On This Day In Stoner Yodel History: December 23
Elmo Buzz and the Eastside Bulldogs make their debut
By Daryl Sanders
On this day in 2006, Elmo Buzz, Todd Snider’s blue-collar rock & roller alter ego, and his backing band the Eastside Bulldogs gave their first live performance at East Nashville haunt 3 Crow Bar.
Elmo Buzz was born out of Snider’s desire to circumvent language in a performance contract he had with another larger Nashville venue that restricted him from playing locally at that particular time. The way Snider looked at it, Todd Snider might not be able to perform, but there was nothing to prevent Elmo Buzz from doing a show in Nashville.
In a way, by donning a new persona, Snider was simply following in the footsteps of his first idol and early mentor Ronald Clyde Crosby, the influential New York singer-songwriter best known as Jerry Jeff Walker, the father of Texas progressive country.
All the Bulldogs also had pseudonyms that night, presumably to protect their identities, as well. Longtime Snider collaborator and guitarist Will Kimbrough was Blind Lemon Pledge, a moniker Snider would later claim for himself. Guitarist Tommy Womack was Dakota Montana, drummer Mark Horn was Mercury Morris and bassist Peter Cooper was Mike Honcho.
Over the years, Elmo Buzz and the Eastside Bulldogs would become an outlet for the garage rock sounds Snider loves, and he would write material specifically for that band, which he supplemented in live performances with a lot of his favorite garage rock covers. But on that first night at the 3 Crow, Buzz and the Bulldogs mostly played garage-rock arrangements of material from his previous two albums, East Nashville Skyline and The Devil You Know, along with a few oldies, like Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and the Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing,” before ending the night with the gospel jewel, “Amazing Grace.”
Womack remembers that first appearance by the Bulldogs as a tune-up for a run of gigs between Christmas and New Year’s Day that Snider and the Nervous Wrecks had on the books, which would culminate with a pair of shows at Mississippi Nights in St. Louis on December 30 and 31.
“It was sort of a working rehearsal for St. Louis,” Womack recalls. “[It] was a whole lot of fun. It was a good rock & roll jam.”
Here’s the set list for Elmo Buzz and the Eastside Bulldogs’ debut performance:
“Johnny B. Goode”
“Looking for a Job”
“Just Like Old Times”
“Alcohol and Pills”
“Easy Money”
“Good News Blues”
“Conservative Christian”
“Crooked Piece of Time”
“Doublewide Blues”
“Statistician's Blues
Georgia on a Fast Train”
“East Nashville Skyline”
“Tulsa Time”
“Incarcerated”
“Ballad of The Kingsmen”/“It's Your Thing”
“The Devil You Know”
“Play a Train Song”
“Better Than Ever Blues, Pt. 2”
“Enjoy Yourself"
“Johnny B. Goode”
“Amazing Grace”
© 2023 Daryl Sanders
Man I wish there was recording of this show!!
WOW, that was some setlist!!