Like The Fool in a Tarot deck, Todd Snider seems both open-faced and a total enigma. There is no accounting for the career he has carved for himself, save his irrepressibly knuckleheaded vision and sheer honesty and naiveté. He is a creature that, once truly experienced, one is moved to love, simply stated. And Todd and his music are beloved to so many types of people out there that it is confounding.
It's so rare to meet or listen to people or to artists who have either refused or somehow avoided being corrupted or spoiled by the world. And certainly not for lack of experience or walking the straight and narrow, that's for sure.
And that's the amazing thing about his songs, is that the enlightening fool brings you along for the ride. The old friend of his that turns out to be a hooker that he just ends up wanting to shoot the breeze with, the frat brother that turns out to be W that he beat up hippies and worse with, the roof he's got to be talked down from, these are stories and feelings that have endeared him and him alone in the crowd to the likes of Kristofferson, Prine, and Shaver. Brother, you can't get there from here.
It's just a little like talking to someone from another planet, a phone call with Todd Snider. My man's on a slightly different frequency. But it's a beautiful place he's coming from, and I like being there. And I go there a Lot now, through his records, they really take you there. I want to hang with him and meet his wife Melita, whose beautiful paintings have become part of the Todd Snider road show, and adorn the cover of his latest great work, The Devil You Know. If you do not have this, or (perish the thought) any Todd Snider CDs in your stack, you have a serious hole in your collection that needs to be attended to.
He's not from folk, he's not Americana, and he's not a rocker. He is all of it, and if I may say so, above it. See and hear for yourself.
