ThisBigStringBand: HOME

The latest rumors in the Beltway have semi-progressive oldtime music trio ThisBigStringBand offering former secretary of defense Donald "Rummy" Rumsfield to play drums on their much-anticipated oft-delayed world tour! Check back again soon for all the greasy details!

ThisBigStringBand's "first and last" album "The Next Small Thing. . ."is a collection of old-time fiddle tunes arranged and produced by three energetic players. Fiddler David Algeo Smith is the 2004 Nevada State Adult Fiddle Champion and a fifth place finisher at both the National Old-Time Fiddlers'Contest in Weiser, ID (2004) and the Appalachian String Band Festival, Clifftop, WV (2002). Formerly the "token Westerner" in Northern Thailand's "country and eastern" group Banjoman Band & Friends and one-time violinist in the Euro-American street band sensation The Rhythm Pygmies, David now teaches Suzuki violin and fiddle at the Oshkosh (WI) Suzuki Music Program and at the Aurora (IL) Suzuki Violins program, the latter of which was founded by his father Stan Smith and is currently co-directed by his sister Sarah Smith.

Jim Marks is the 6-string and tenor guitar player in the group. He was a founding member of the Michigan acid country outfit Les Tabourets Laches and in the 90's he spent time in the Austin,TX bands Busted Still and The Stonecutters. An itinerant laborer, he is currently to be found in north Florida.

Steve Noel rounds out the trio with his clawhammer banjo. Formerly of the eight-piece Celtic band The Dogs of Bryan, he's also been a featured performer on various street corners and seedy bars. "The Next Small Thing. . ."is Steve's major debut as a recording artist. His solo project "Out on a Limb" is taking shape between caring for three young boys and a loving wife and managing his career as a Chicago public school librarian/computer geek.

TBSB is the culmination of two years of jamming and rehearsal in a small, dimly lit apartment in Hyde Park on Chicago's South Side. Steve and Jim each met David during the course of the latter's busking at local art fairs and on the "El" rapid transit lines, and from July 2002 until March 2004 the trio cultivated and refined their sound with a large and varied repertoire. Ultimately their work on the classic American fiddle tune led in April-May 2004 to the inside of legendary blues label Delmark's house studio, Riverside Studios, and the steady hands and ears of recording engineer Steve Wagner. "The Next Small Thing. . ." is the end result of their efforts together. Packaged with original artwork and graphic design by artist K.Kim and released to very limited distribution in July 2004,
ThisBigStringBand's "The Next Small Thing. . ." is the first CD release on the group's own homegrown label, This Small Record Label, which is dedicated to documenting and recording independent acoustic folk music in the U.S. and around the world.

Although TBSB was always considered to be a "one-off," a band destined to break up with the introduction of its album to the old-time music scene, it has been known to make very rare live appearances in places and at venues as varied as St Augustine, FL's Taberna del Gallo; Oshkosh, WI's New Moon Cafe; Warrenville, IL's Fermilab Barn Dance; and Champaign, IL's Verde Gallery. ThisBigStringBand also has developed something of a cult following on the World Wide Web, making it a unique musical animal for the 21st Century: a traditional acoustic formation--yet which is a de facto "virtual band," with only its website serving as its exclusive "face" to the world.

ThisBigStringBand has been more or less "temporarily disbanded" since 2004, but the group's members nevertheless are engaged permanently in intense negotiations with their wives and girlfriends to work out the logistics of a Midwest tour in 2006-07. Also looming on the horizon: a busking trip to Switzerland and Germany; a long-awaited and much-anticipated concert tour of the former Soviet Union's Gulag Archipelago (made infamous by Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn); and a pseudo-documentary film capturing David's meandering musings along the IL-WI state line as he searches in vain for the "Sundays in Racine" old-time music jam sessions in the dead of mid-winter.

REVIEWS!



A GREAT FIDDLER!
Reviewer: Jerry Rogers (click for website)
David is able to project a sound that is very technical or what we " Ole Fiddlers" CALL "NOTEY" (noteworthy).His version of Redhaired Boy is the best I've ever heard. I play it, my cousin Jackie Burgess( Stanly County Boys) plays it and my grand-daddy Benny Rogers (1894 - 1961)played it too...Now, I've been Fiddlin' nearly 35 yrs here in the South and we've always called it Redheaded Irishman. But, it dont make no never mind! David Smith can call it whatever he likes. His respect for Old-Time Music, in my opinion, is primary in his quest to achieve his music goals...


". . .(L)overs of good old-time music owe it to themselves to pay some attention
Reviewer: Sharon Graf, The Old Time Herald, Winter 2005 (click for website)
While banjo and fiddle solos on this album are excellent, the band's strength is how the instruments work together. (Steve) Noel and (David Algeo) Smith are so well synchronized it is hard to tell who is playing what. What I thought was a second fiddle was really Noel's banjo picking. This works because (Jim) Marks' guitar provides the matrix necessary for the banjo and fiddle melodic subtleties to flourish. . .(TBSB's) music sparkles technically yet at the same time is dancable and full of tasteful variation. . .


