Todd talks about his songwriting and his idea that life should not be taken too seriously.

This is a guy who should be much better known than he is. I think I had heard his song "Alright Guy" before I knew who he was, but I don't know where I did.


"Alright Guy" at the Ottawa Bluesfest

My first actual encounter with Todd and his music was in Dallas, at the Sons Of Herman Hall. A former coworker at the UT Southwestern Library had invited a friend and me to come to a gig by a friend of hers, who was opening up for Snider. The opener, said my former coworker, was one of those unpredictable artsy types who could be brilliant or could be really terrible.

That night, he was really terrible. He didn't seem to want to be there and as far as I could tell his songs were nowhere near good enough to stand up under his worse-than-non-presence. The coworker was kind of sorry she'd brought my friend and me to endure him, because we'd had to pay something like fifteen dollars for the privilege. She left right after his set, but the friend I was travelling with and I decided that, since we were here, we might as well see what the headliner was like.

And after a short break this shaggy blond barefoot hippie came ambling onstage with his acoustic guitar, smiled a big friendly smile, and encouraged, "Make me welcome!"

And we did.

Snider is sort of folk-alt-country, and that night he was playing solo with an acoustic and an electric guitar by turns. Everyone but my friend and me knew all the songs. We were rapt. I would now describe Snider's stage presence as being of a near-Plaskett-like level of charm, and his songs are funny and wry and thoughtful. My favourite was "The Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern" (a real place) in which an elderly bartender named Miss Virgy explains her philosophy of life:

She said life's too short to worry
Life's too long to wait
Too short not to love everybody
Life's too long to hate
I meet a lot of men who haggle and finagle all the time
Trying to save a nickel or make a dime
Not me, no sireee, I ain't got the time

It's hard to find Snider's records in most stores, and I gave away my copy of Happy To Be Here to someone who needed it worse than I did, but my brother has the new one The Devil You Know and we have a DVD of performances and such.

Todd needs to come to Halifax sometime. Or the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival (co-founded by Bill Plaskett, otherwise known as Dad of...) That would be wonderful.

Some kids in Washington State may have found DB Cooper's parachute.

Cool.

And in his honour, here's Todd Snider playing his song, "DB Cooper":