Todd Snider was many things: a storyteller who would captivate his friends by spinning hilarious yarns through the night, a poet, a rebel, a hippie, a druggie, the standard bearer of unequivocal personal freedom, but above all, Todd Snider was a songwriter.
The revered Nashville tunesmith and special friend to Santa Cruz has passed, and on Jan. 31 more than 20 local musicians will perform their favorite Snider songs at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, an evening to celebrate the depth and scope of the impact this endlessly prolific songwriter and storyteller had on Santa Cruz. His longtime friend Jim Lewin told me that hearing a variety of Snider’s songs can lead to understanding Snider’s overall freedom-based philosophy, an ethos straight out of Santa Cruz hippie culture.
Jim Lewin played with Snider, wrote with him, recorded records with him and carried on with him night after night. Jim says, “Todd Snider wrote more songs than anyone, wrote more offbeat songs, told funnier jokes, partied harder, took more drugs, hung out with cooler people, and dated the coolest chicks. He told the best stories, better, longer, funnier stories than anyone. If Dylan was the voice of the idealist 60s, Snider was the muse of the broken dream. The bedraggled, stoned poet of our fractured, disillusioned times. He spoke for us all.”
Snider flaunted his faults and put them under a microscope for us. Through that lens we can see our own faults and maybe help us forgive ourselves too. You get the feeling that, though Snider may or may not be making these hilarious stories up, somehow, you’re getting the absolute truth.
Lewin says, “That was one of his superpowers, honesty. Kids today need more good influences like Todd Snider to warn them off the straight and narrow.”
Todd’s commitment to songwriting and his connection with songwriters is legendary. An extremely credible source told me Todd Snider and Loretta Lynn made out. Close to 80, she asked him out to her house to write a song, directed him to a pile of lyrics she had stored in a refrigerator and said, “Smoke one of your doobies and see if anything jumps out at you.” Snider talked about their relationship, “I have to admit I had a genuine crush on her …she was magic.” (https://www.salvationsouth.com/im-going-to-heaven-tonight-loretta-lynn-todd-snider/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
When talking about his 2014 book, I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like, Snider said he was inspired to go all in on songwriting by his heroes, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, and Billy Joe Shaver, for “doing what they had to do, and if somebody hadn’t come along and fed them, they would have starved to death. That’s what I set out to do.”
Jim Lewin said, “Todd was fearless. Imagine standing in front of a huge audience in the middle of Texas, singing “Conservative Christian Right-Wing Republican Straight White Males.” Snider had once said, “Playing originals is like getting in front of a crowd and sticking your dick in a fan.”
From KPIG radio, Michael Gaither will perform “D.B. Cooper”, a tune that turns a legendary unsolved airline hijacking into a rambling, philosophical, barroom tale. It’s funny, but also is about myth, American outlaw fantasies and taps into our rebellious urge to believe that someone, somewhere, got away clean. Gaither said “I’m thrilled to be singing Todd’s D.B. Cooper song. It’s the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history.” Who doesn’t secretly want to be part of a perfectly executed heist?
“With all those men working overtime they swore they would bring him down
But a parachute and a few hundred dollars was all that they ever found”
Gaither says, “Todd loved Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz loved Todd. It was a hippie town, and it was an Americana town. You know, KPIG was a big part of our community here and KPIG played Todd a lot.”
KSQD jock and Americana basso crooner Andy Fuhrman (@brooklynbillymusic) will perform “Alright Guy”, a beloved anthem of finding contentment in being simply “alright.” Fuhrman says, ‘“Alright Guy” expresses a humble, self-deprecating, yet positive view of himself as a normal, decent person.” The laughs come from his honesty; he’s not failing, he is enough. The song let’s all of us give ourselves a break. “Alright Guy” makes me think, “I’m not a perfect person, I may not even be the person I want to be, but hey man, really, I ain’t so bad.” Fuhrman says, “He’s writing for you. He’s just trying to be himself. He wasn’t trying to be anybody else. He wasn’t trying to play fancy guitar. He inspired so many of us, he was a four-chord songwriter who came up with great songs and great stories. Four chords.” Jim Lewin and Harpin’ Jonny Troutner will back up Fuhrman.
A Todd Snider Tribute will fill the Kuumbwa with musicians who are fans and fans who are musicians to celebrate a songwriter who inspires us with humor that is wielded with kindness and intelligence. His songs are as powerful as any protest song or love ballad, and they make us laugh because they understand us. In times like these, in our epistemic collapse where we try to survive the relentless, gaslit, post-truth bullshit, laughing at the truth from an Alright Guy just might give us shelter from the shitstorm.
A Todd Snider Tribute is 7pm Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. This is a benefit for Encompass Community Services, with all the proceeds going towards early childhood education, youth mental health counseling and family counseling. Tickets are $50 advance;$60 door.