Excellent old-time music. My new favorite band.
Reviewer: Steve O
This is my new favorite band. This CD is awesome! Love the Five Miles Ellum, New Liberty, Frosty Morning, Arkansas Traveler, and June Apple. Fiddling is wonderful and accompaniment is excellent. These tunes are a must for anyone's repertoire for playing old time music. Get the CD, get out your instrument, and get to playing. Highly recommended.


great traditional music!!!
Reviewer: Martin
They play traditional music as it should be done. It is GREAT!!!


". . .(it's) old-time at its best!"
Reviewer: Bubba Lou
ThisBigStringBand is purty frickn hot, if you like that old-time sound, which I sometimes do. Check out that Cousin Sally Brown when you get a chance--it won't disappoint. I also like Cluck Old Hen, Sally Ann, and Lee Highway Blues. When I first heard it I thought to myself: this is old-time at its best!"

With the renewed interest generated by the recent nomination of "Thais to the Irish: fiddle tunes from the street" for a Just Plain Folks Music Award in the Solo Instrumental Album category, we have posted the text of the CD's page at CDBaby. For those who have already purchased the disc and for those who may have only just heard about it, the following is the story of the conception and final realization of the album.

***********************************

David Algeo Smith started as one of the first Suzuki violin students in the U.S.A. and spent most of the 1970's studying classical violin before hitting the road from Chicago to New York and London to Paris in 1983. From there he soon hooked up with various buskers and street bands, finding collaboration and inspiration with Euro-American mega-band The Overexcited (which featured, at various times, acid jazz 8-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter, tap-dance master Tamango, New York bassist Dom Richards, and the late great alto saxophonist Calder Spanier); street-rat phenomenon The Rhythm Pygmies (with Marseille gypsy powerhouse Christian Fernandez on guitar/vocals, New York guitarist/songwriter Marc Bouchard, San Francisco vocalist Belinda Blair, tenor saxophonist Scott MacIntosh, and Canadian Gilles Leocard on bass); the world famous Lost Wandering Blues and Jazz Band (with songster/washtub bassist Danny Fitzgerald, Gene Clarke on trumpets/keyboards, and celebrated jazz chanteuse/guitarist Madeleine Peyroux); and many other great impromptu formations from the heady summers of mid-to-late '80's France and Switzerland. During that period Smith also found fruitful collaborations in New York City with French film composer Mader and his Biarritz Ensemble, camp torch singer/comedienne JasmineVegas, and controversial busker/singer/comedian Tommy Tortellini. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent advent of America's ominous "new world order," Smith sought refuge in the relative tranquility of Northern Thailand where he was immediately recruited by Chiangmai's incomparable Banjoman Band--at that time the Land of Smiles' premiere "country and eastern" string band. Twelve years and half a dozen albums later, this expatriate American fiddler decided to strike out on his own with a solo album of fiddle tunes collected from his many travels and friends. "Thais to the Irish: fiddle tunes from the street" is the final product of those efforts. Produced and recorded at Thomas van Nes's Studio Thomasso in Sankhampaeng, Thailand in March 2001 and released the week before 9/11, this "kid-friendly," adult-oriented collection of tunes is rightly regarded as "top-notch solo fiddling for the ages."

Now back in the U.S. for five years, Smith currently teaches Suzuki violin/fiddle in Oshkosh, WI and Aurora, IL, and he has a new project, ThisBigStringBand, an old-time music trio featuring Chicago banjoist Steve Noel and Florida guitarist Jim Marks which released its debut album "The Next Small Thing. . ." to critical acclaim in 2004. In recent years he has found some success on the American fiddle contest circuit, taking top-tier prizes at state-level competitions in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio and Nevada. In 2002 he placed fifth at the Appalachian String Band Festival, Clifftop, WV, and most recently he placed fifth in the Adult division at the National Old-Time Fiddlers' Contest in Weiser, ID (2004) where he also served as a judge the following year.

Smith has become a popular guest clinician at Suzuki workshops throughout the Midwest, teaching fiddle at clinics in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri. He also has taught at both the South Carolina and Colorado Suzuki summer institutes (2004-06). Smith completed and registered his Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA)-sanctioned teacher training of Suzuki Violin units 1-3 under Nancy Lokken and Pat D'Ercole at the American Suzuki Institute in Stevens Point, WI in 2004-05.

In February 2003 Smith arranged and performed (with ThisBigStringBand guitarist Jim Marks) the period music used for the Chicago Prop Thtr's world premiere production of G.Riley Mills's "Raising Blue," a Civil War drama centered around the story of the Hunley, the world's first submarine warfarer. This project was the latest of a long series of theater productions in which Smith has had a musical hand over the years--projects which include stints as the fiddler in the Chicago Goodman Theater's annual "A Christmas Carol" (1984-85) as well as an open run in Ohio dinner theater La Comedia's 1985 adaptation of "Fiddler on the Roof."

