The Old Todd Snider is Dead. Kind of.

Some artists need boredom to pave the way to creating something new. Todd Snider is not that kind of artist. ā€œIt’s been the most dramatic year of my life,ā€ says the loquacious, humane songwriter. ā€œThis week I rolled my car—I was going really fast and spun all around. I thought, OK, I’m going to either wake up in the hospital or not at all. I got pretty Zen. Luckily I woke up and just started driving home, and five blocks from home I got surrounded by all these policeā€¦ā€

It had already been a full year for Snider: penning a memoir titled I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like: Mostly True Tall Tales; appearing in The First Waltz, a rockumentary about his jam band, Hard Working Americans; and getting divorced. He originally planned to rerecord some of his classic songs for his next CD, as well. Then his thoughts turned over in his head.

ā€œTodd Snider is a movie star now and folk music’s beneath him!ā€ he exclaims by phone from his Nashville home. ā€œI’m a lead singer in a jam band and I like to take acid. My name is Blind Lemon Pledge and Todd Snider is dead and hasn’t been heard from—that’s my plan. I want to make a Blind Lemon Pledge solo record. He’s kind of country and makes up confusing rock songs that I have no idea what they are about.ā€

Even more confusing is the fact that his March 11 concert at the 20th Century Theater is booked as a solo Todd Snider show featuring Todd Snider tunes. ā€œI think this is one where I sit down and do ā€˜Alice’s Restaurant’ for two hours, spill beer,ā€ he says. ā€œI can still do that pretty well.ā€

Clearly, there is no prediction for the upcoming Oakley performance that is too outlandish or existential. ā€œI want to keep myself amused, even if that means leaving two songs into a show,ā€ says Snider. ā€œI don’t owe anybody anything. I’m making a cognizant decision to bark at the moon.ā€

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Originally published in the March 2015 issue.

Photograph courtesy Snider.

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