Todd Snider live in Snowtown, U.S.A.

sword & shield on the battlefield of snow in boston
Yeah Boston's not exactly weather suits my clothes in December, January, February, March, hell April - yeah, April. First year up here it snowed the most it's still ever snowed in a year. Coming from a place where an inch of snow will blot out all rationality in the natives, I was anxious about what the winter was going to bring. It seemed like it snowed forever and there was so much snow falling that the dreaded time of the ugly snow - the snow covered in cigarette butts and beer cans and dirt and ugly - was always put off to another day. I loved it. But I was 25 then; now I'm 40. This shit ain't cool anymore - even if it did inspire the Shaq&Nate-O-Meter:



With endless winter camped out in your backyard, you take whatever sunshine you can get. Like the Celtics on their way to banner 18, the Red Sox kicking off spring training, and Todd Snider rolling into town for a live show. I've probably listened to Snider more than any other artist for the past 4 years, but the first time I saw him live was a few days ago at the Paradise Rock Club. My gal Cort and my pal Jeff and I, after surviving the opener Jesse Ruben, had ourselves a ridiculously good time. Perhaps the first thing to note about the evening would be that I thought musical nirvana was going to be achieved for all present when Snider, during a time when he was requesting tunes, played "Freebird" for about 60 seconds. He played it long enough to where I giddily let out a "holy shit he's going to do it!" to Cort and Jeff. But it was not to be. What was to be was Snider playing damn good guitar, treating everyone to great versions of songs new and old, telling some hilarious stories, and in general just ruling the roost. From that night here's "Just Like Old Times" - another pitch perfect character study. Snider, with his keen eye for the telling class detail, captures a whole world with the line "we'll screw off the top on a bottle of wine."

Todd Snider - Just Like Old Times [buy]

I don't go out to many live shows, so I have no idea if the practice is common, but at the merchandise table for the show you could purchase a card for 7 bucks which would allow you to download the show later from toddsniderlive.com. It's a brilliant idea and seems to be a nifty way to put more money in the artist's pocket and give the audience a quality soundboard recording of the show for a reasonable price.

The other item I got that night was Snider's new 2-disc live set The Storyteller which came out a few days before the show. I've only heard disc one, and though I still don't know what to think about Great American Taxi, Snider and all those songs of his are in fine form. And he can string a few words together into one helluva story. Just check him detailing the time he met Bill Elliot in Chattanooga.

Todd Snider - Bill Elliot Story [buy]

If Snider gets anywhere near where you live, hock, steal, beg, or bribe for the cash if necessary to go see the man play. You'll be sure to thank yourself.

but they didn't know what i was high on

It’s not everyday when an elite athlete discovers that his Performance Enhancing Drug of choice is going to be LSD. Uh huh, that old athletic-enhancer standby Lysergic acid diethylamide. But Dock Ellis, former MLB pitcher, made that discovery on June 12, 1970. I say discovered, for, from the sound of things, it seems Ellis didn’t know he was going to be pitching on the day he was still flying the friendly skies on a couple tabs (plus a few Bennies -- hey, it was the 70s). But Ellis definitely did pitch that day. He hit some batters, walked eight of them, and just happened to pitch a no hitter. Folks, there’s plenty of things to be famous for in this world of ours, but it’s the rare dude indeed who gets to say “pitched a No-No on LSD.” This feat has inspired a few songs. Todd Snider, a born chronicler of such an event if there ever was one, recently told the tale with “America’s Favorite Pastime.”

Todd Snider - America’s Favorite Pastime [buy]

But Ellis’ moment in the LSD Sun also inspired this wicked video by one James Blagden, with Ellis providing the voiceover and uttering the eternal lines "the next day...which I thought was the next day." Hat-tip to Odie for turning me on to this one.



That's Rufus serving-up the funk:
Rufus Thomas - (Do The) Push and Pull [buy]

And as if that’s not enough for one career, Ellis could also make the claim to be probably the only MLB pitcher who actually tried to hit every batter he faced one day at the ballpark (beaning Pete Rose & Joe Morgan in the process), just to prove a point to a teammate. Hey, it was the 70s.

wouldn't matter anyway

Sitting in Oli’s living room in Algete, Spain, I first heard Todd Snider singing “Iron Mike’s Main Man’s Last Request.” And God how I laughed with that song, and still sitting there stunned at how intimately Snider inhabited that character. He made real the subtle yet blunt reality of working class life, something that most people who talk or sing about poor folk have little real connection to. Snider's standing with, not singing about. Tonight I heard his most recent album, The Excitement Plan, for the first time, and found “Corpus Christi Bay” -- another perfectly sketched story of a man and the world he lives and that lives him. Here's a bit of America for you.

Todd Snider - Corpus Christi Bay [buy it at Snider's site]