"Thais to the Irish: fiddle tunes from the street," which was originally conceived as a busking product to be sold on the streets of Europe, has remarkably gained a new lease on life on the World Wide Web where it is now available for sale at dozens of music download companies including Apple iTunes, Napster, DigiPie, and MP3Tunes.com. Most recently, in September 2006, the disc was nominated for the Just Plain Folks Music Awards in the Solo Instrumental Album category--placing David Algeo Smith in direct competition with virtuoso bassist Michael Manring, Canadian accordionist Kim Darwin, alt-styles cellist Gretchen Yanover, and Celtic harpist Lily Neill among several other outstanding nominees.


******Album notes by David Algeo Smith******


“Thais to the Irish: fiddle tunes from the street” is a collection of tunes I picked up from various sources over the course of my extensive travels from 1984-1998. The idea for the album began to take shape in 1995-96 during a period when I was busking solo in Bangkok, Singapore, and Tokyo, then later in Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago. I wanted to have a CD with the tunes I was playing on the street. This would be an album “of the street and for the street,” and my plan was to take the final product to Switzerland where I’d had a lot of previous experience playing solo, in the open air, in the shopping streets and platzes of the towns and cities in that country.

In 1997 I returned to Thailand after a year-long hiatus in the States. This was the beginning of a period of much travel and some listlessness. The Banjoman Band made a stressful move from its base in Chiangmai to the relatively quiet and provincial Phrae—the original hometown of many band members--and I went with them, but unfortunately the move was the beginning of the end for the group. A few key members were not happy in Phrae and elected to return to Chiangmai to pursue other interests. Then, in 1998 we tragically lost our accordionist Kasem “Kai” Chaiwan to complications from AIDS. Kai, who had been my closest friend in the band, had taught me almost everything I had learned about Thai “classical” music—a style that we in the West think of more as “traditional” music.

Around the same time my mother also died suddenly and I had to return to the States. For the first time in years I wasn’t playing in a regular band. The Banjoman Band was tottering on its last legs, and it didn’t seem all that urgent to get back to Thailand. After spending my summer busking at art fairs in the Midwest, I hit the road again for a two-year solo voyage that took me to Mexico, Ireland, France, and Switzerland. By Christmas 2000 I’d been fiddling solo in Zurich, Lucerne, Basel and other Swiss cities for about 3-4 months, and I had loads of tunes to play, but I still had no product “of the street and for the street.”
Now suddenly, in January 2001, it seemed urgent to get back to Thailand in order to record. I had more than enough material to choose from, and all of it was rock solid from daily repetition on the street. And it was important to me to finally document a lot of what I was playing at the time.

Several of the tunes on “Thais to the Irish” are traditional ones I learned by ear but before I ever managed to learn many of their titles. Thus in the studio I had to give each a working title. “Derry Dream,” the opener, is one such tune. I first heard it, probably on a cassette tape recording, about twenty years ago, and I’ve been playing it ever since. During periods when I was solo fiddling daily—as in Chicago in 1996 and Switzerland in 2000—I opened every street “pitch,” or set, with “Derry Dream.” To this day I still don’t know its “true” title.

2.) "The Rites of Man"--I performed this as a medley with "The Road to Lisdonvarna," a popular combination of two popular tunes.

3.) "Effigy"--This is a traditional American oldtime style tune. Later I learned that it's a modal version of the standard "Blackberry Blossom."

4.) "Bats Eatin' Bananas"--This Thai "classical" piece is probably about 200 years old. Called "Khang Khao Kin Kluay" in the Thai language, it is an instrumental number and one of the most popular in Thailand even today.

5.) "Buskin' on the Ferry"--The only original tune on the CD is one I wrote in the mid-1980's during a period when I made my living primarily by playing for tips on the Staten Island ferry.

6.) "Ballad for Sarah and Laura"--This is my arrangement--for two of my nieces--of the Irish tune "The Lark in the Clear Air."

7.) "Patrick on the Interstate" is my updated arrangement of "Paddy on the Turnpike."

8.) "Zoom Lao Fan" is another of the many instrumental Thai classical pieces taught to me by my friend Kai. His tragic passing at a young age helped inspire me to finally record this disc.

9.) Dedicated to another one of my nieces, "Cuckoo's Nest" is one I learned by ear from another fiddler who was busking in San Francisco at the same time I was in 1996.

10.) "Redhaired Boy," for my nephew Matthew, was one of the first fiddle tunes I learned in 1984.

11.) "Long Mae Ping River," named after northern Thailand's Mae Nam Ping river--one of four major tributaries of the mighty Chao Phya which empties into the Gulf of Thailand--is a popular song heard and sung all over the Land of Smiles.

12.) "Runaway Twins"--inspired by two more nieces--is my arrangement of the American oldtime tune "Cousin Sally Brown."

13.) "Devil's Dream" is a very popular American fiddle tune. This arrangement is one that I learned from another American fiddler in Thailand, Kate Bond.