He is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player born Todd Daniel Snider in Portland, Oregon, and raised in several cities including Houston and Atlanta before settling himself in Memphis in the 1980s.
A resident at the Daily Planet club n the mid-1990s, he was noticed by the singer-songwriter and Coral Reefer Band member, Keith Sykes, and after passing demo tapes to Jimmy Buffett, he joined up with Jimmy’s Margaritaville label. He released his 1994 debut Songs for the Daily Planet and although not achieving any major hits, the album featured the song “Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” which did give him a minor success.
He remained with MCA for a further two albums and then joined Oh Boy Records which is run by John Prine. This time he recorded four albums as well as appearing as a guest musician with Jimmy Buffett in concert in 2003 and having the collection That Was Me: The Best of Todd Snider 1994-1998 put out by the Hip-O record label in 2005. 2006 came around and yet another record company, this time New Door Records, resulted in the album The Devil You Know that ended up as No. 33 in Rolling Stone’s “Top 50 Albums of the Year”. He also got himself known for his song written about President Bush, “You Got Away With It”.
Other albums he has appeared on include his own East Nashville Skyline, Happy To Be Here, Near Truths and Hotel Rooms, New Connection, Peace, Love & Anarchy, Step Right Up and Viva Satellite as well as Wings by Mark Chesnutt and Freedom’s Child by Billy Joe Shaver among many others. As a songwriter his works have been recorded by acts such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Keith Sykes, Russ Taff and Jerry Jeff Walker and in collaboration with Jack Ingram he wrote “Barbie Doll”.
His live performances are often staged with his band the Nervous Wrecks, which comprises Will Kimbrough, Joe Mariencheck, Joe McLeary and David Zollo, and he is known for his additional humour and stories that are interspersed with the music.
Sources:
- http://www.toddsnider.net/bio.html
- http://www.toddsnider.net/home.html
- http://www.myspace.com/toddsnider
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Snider
- http://www.ohboy.com/toddsnider.html
- http://www.eighteenminutes.com/
- http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/toddsnider
- http://www.buffettnews.com/resources/coralreeferband/?bid=295
- http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gxfuxqr5ld6e~T1
- http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gxfuxqr5ld6e~T4
- http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gxfuxqr5ld6e~T32