Drink Hole Friday Night Concert - Todd Snider "Near Truths and Hotel Rooms" part 1

Yes it's time once again to say "goodbye" to another work week and ring in the weekend with some literate, poignant and funny singing and story-telling!

Over the past 3 weeks I've brought you my three favorite songwriters, John Prine, Guy Clark and Billy Joe Shaver. The Holy Trinity of songwriters as I like to call them. But if Shemp is the 4th of The Three Stooges, D'artagnon is the 4th Three Musketeer and Ernie Douglas is the 4th My Three Son...then Todd Snider is the 4th in the triumvirate of the songwriters in my heart and head!

I remind everyone again, I don't offer these mp3's as downloads. Todd Snider is a working artist and I hope to hip you to his talent with this little listening party. If you dig what you hear, please visit his website and glom on to more of the great work he brings us.

These songs I bring you are from his 2003 seminal live album "Near Truths and Hotel Rooms" from Oh Boy Records, his 6th record and the point when he graduated in my mind to singer/songwriter/storytelling herodom! If your unsure that you'll like this guy (seriously...why would you doubt me?) just give a listen to tracks 8, 11 and 12 as a sampler. I'll meet you back here when you decide to listen to the whole thing.

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." - Short intro...



"Tension" - '...it's all that I know"



"D.B. Cooper" - Just like folk singers of old, Todd tells the story of the bank robbers leap into popular culture from an airplane.



"Lonely Girl" - Story of his first meeting with his future wife...in the cafeteria of the rehab hospital they were both staying in at the time - '...have I got a lonely boy for you'.



"Hello.......sorry" - Todd's more direct introduction of himself.



"Beer Run" - 'All we need is a ten and a fiver, a car and a key and a sober driver!'



"Reading on the plane, writing on the phone" - Story and introduction to 'Statistician's Blues'.



"Statistician's Blues" - The opening verse says it ALL!



"Waco Moon" - The song Todd wrote after his friend Eddy Shaver's (we heard him here last week with his Dad) death.



"I Can't Complain" - A song we should all sing to ourselves every once in a while!



"The Story of the Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern" - The story I play for anyone who has never heard of Snider. I featured a different version of this story here a month or so ago...it's worth hearing again!



"The Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern" - The story about a failed trip to Luchenbach and good advice for us all. 'Fuck Luckenbach, drink with us!' has become a rallying cry for me wherever I go!



If you ain't hungry for more, I believe your listener must be broken. If you ARE...part two will be posted tomorrow night.

Talk to you soon!