BEST BET: TODD SNIDER
By Barry
Gilbert
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 16, 2005
10:30 p.m. (doors open at 9:30) June 18, 2005, at Mississippi Nights, 914 North First Street. $15. Over-21 show. 314-421-3853.
Some artists employ full bands
on their CDs but shuffle alone from town to town as a matter of
economics. Not Todd Snider. This folk-alt country-talkin' blues
singer, inspired by a Jerry Jeff Walker performance 15 years ago,
prefers to perform solo because it gives him more space to tell
his stories. And with a wry, slightly warped sense of humor,
Snider has been telling his stories now for seven CDs, from
tracks such as 1994's "Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock
Blues" -- the one about the "alternative
alternative" band that was so alternative it got up onstage
and refused to play a note, earning a huge advance from a major
label -- to last year's "Conservative Christian, Right-Wing
Republican, Straight, White, American Males." Snider is
touring behind "East Nashville Skyline," a fine album
about his neighborhood, his battles with drugs and alcohol and
mortality. That these topics leave a listener smiling is
testament to Snider's honesty and sharp tongue.