18 Minutes

"Good evening, for those of you who don't know, my name's Todd Snider,and I've been drivin' around for 15 years, makin' this [stuff] up, singin' it for anybody who'll listen to it. Some of it's sad, some of it's funny, some of it's short, some of it's longer than others, and sometimes I'll go on for as many as 18 minutes in between the songs.

These days my friends will tell me that my songs are getting more and more opinionated. And that may be, but they are just that. Opinions. And though I may express some of my opinions tonight, I won't do that becaus I think they're right or important... I sing them because... they rhyme. I don't sing to try and change anyone's mind about anything. I sing to ease my own my mind... about everything."

At some point during a Todd Snider set you will undoubtedly hear some variant of the lines above, and each of the stanzas will generally be uttered in a single breath. I heard those words Friday night at the El Rey Theatre. And let me just state right now, I love, love love Todd Snider. Easily my favorite musician right now. And though I may not agree with Todd on everything, on those items that don't I still like hearing about it. After all... it rhymes.

Todd is one of the most unique live peroformers around. You are guaranteed every night to get some mix of songs you love, songs you've never heard, funny stories, ramblings, interesting covers, whatever you want (half the show is often by request), and sometimes you get all of those things in the same song. Friday (after Dinah's) Matt and I got all of this in more. A new song about Todd's lucky day when he found a four-leaf clover (with only one leaf missing, close enough - slim chance... still a chance). Matt got to hear the Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern. Extra verses of Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues (specifically for Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie). Todd picking through a 15-minute story of how he became lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band.

Todd is the main reason I've only ever bought one song on iTunes or any other system built entirely of streams of electrons and light. See, Todd used to sit around and listen to music and read the liner notes to the albums, and now I do that with Todd's. A lot of present-day artists don't write anything other than long thank you lists in there, which aren't much fun to read. You know... unless they were to rhyme. (They never do.) But Todd does. And so do a few others. And maybe I get to learn a little about the inspiration for that song, or who wrote it (if not him), or who was the guest vocalist or guitarist. And then maybe I go out and get their album and get turned on to a lot of other great music.

Well anyway, that's Todd. He's just a guy up there with a guitar and a harmonica. No fancy light show. His jeans aren't tight. And you just set there and listen and maybe sing along, and maybe talk to someone next to you about another Todd show you saw. Maybe that person is twice your age, or maybe its a handful of surprisingly young kids in skinny jeans and crooked hats.

Great show. As the song goes, "the crowd was cool and the band was prime..."