Big Smith

Big Smith is a band from Springfield, Missouri composed of five cousins, including two sets of brothers, Mark and Jody Bilyeu, Jay and Mike Williamson and Rik Thomas. After coming together professionally in the fall of 1996, they quickly earned a devoted following playing raucous acoustic music that captured the spirit of their native Ozarks, equipped only with an acoustic guitar, mandolin, bass fiddle and washboard.

Their music can be imagined as a combination of the lively dance music of their grandparents' youth, combined with the gospel harmonies created by the next generation as they grew up in Dry Hollow along Bull Creek in the rural Christian County hills. Big Smith combines these sounds, adds their own modern influences, and the result is energetic, good-spirited music with variety enough to please a diverse audience, young and old, while keeping their roots firmly planted.

Website: bigsmithband.com