", 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 releases a new song every week. So far, he has collected three albums of those songs.

He has parodied Christine Lavin songs with her blessing. He authored the official song for Talk Like a Pirate Day. 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. His song "Rock Me Amidala" was used in the independent movie Saving Star Wars.

Tom performs frequently at conventions across the United States, and has also performed in Canada and England. He has been featured on Dr. Demento, Public Radio International's Sound & Spirit, 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 Chick Corea.

Discography

  • 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 Media Song 1988: "Superman's Sex Life Boogie"
  • Best Filk Song 1991: "A Boy and His Frog"
  • Best Writer/Composer 1991
  • Best Performer 1991
  • Best Genre Crossover 1992: "Return of the King, Uh-Huh"
  • Best Performer 1993
  • Best Filk Song 1994: "PQR (You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet)" (tied with "Drink Up The River" by Kathy Mar)
  • Best Writer/Composer 1994
  • Best Fool Song 1999: "Operation Desert Storm"
  • Best Food/Drink Song 2000: "307 Ale" (tied with "My Jalapeño Man" by Debbie Ridpath Ohi of Urban Tapestry)
  • Best Writer/Composer 2005
  • Best Filk Song 2005: "Rocket Ride"
  • Best Classic Filk Song 2006: "I Want to be Peter Lorre"

References

  1. Prucher, Jeff (2007). Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN 9780195305678.
  2. Sirois, A.L. (2007-07-04). "The Last Hero on Earth". SciFi Weekly. SciFi Channel. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  3. Wish I Couldn't Read Her Mind, mp3
  4. Talk Like a Pirate Day, mp3
  5. Transpolygnostic University First Song, mp3
  6. Concert Poster sponsored by Subway.

External links

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