Tom Smith Acoustic Guitar and Banjo - A Biography

POSTED BY: TomSmithGuitar

POSTED ON: 04/22/07 05:04:03

You can say:Kaki King meets Michael Hedges and Leo Kottke but it's not a Hedges based thing, although you can hear the influence in there. It may have the energy of Kaki King and the lyrical playing of Kottke but it still isn't that. As one reviewer (Norman Beberman from GuitarNation.com) said, "Other reviewers have said things like "common name, uncommon talent". I prefer to say that he is a multi-talented artist whose music blazes a new trail guided by the true north star of individuality."

That's Tom Smith.

Welcome to Planet Tom.

Since he began playing in 1966, Tom has performed in 30 states and three countries. His musical career has taken him from coffee houses in North Carolina and bars in San Francisco to concert halls and festival audiences of 10,000. He has done PBS shows, and shared the stage with such artists as John Hammond Jr., Odetta, Livingston Taylor, Melanie, Tuck and Patti, Michael Hedges, Jack Ford, Dave Van Ronk, Jesse Winchester, John Fahey and Todd Phillips. He has five records, "Still Lifes," (available only as a collectible vinyl) "Musical Pictures," "On Any Given Night," Little Dog," and "Juliet's Window," all out on Lone Oak Records.

He spans the gambit from the beautiful and peaceful, "Ginny's Lullabye" to the intensely electrified, "Paper Dragons." You'll find a difference in his playing in a unique new category as dubbed by Ben Cole of GHS Strings, “Experimental Acoustic” or like Hedges used to call his music, “New Edge.”

Tom, Michael Hedges and more closely, Tuck Andress were contemporaries in Palo Alto at the same time and all three learned from each other in their developmental periods, each contributing to the others' style and techniques.

Smith's music is full of energy, as you'll hear on the listening and, with his stories and his playful bantering with the audience, well, you'll see why people say he's from "Planet Tom."

Welcome to Planet Tom.

You can hear his music at http://www.myspace.com/TomSmithMusic

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