BuffettNews.com

Is there somewhere on the internet where I can listen to Todd Snider? I've only heard one song and can't decide if I like him or not.

try www.toddsnider.net

Thanks. I'll check that out tonight.

i would suggest his new album or the one just before, "East Nashville Skyline".

His new album is a best of that only covers his early years. While that's not a bad place to start, I also suggest his live album Near Truths and Hotel Rooms which is an excellent representative of Todd's live show and his superb storytelling skills.

Todd will open for and no doubt join Jerry Jeff Walker at BBKings in mid March 2006. Maybe we'll meet LIPH.

Cool fan-run Todd site here:

http://www.eighteenminutes.com

From Flagpole.com:
http://flagpole.com/articles.php?fp=5776

Leaning On The Sunny Side

Todd Snider Ages Gracefully, Hails Rock And Roll


Todd Snider

Todd Snider has at least learned how to make the best out of a bad situation. A quick survey of songs from the Nashville-based singer-songwriter's last album East Nashville Skyline sees him stranded without bail in the "Tilamook County Jail," contemplating famous musicians' ultimately fatal connections to "Alcohol and Pills" and continuously poking fun at the pratfalls of growing old. For "Iron Mike's Main Man's Last Request," he plays the part of Mike Tyson's perpetually p***-upon personal assistant. Whatever down or contemplative situation Snider finds himself in, he apparently doesn't have to look far to find a pen.

Since debuting in 1994 with the Songs From the Daily Planet album and its "hidden" accidental single "Seattle Grunge Rock Blues," Snider has crafted a style of songwriting that would be greatly amiss were it not for his self-deprecating sense of gallows humor.

In songs like "Beer Run," "Vinyl Records" and "Class of ‘85" from Snider's 2002 release New Connection, he looked back fondly (and not so fondly) at past years and events aided by the sometimes hazardous benefit of hindsight. East Nashville Skyline, on the other hand, appears to be more about looking at the present and (sometimes begrudgingly) into the years ahead. Thankfully, the songs are anything but depressing, middle-of-life's-road-type fodder.

"Ballad of the Kingsmen" is another one of those best-of-a-bad-deal songs, a speak-sing talking number in which Snider links together various rock-related controversies, from the 1950s "Louie, Louie" debate to the more recent conservative criticism of Marilyn Manson. In his lazy drawl, Snider ponders the situation in endearingly goofy fashion ("Marilyn Manson's real name isn't even Marilyn Manson/ He's a skinny public high school kid from Florida/ Not some monster from out of this world") before finally proclaiming "hail, hail rock and roll" and breaking into a seemingly improvised chorus of "Let's Get It On." The situation he's elaborating on isn't that positive, but Snider's delivery makes it awfully difficult not to crack a smile.

"I started in Portland and knew the story of The Kingsmen who did ‘Louie, Louie'," says Snider. "Eventually, it became a running joke around the house that whenever you hear on the news that a singer or band caused someone to kill themselves, like because Judas Priest told them to or something, my wife and I would start singing ‘Louie, Louie.' That's really the quintessential rock-and-roll story where they actually came right out and investigated the song. A couple of years go by, and I'm still typing, typing away at this song and all the hoopla surrounding Marilyn Manson comes up. I didn't wanna get too serious about it, but [that kind of controversy] really seems to be an ongoing thing."

Routinely busy for someone who often portrays himself as a slacker, Snider's currently working on a follow-up to East Nashville Skyline. In the meantime, he's offering That Was Me… Todd Snider 1994—1998, a compilation of tracks from his first three albums, which were released before Snider began recording for the John Prine-owned Oh Boy! Records.

Technically, it's what they like to call a "greatest hits." But for an artist not especially into writing or recording hits, it's still a pretty easy sell. For Snider, having a "hit" is more about finding a song that repeatedly goes over well in a live context than it is about churning out radio singles aimed at cracking the commercial charts.

"I like to think of all my little songs like, if I were a plumber, they'd be right there in my tool chest," says Snider. "So some of the songs I've got, just speaking metaphorically, when I'm going out and doing the plumbing thing or whatever and I get to the problem, there are some tools I got that I never use, while there are others that I use frequently.

