By Daryl Sanders

Todd Snider has curated another playlist for the readers of The Snider Files. This time, he presents some of his favorite material from Jerry Jeff Walker’s early folk albums.

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Merry Christmas from The Snider Files. To help you enjoy the holiday, we have prepared a playlist for you of Christmas songs with swinging arrangements.

I actually created this playlist over two decades ago as a mix CD for my late father. He loved music that swings, and he loved this playlist. I hope it brings you as much enjoyment as it did him.

© 2024 Daryl Sanders

By Daryl Sanders

On December 23, 2016, Elmo Buzz and the Eastside Bulldogs raised the roof at The Basement East in a performance for the ages.

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By Daryl Sanders

Todd Snider calls his haikus “shaikus” because his friend Amanda Shires showed him how to write them.

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Time to kick-start your weekend with another playlist curated by Todd Snider for readers of The Snider Files. This time, Snider takes us on a deep dive into essential early rock and roll tracks.

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By Daryl Sanders

From time-to-time, Todd Snider will give counsel to younger artists, just as Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, John Prine, Billy Joe Shaver and others did for him. He speaks to them from three-and-half decades of experience in the music business. He’s developed a healthy skepticism and cynicism toward the music biz in that time, which can be seen in the following advice he recently shared with The Snider Files for artists doing interviews for a new album.

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By Daryl Sanders

I can’t remember the exact date, but I will never forget the first time I heard the name that is now on top of the Americana world. Todd Snider stopped by my house in East Nashville and told me about this singer-songwriter he and Eric McConnell had discovered. He said her name was Sierra Ferrell.

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By Todd Snider

when i was writing my book
i've never met a story i didn’t like,
i wrote an email to my brother mike,
and i said to him very simply,
“i am going to take the latest email chain between us
and put it in my book unedited,
and i am going to call the chapter,
MY CHRISTIAN BROTHER.”

years ago, i got him a job booking christian rock bands,
but he’s insufferably full of shit,
drinks way too much,
has pompous anger issues,
treats his sister like a peasant,
threatens her children with violence,
and is the phoniest christian i’ve even been around in my life.
so he knew that if I were do that,
and the world saw who he really was,
that he would never work in this town again.
that’s how bad it was.
so he hired a lawyer at great expense
and went to great lengths to try to stop my book from coming out.
why?
because that’s how bad it was.
that’s how badly he didn’t want people to know who he really is.

i would have no problem with the whole world reading all of it.
it would endear me to people.
my publishers called and asked me about it.
they said, “we can’t find the chapter your brother’s lawyer is talking about,”
and i said, “there isn’t a chapter like that — but there could be, and he knows it,
so i am just having fun at his expense.”
so my publishers told his lawyer that i had a right to put those emails in my book,
and that my poor brother would have to deal with it.
it wasn’t till the book came out
that he would find out to his relief
that i am still not at all like him.
but i am hilarious.

© 2024 Todd Snider

By Todd Snider

i remember being up late one night by myself when i was only 7 or 8 years old, and the midnight special, i think, came on the television.

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By Daryl Sanders

In 2011, Todd Snider enlisted the help of then-tour manager Dave “Elvis” Hicks to create a short video satirizing the often-absurd staple of music publicity — the phone interview.

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By Todd Snider

the bible describes the human condition with a story of the first man eating from the tree of knowledge. it was an apple. if you cut an apple in half you can see the fibonacci spiral of the universe, which is the same spiral as an atom.

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Acclaimed amateur musicologist Todd Snider returns with another playlist curated for subscribers of The Snider Files. It’s the flip side of his recent exploration into electric blues — a deep dive into the source of the blues, the Mississippi Delta.

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By Daryl Sanders

On this day in 2013, Melvin Records released “Don’t Wanna Hurt Nobody,” a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl single by Hard Working Americans for Black Friday Record Store Day.

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By Daryl Sanders

After reading The Snider Files’ piece on the Todd Snider bootleg album CountryFried, subscriber Ken Keiran shared a video he shot of a rare live performance by Todd Snider and the Nervous Wrecks of one of the songs on the bootleg, “Country When It Rocks.”

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By Daryl Sanders

At some point in 1995, probably late summer, Todd Snider was reminded that he was required to submit publishing demos to MCA to be pitched to other recording artists, specifically country artists. So he went into Keith Sykes’ studio in Memphis and cut a dozen or so songs, 11 of which ended up on a Snider bootleg in circulation called CountryFried.

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By Daryl Sanders

Todd Snider’s recent series of blues-themed Spotify playlists reminded subscriber Ken Keiran of an unforgettable encore at Todd Snider’s show at Wooly’s in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 12, 2013. Keiran captured the encore on his phone and kindly shared the video with The Snider Files, which we share with you below.

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Todd Snider returns with another playlist for The Snider Files, a continuation of his series of blues-themed lists. This time he takes a deep dive into the Chicago blues.

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by todd snider

i like to smoke pot
but not just a little bit of it.
i only want to smoke it if your friends all think it only takes two hits to get really high,
and then i want to smoke a big, fat rasta jay, much thicker than a cigarette,
and i smoke all of it, by myself, to start my day.
and i will repeat that process at least two more times that day,
usually more.
i like to stay as disoriented as i can.

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By Daryl Sanders

Most Todd Snider fans know his first album Songs For The Daily Planet was released by Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville label, but many may not realize his first recording deal was with Liberty Records.

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Todd Snider has been on a serious roll lately with the playlists he’s curated for readers of The Snider Files. Today, he give us another winner — “Todd Snider’s ‘Blues By Name’ Playlist.”

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