first encountered filk in 1973 at a Mythcon, first wrote a filk in 1978 and first performed in 1980 at a Westercon masquerade. He has been the long-serving Chair of ConChord and has also run programming for the con. He has run filk at Loscon and performing arts stages at Worldcon (LACon III, 1996 and IV, 2006).
Nick has been a regional Director for Interfilk since 1998 and an valued auctioneer. Nick is a calming voice in a sea of chaos at many an Interfilk Board meeting. He has a wonderful knowledge of charity law, and is a great resource for Interfilk, filk conventions and other organizations. Nick is more than willing to help with getting the legal answers a committee or board needs to keep going.
In the 1990’s, Nick wrote a concise and comprehensive article on filk “What the Heck Is Filk Music?” Originally produced for distribution at Los Angeles folk music events, Nick’s widely quoted work focuses on both music and song-writing. He has been involved with curating the library of the now defunct Thor Records and assisting DAG with their recordings. He has also been found emceeing one-shots and concerts, and moderating panels.
Nick was a member of the L.A. Filkharmonics from 1980; they were responsible for three filk zines, Massteria!, Massteria Strikes Back and Return of Massteria, all subtitled “Star Wars & Other Filksongs.” Many of those songs were written by him. As a member of the L. A. Filkharmonics he has also been active in disseminating many humorous filks as well as being part of one of the few a cappella choirs in the filk community.
Nick is active in the folk music and professional story telling worlds. He has been instrumental in introducing filk music to professional musicians who fall in love with our community. He is a tireless advocate for filk music within the general fan community. He practices the almost lost art of Story Telling, for both children (and those of us who act like children), and even adults some times, at filk conventions.
He was also an occasional Co-Host of Hour 25, a radio program focusing on science fiction, fantasy, and science, which has an eclectic mixture of filk music, science fiction news, and other science fiction related material.
Nick is a diplomat and a gentleman. He not only has many worthy filk accomplishments, but manages to be one of the most gracious and soft spoken “get things done” people in all West Coast filk, and manages to avoid or work around squabbles and politics.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Nick Smith is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this eighteenth day of April, two thousand fifteen.