"Everything I do goes towards [being able] to play shows," he continues. "I try to learn to make records so I can play more shows and I think of those songs as tools for me at night, these things that show up for work. It seemed like it was very easy for me to sit down and look at that list and go, ‘You haven't showed up in two years, you haven't showed up in four years, you show up every night.' The songs that say ‘Sing me!' all the time, I picked those."

Michael Andrews

Todd Snider is Proof That Not All Songwriters Lack a Sense of Humor
by Steven Hyden

Todd Snider might be the only singer alive whose between-song patter is more entertaining than his songs.

That's not a rip on Snider's songwriting ability, which is impressive. The 38-year-old Portland, Ore., native plays the troubadour card as well as anybody right now. His songs are hilarious and hell-raising, and delivered with a broken-down croon handed down from heroes like John Prine and Townes Van Zandt.

It's that voice, though, that makes hearing the man talk such a riot. During a recent telephone interview from his home in Nashville, Snider admitted being "a little coffeed up" after just getting out of bed. But his trademark lazy drawl makes Snider always sound like he's just gotten out of bed. Maybe the caffeine was to blame for Snider's aimless yet side-splitting answers to simple interview questions, or for the approximately 39 F-bombs he dropped in 20 minutes.

"What is it? Friday?" Snider asks shortly after picking up the phone and inquiring about the Meyer Theatre in Green Bay, where the singer will perform tonight. The show will take Snider out of the studio where work on the follow-up to 2004's stellar " East Nashville Skyline " is under way.

"It will be the same old hippie mumbling with the same tired riffs underneath it," Snider declared. "I don't see any reason why anyone would like it, but people liked the last one. And they gave me money again."

During his phone interview with The Post-Crescent, Snider also talked about being one of the funniest singer/songwriters on the planet, his love of Mike Tyson and getting beat up by hippies.

Your sense of humor really sets you apart from other singer/songwriters, who often seem afraid of being funny in a song. Is humor a hard thing to pull off?

I don't know. I agree with you ... There's a lot of young, "No Depression" people that I meet and they love Townes Van Zandt, they worship Townes Van Zandt. And they somehow have it in their head that he was the darkest and saddest one, because he probably was. I got to meet him a couple times and he was pretty bummed out. But he was the funniest (expletive) one, too. He really was. And so was Bob Dylan. And so were Beatles. I'm not saying I'm anywhere near that. I know that I'm the B-singer that plays your bar, but we're talking rock 'n' roll, so (expletive) A.

You wrote a song about Mike Tyson for " East Nashville Skyline " from the perspective of a guy who takes advantage of him. Tyson has sunk even lower since the record came out. Are you still a fan?

I like Mike Tyson ... I have so many opinions on him. I would love to just (expletive) meet him but I wouldn't want my old lady around at all.

And I would want it to be some place real public. I don't think there would be any reason for him to hit me. But if he did, it would be over pretty quickly.

On songs like "Conservative, Christian, Right-Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males" and "The Ballad of the Kingsmen," you really lay out for everyone to see your opinions on politics, religion and culture. Does that make for any interesting encounters with fans after the show?

I got some letters when (the CD) came out because of the "Conservative Christian" one, that came to the record company. And by letters I mean, say, five to seven that said, "Liked you, don't anymore." I get more Republicans trying to let me know that they're not offended. Because I played with Buffet some, so those Parrothead dudes still come some times. And they like to come up after the show and go, "I'm a Republican and I love you, you little bastard."

The worst thing that ever happened was, I did a song called "This Land is Our Land" on my first record where I was trying to be sarcastic but with a straight face. It was a mistake. I did that on like three songs. I thought it was dryer if I didn't let you know I was being sarcastic. And I had this song where I said, "The world needs landfills." Maybe it wasn't such a great song. But a couple hippie kids who thought I was being serious, it was a girl and a guy behind the House of Blues, I was walking out to the van and they beat the (expletive) (expletive) out of me. That was in 1995.

You got beat up over a song?

Yeah (laughs). And they were yelling, "The world doesn't need more oil spills." And I didn't even say I was trying to be sarcastic. I just took my beating.

And they were hippies? You would think they would be the peace-loving people.

Yeah. They were beating me down for peace (laughs).

Steven Hyden can be reached at 920-993-1000, ext. 296, or by e-mail at shyden@postcrescent.com

Todd Snider tells the truth . . . maybe
It's no lie, though, that he's a super singer-songwriter

By BRAD BARNES
For The Tennessean

Published: Saturday, 10/29/05
Critics will tell you Todd Snider's a great songwriter and maybe an even better performer. But if you ask him, that's not what he does best.

