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.

Recent shows find them expanding their instrumentation to include electric guitars, piano and drums. The result is a live performance with variety enough to please a diverse audience, young and old, while keeping their roots firmly planted. Adding to the variety, the boys can handle as many as 20 instruments in their shows, including dulcimer, harmonica, tin-whistle, accordion, trumpet, sousaphone, trombone, slide guitar, organ, mouth bow, spoons and bones. What truly sets this band apart, however, are their well-crafted, sometimes quirky, but always catchy original songs.

They are adored in their native Ozarks, but are now enjoying capacity crowds in nearby cities: St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, Joplin, Lawrence, Fayetteville, Eureka Springs, Little Rock, Tulsa, Stillwater and Memphis. They have made their mark outside their region with several forays to Chicago, Nashville, and Austin. They have recently enjoyed high-profile opening gigs for the likes of Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson and the Del McCoury band. Summer of 2002 and 2003 found them on the road, bringing their music to new territories, including California, forays up north into Minnesota and Wisconsin, also down south along the Mississippi River, all the way to New Orleans.

Their fifth and newest studio CD is a double disc made with their young fans in mind, "Hay to Zzzzzz: Hillbilly Songs for Kids". Big Smith has looked not only to their own children for inspiration, but also up the family tree for songs that have been handed down from their ancestors, some songs that can be traced back at least five generations. The band includes their family on this release in other ways as well – parents, children, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents are all part of the recording. It is a generous portion of music – 42 tracks spread across the two CDs, arranged so that playtime comes first, followed by a second disc of lullabies to wind things down.

Prior to "Hay to Zzzzzz," Big Smith released "Gig," another double CD, in the Summer of 2002. Long requested by fans, it is a generous sampling of what one can expect from a Big Smith show. It includes many live staples that have not been offered on CD before, plus some new arrangements of old favorites, along with rare performances of songs audiences have heard only occasionally. It was recorded in their hometown over three nights in October of 2001 at the Outland, conveniently located next door to Lou Whitney's The Studio, which has served as the home of Big Smith's previous recording projects. As a bonus, each CD contains a live performance video that can be played via CD-ROM. In addition to "Hay to Zzzzzz" and "Gig," Big Smith has released two celebrated studio CDs including their self-titled debut and their most recent effort "Big Rock", and a live gospel CD that pays tribute to their family's musical roots.