You Asked, Todd Answered, Part 6

Another installment of your questions and Todd Snider’s answers

Todd Snider considers Bob Dylan’s album New Morning a masterpiece.

By Daryl Sanders

In this set of Todd Snider’s answers to questions submitted by subscribers to The Snider Files, Snider discusses Bob Dylan, Judge Judy, places in the U.S. that are hidden gems and the one thing left on his musical bucket list, among other topics.

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Tony Pig: Do you have a Bob Dylan story or thought about him that you like to share? If so, please do! Thx, man!

Todd: I think he is the most important artist of the last century. I think he has sought wisdom to the degree that life is a bit painful for him. He’s tied with Willie Nelson for my favorite Americans of all time. I don’t think he’s ever made a bad record. He is willing to be disliked and disappoint for the sake of his muse. He’s become an amazing musician. “What would Bob do?” has been my motto since I was young. He’s my favorite artist. He’s hilarious. He’s been booed more than any popular artist of all time. He doesn’t take concepts seriously. He’s not in it for the money. He has been true to his muse. He has worked at not making facial expressions for the sake of making other people comfortable. He isn’t presumptuous or pretentious. People’s general perception of him is way off. New Morning is a masterpiece. You have to be beyond great to be in his band. Doug Lancio, who’s played on my albums and co-produced Peace Queer, is in the band, and Jim Keltner, who played on Excitement Plan, just joined the band. I opened for him before I made an album. He does all kinds of other art.

Lance Johnson: Thank you for all of the great stories, insights and music over these years. I appreciate your “no bullshit” approach to life. I’m quite a traveler around these United States and have seen many great places. With all your travels across the country, what’s a place you’ve been that you might consider a hidden gem that others should check out, and any chance we can ever get you back up to Alaska? Thanks again for everything and take care of that back!

Todd: Homer, Alaska; Talkeetna, Alaska; Santa Cruz, California; Luckenbach, Texas; Key West; Oregon coast; Nederland, Colorado; Big Sur; Austin/New Braunfels, Texas; Niagra Falls; Vashon Island, Washington; Pismo Beach, California; Asheville, North Carolina; Santa Fe, New Mexico; East Nashville. I’m sure there are more.

Jim Luper: I know the time off wasn’t your plan, but what have you enjoyed most in this time?

Todd: Chakra meditation. I have a flower garden. I am trying to paint things. I did a portrait of Jaws from before he was famous. I painted Fonzie’s 14 garbage can jump. I painted Scott Martin — he grew up on my street.  I paint lots of stuff. Plus, I have six couples of geese living in my yard. They mate for life and have kids every year. They know me and peck on my window when they are hungry. And I read up on how to get crows and blue jays to hang around and bought salt licks so I have deer around all the time. Thats kinda my favorite. I also love to study music and learn about the different genres; listen to records and dissect whats happening. Also The Rolling Stones. Loving them takes up a lot of my time.

Tom Oseland: Do you still dig Judge Judy?

Todd: You know, that was a phase from the days when I was always in hotels. Why? Did she sexually assault something?

Kevin Shapiro: From “You Got Away With It,” written (from my understanding) by Melita and you: “And aside from that one hippie, we never really hurt anyone / Well, there’s that other thing that I won’t even say / As God as my witness I’ll take that to my grave.” I've always wondered what “that other thing” was. Maybe it was something you or Melita observed some asshole do to his lady; or maybe it’s a parallel to ole Bush and Dick (not) talking about that one thing that happened that one September. Through all the wondering, what I always land on is that perhaps you had no action in mind. That “that other thing” is just a brilliant line that has an old fan like myself pondering some (almost) 20 years later, and if that is the case you certainly got away with it. Any who, as I am sure you know by now, my question is what was “that other thing”? I know my best good pal and big fan of yours Kalvin Adams would be heaps keen to know as well. Love you, too.

Todd: I really am happy about this question because I just put that in there as a writer-type thing. My reference was a song called “Jody and the Kid” by Kris Kristofferson. Kent Finlay said songs could have little secrets in them, and this is what I was trying to do. In “Jody and the Kid,” he talks about walking with a girl named Jody. Everybody calls them Jody and the kid, and in the end he talks about walking with his daughter and how it makes him sad when they call him and her Jody and the kid — and thats all we get to know about Jody. As I was working on that song, I thought I could use that to the same effect. Kent noticed it.

Jen Ann: If you could jam with anyone dead or alive, who would you choose?

Todd: Neal Casal and Jeff Austin. I have an email exchange between myself and Jeff that leads up to the day he dies. And then on that day, I got an email from Neal — he’d heard that Jeff thanked me for saving his life onstage, and then got offstage and did what he did. And that led to another email exchange between Neal and me that continued right up to the day we lost him. Now that I have been home for almost a couple of years, I can tell that I am still in shock and taking it very personally; and I would give anything for one more shot at being happy with them. I still have a lot of guilt about not being able to help them. They reached out to the wrong guy. Sorry to go on a tangent.

Tony Richmond: There is nothing better than you performing solo and your connection to the crowd. The records where you play with a band are a close second. When we get you feeling better and out on the road again, would you be interested in making music with others? More specifically, have you ever wanted to play with a horn section? There’s just something special that happens when guitars, percussion and horns really come together. I think it would be awesome to hear the music that you would come up with in that setting. We love and appreciate you so much!

Todd: You must have a bug in my house. That’s the only thing left on my musical performing bucket list. Lady Couch has horns. I’m into background singers, too. Myself, Robert Kearns and Robbie Crowell are trying to put together a band that is the exact same instrumental line up as Mad Dogs & Englishmen that I just sing in, but the twist is we do it with all John Prine songs. Now, that would take a lot, but my buddy George Boedecker the Fucking First has the Riverside Revival, and I know he'd probably take a risk on it. But if I did that, which is more than just horns, we’d have to stay here to do it. If you get a minute, look up the Riverside Revival and see what he’s doing there. I can't tell y’all how much I appreciate you, and Daryl, too. Y’all are keeping me alive buying shirts and shit, and I can’t believe how lucky I am. I want to work again soon. At the very least, I want to do my Sunday shows. And I want to play with the Wrecks again, even if it can’t be in public. The original Joe, Joe, Will and Shamus. I’m a better guitar player now, and we were just figuring something out when Joe Mack had to quit and be replaced by Paul (Buchignani). And I quit and got replaced by Tom Petty — which was over the top cool of him. I wish he'd done the words, too. Dick.

Karen Martinkowski: Have you been able to write much while you've been off the road? Any chance of another book? I try to read the first one at least once a year. It was so funny and fun to read. Whatever you have been up to, I look forward to seeing you out on the road soon, and to the camp in August.

Todd: I have a song or two maybe, but I don't think I’ll do another book. Maybe but it just reminds me of my friends dying so young. I’ve lost so many friends in such a short amount of time and not all of them are dead. Although a good title would be I Never Said I Liked Every Story I Knew.

Scott Thomas: Hey, Todd, I might misremember this but it seemed like sometime during the Covid Sunday services you mentioned that Oh Boy was going to repress something, or maybe I imagined that. Are there any plans for making some of your releases that have been out of print available again on vinyl? Love you, man.

Todd: I don’t know. I usually don’t get involved in those types of things, but the people who do will read this. 

© 2024 Daryl Sanders