"I'm a stupendous liar and a martial arts expert," Snider says. "And I'm better at both of those things than I am at singing or writing songs."

Pity the mugger who meets him in a dark alley, assuming he's not lying about the martial arts thing, but not the folks who go to see him perform tonight at War Memorial Auditorium.

The east Nashville resident performs with the Yonder Mountain String Band, a band of 20-something progressive bluegrassers. At 39, with a half-dozen studio albums under his belt, Snider's old enough and experienced enough to be a mentor to the young'ns. But that's a role calling for a certain maturity that he might be unwilling to embrace.

He's as happy talking about his quest to visit all Major League Baseball ballparks as he is music, for instance. (He's hit 14 to date, including the San Francisco Giants' SBC Park just a couple weeks back.)

And why is he looking forward to the show?

"I love playing with the Yonders," he says. "It'll be nice night out of hippie-ness, which I like. Lots of barefoot, dirty-footed girls."

Snider himself often takes the stage footwear-challenged, peppering his funny and sad songs with intros that are as funny and sad as the songs. The stories are often true, if Snider is to be believed. Not that we're saying he is.

New stories come to him just by living. "I have just as much fun trying to live 'em out as trying to write 'em," he says. That his past is checkered with addictions and stints in rehab can augment both the funny and the sad in his songs.

Fans tend to like the live shows more than the recorded works, maybe because of the stories he prefaces them with when he's at the mike.

"Yeah, I hear that a lot," Snider says. He offers his own theory as to why he shines on a stage, though: "Well, I've done it live four times as much. I've done like seven records and 4,000 shows."

Indeed, albums have always been like rough drafts to the guy, who calls himself "pretty haphazard." Within a year, he's able to look back on a release and pick the weak songs or think about what he should have done differently in the studio.

At least, that was the case until his most recent disc, 2004's East Nashville Skyline, which critics widely proclaimed as his first masterpiece.

Was it the reaction he expected?

"No. Maybe. Maybe. Probably," he says, uncomfortably, before finally settling on, "No. I don't think so."

But now he just might agree with them. "A year later, I like it the best of all the albums." •

I don't care what anybody says, this guy rules. One of the best shows I've ever seen and his new disc kicks my arse all over the place. This guy is completely underrated.

Any guy that COBO hailed as the next JB,who is likewise admired by John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker is worth some serious consideration.

G

Goodman wrote:Any guy that COBO hailed as the next JB,who is likewise admired by John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker is worth some serious consideration.

G

I never understood why COBO claimed that.
He does not have the first tropical sounding tune and couldn't carry a tune with a forklift.....BUT somehow I like him

sonofabeach wrote:

Goodman wrote:Any guy that COBO hailed as the next JB,who is likewise admired by John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker is worth some serious consideration.

G

I never understood why COBO claimed that.
He does not have the first tropical sounding tune and couldn't carry a tune with a forklift.....BUT somehow I like him

I think it has more to do with his songwriting craft and the hedonism aspect to some of his work. He's definitely getting better with each album and is very worthy of mentioning in the same breath as Prine, Goodman, Clark, Jerry Jeff and Buffett's other 70s peers. In that respect I find more to like about Todd than I do a lot of other artists who've been compared to Buffett in recent years. And to my ears, Buffett isn't all about the "tropical" sound though it's certainly always been a large part of his appeal.

Todd totally reminds me of the way I have always pictured the EARLY Buffett with the storytelling, etc.

I still don't see him as the next Jimmy Buffett, but enjoy the comparisons.

Todd is the best singer songwriter I have ever listened to and his live shows are very eclectic. You never know what you will get and he doesn't know exactly what he'll deliver!!

Todd Snider: Aging Like Wine
by Dennis Cook




Without a howdy-do or the usual stage platitudes, Todd Snider rolls onto the San Francisco stage, long shirt untucked but his hair lookin' clean, and launches into song. Like water from the rocks in the dessert, music pours from him, leaving us quenched, refreshed, and ready to get lost in space as we race that old moon once again.

I have never once tried to figure out what people wanted to hear so that I could make music like that, and then make a fortune in show business. That's not why I work on these songs. Songwriting helps me through my life, shows me how to feel things closer, know people better, heal faster, improve myself, notice more and laugh harder. So I do it. That's why.

