Written by Eddie Ferranti
Mar 29, 2007 at 08:00 PM
Image“B-Double E-Double R-UN”! That’s what kept resonating in my head after enjoying a fun evening covering Todd Snider the other night in H-Town. This dude is a classic with that classic tune also. He’s as weird as they come these days, but I admire that he’s doing it his way as far as his musical direction. He casts stares at the crowd like some kind of demented person.

Wearing no shoes and a Hobo’s hat, Todd owned the stage this night. His attitude resonates, especially when he was busting the balls of the cell phone toting yappers 3 songs into the set. WHY do people pay money to come and yap?! Well, that’s for another day………….Anyway, this reviewer was a bit skeptical as far as what I was going to take away from a solo acoustic set with Todd. If you’ve never had the pleasure of catching TS with the “Nervous Wrecks” (with Will Kimbrough on lead) you don’t know what you’re missing! Todd had to make a decision as to what direction he was heading in a few years back. A garage rocker or folk story teller. He moved to Nashville and chose the latter. I do not usually dig performers who talk too much, but as Rolling Stone recently said:

“He’s a funny mother f*cker!” Todd uses humor as rock and roll’s greatest weapon. He takes it straight to the heart. Rolling thru his catalog of the “Train Song”, “Lonely Girl”, “Ballad of the Kingsmen”, and “Tillamook County Jail”, he had the audience right where he wanted them. A LOYAL audience, too. Folks were with him word for word on most tunes. Other stand out tunes included “Good News Blues”, “Conservative Christian Right Winged Republican”, “If Tomorrow Never Comes”, “You Got Away with It” and “Happy New Year”………..I really admire how Mr.Snider can speak to the politics of the day without ever speaking politics. He proclaimed that he did not want you to think he was preaching. That’s not his thing at all.

His encore this evening was a tune called “Tension” which we all have too damn much of in today’s society. Todd helped relieve some of that for sure this particular evening. The gig to me was very well worth it. Summing up the whole evening to me, was Todd’s killer tune “Enjoy Yourself”. He states that its later than you think-to enjoy yourself while you’re still in the pink! Amen brother Todd, amen…………..until next time, I’m out.