This passage comes from the liner notes to Snider's last studio album, the tremendous and insightfully funny East Nashville Skyline. In a few words it describes the man to a tee.

"I remember the girl that was doing the artwork for the record asked me to do some liner notes. To be honest, I was on some pretty hard drugs and they gave me some pretty hard drugs to get off of them," states the ever-direct Snider. "There was a good month there where I spent thinking that I was thinking clearly but then realized that I need to get off these (drugs), too. I think it was in that period when I wrote the liner notes. I sat down to reprint the lyrics and just didn't."

His unsparing eye makes his work penetrate our lives with unfailing intensity. What separates Snider from the pack of similarly truth-minded singer-songwriters is how he delivers his truths with disarming wit. If he'd been born a Jew instead of a Gentile he'd be named Isaac, which means laughter in Hebrew. In fact, I'm going to start calling him Isaac the next time I see him. Everyone deserves nicknames that really fit them.

"The voices that are in your ear, it's unbelievable if you actually listen to them. If you turn that station on it's literally telling you to wear a blue shirt AND to not wear a blue shirt," Snider offers. "There's just too many opinions out there and not just with music but with the whole world. If you tune into that other voice, there's too many of them and they contradict each other. In the end I think they just want to go out and get drunk."

Getting loaded is a reoccurring theme in his tunes. And while the man understands better than most the downside of too much good times, he also gets that most of us will always want a glass of red and an aromatic sack of green to help us through the working week. Even his pets understand that.

"I got a full-blown drunk for a dog. I never tried to teach her to like wine or beer but she liked it. I think she might be a little bit of a pothead, too. I'm certain my cat is. When that smell comes into the house my cat comes running and sits as close to it as she can."

Being a pothead is something he's refreshingly unrepentant about. It gives us fellow hopheads hope that the tide in America isn't going completely to the insular, judgment rich Right.

"Even my doctor tells me it's alright," states Snider. "I've never really smoked a joint and said something stupid that got me thrown out of a bar. Maybe I didn't talk as much as I should have but I didn't call a bartender a *****-head. I would never do that, though! Liquor makes you do things but pot doesn't turn people into braggarts and loudmouths."

Alone on stage, armed with a weather-beaten acoustic guitar and a voice like a beautifully broken bottle of Lone Star beer, Snider has more than a touch of the prophet to him. He pierces the rising blackness of the early 21st Century with truth and humor, disarming abusers of power by showing how small their ideas and intentions really are. He believes the United States still has the potential to be the country it says it is but knows it will take the convictions of people to act in a compassionate, conscious way that stops worrying about how big our cars are, how much money is in our bank account or how much of the world we control.

"I'm afraid the people we went to school with are trapped in that stuff. God, the '80s were such a f****' scab on the elbow of humanity," sighs Snider. "I didn't like '80s when they happened and I ain't gonna like 'em when they happen again. Maybe 10 years from now this country will be back on its feet. There are people who'd say it's back on its feet now but I wouldn't be one of them."

"When I see young people (at music festivals) I'm reminded to not give up yet. I'll just wait these guys out. Those are the smartest kids. I'm 38 and I see that little nation of people building and I think, 'f**** go!" When I go to High Sierra or wherever and I see this I'm more hopeful than I watching television, that's for sure!"

This talk of young folks, especially the ones in the burgeoning jam music scene, sparks a discussion of Snider's own roots and tastes in music.

"When I went to high school everyone I listened to, like Hendrix, was dead. I wasn't having the new s***," Snider comments. "Yonder Mountain and Widespread, that's my day out in the park. In the mornings I like to listen to No Depression singers. It seems like both of those worlds I don't know if I'd know about them if not for the press. You don't hear about them on TV but it gets around."

"Being from Portland, I don't remember not knowing who the Grateful Dead were, and that they were cool. A lot of the bands from my generation, they'd all count it off and they'd all dive in together and it'd be two guys with electric guitars and they'd strum the same chords at the same time and sing their song, sort of the Hootie & The Blowfish theory. That was the '90s."

He continues, "Punk rock missed me. I'm pretty unaware of most new rock. I get the No Depression stuff but lately I've been listening to the Strokes and the Kings of Leon. I saw the (Kings) at the Exit Inn and I thought well f****'-a here's a new f****' band I can follow. There ain't a f****' show off in the band and they just rocked balls."

"I have songs on that first record that I still like and still play but I wrote them in my twenties and I listen to them and think the first time you hear them is going to be the best time. As I get older I hope to get conscious working on songs so it might be something that might reveal itself a little more on repeated listens. Robert Hunter is one of those guys and Dylan, of course, and I aspire to be one of those guys."

And "those guys" are taking notice of him. His fans include salt-of-the-earth classics like Billy Joe Shaver, John Prine and especially Kris Kristofferson, who Todd once had a magical encounter with.




"I was staying at this nice resort place in Reno, Nevada that I got to stay on the grounds of the place I was playing. I was out on my balcony and I looked across at another balcony and I told my brother, who was on the road with me that weekend, 'I think that's f****' Kris Kristofferson on that balcony over there!' My brother said he didn't know if it was but two hours go by and there's a knock on my door and it's f**** Kris Kristofferson! He said he'd come to town to see me play. I said, 'You're f**** kidding me!' Literally, the show was in four hours and we ordered wine and he had a bunch of weed. That was one of my favorite days ever in my life. We sat in that room and traded songs. He played me new songs he was working on. I'll never forget it. He walked with me to the stage four hours later. You could just feel the reaction of the entire audience. It was like being with the President. He got up and he did one of my songs during the show. He's the baddest of the badasses."

"I just love his words. I think he's one of the best that's ever been," Snider states. "As a fan, I wish that every time somebody moved to Nashville to become a songwriter they'd be issued those first two (Kristofferson) albums. Please just listen to those. It'd make Todd Snider happy at least. He's had a hard life, so could you just do him this favor at least? Just let these two records influence the s*** you write over the next 10 years a little bit."

Snider had another encounter in his early days with Kevn Kinney, a rock and roll survivor cut from the same cloth as Snider himself.

"I met him when they were recording Fly Me Courageous. It was the first time I was in a recording studio in my whole life and I loved Drivin' N' Cryin' and I left the part of the studio where I was making my tape and went into the kitchen and there they were. And I went 'holy s***'. I was like 24. And Kevn was like, 'Do you like our band? Would you like to watch us record? Here, smoke this.' You're kidding me!"

Another artist that flips Snider's decidedly shaggy blond wig is legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, a member of '60s titans Booker T. and the MG's as well as being one of the architects of the Stax-Volt soul sound.

"He's my favorite, man! He can do more with two notes than most people alive," enthuses Snider. "For 10 years that's who we'd listen to before we'd go play. If you see like a really pretty girl and she's walking across the f****' field you almost hear the (scats a grumbling Booker T. riff). When we were young, before we were married, in our band, that was one of our jokes - Check her out! You can almost hear Green Onions!"

Snider has a lot of analogies for the creative process including surfing, something he'd love to be able to do but hasn't ever mastered.

"I tried it and almost got myself killed," states Snider. "My favorite place is Santa Cruz (in Northern California) and I have this particular hotel I live in there. I go to the same beach every day and there's these people who surf there everyday and over the years I've gotten to know them. There was a girl and her husband at a show that put it to me in way that's been really helpful as I tour. The fun of performing and the fun of writing songs is when you absolutely let go of control of it. That's certainly what you're going to have to do if you're going to surf on that board."

He's fallen off that board more than a few times. It's inspiring to watch him dust off the sand, salt and blood and get back up for another run. He remarked at the SF performance, "It's taken a lot of discipline to keep my life as f**** up as it is! I f****' love this s***. I don't care how far I have to drive, how many people come, how much they pay me. I don't give a s***."

He possesses an unblinking forthrightness about all matters, most of all himself. This extends to those he admires. One of the most ear-catching ditties on East Nashville Skyline is "Iron Mike's Main Man's Last Request" which details an imagined encounter with boxer Mike Tyson, a problematic figure at the best of times.




"I would love to play it for him. I really am a fan and I feel sorry for him," Snider offers. "I think I'm in denial about the rape thing. One of the Kennedy kids got accused of the same thing that summer and didn't go to jail. If (Tyson) did that he's one of the biggest tools. You kill somebody or rape somebody you're a full-blown dickhead, period. It doesn't matter what else you did. You're a dickhead. If he did do it he's a tool. If he didn't he's my favorite fighter."

It's been over a year since East Nashville Skyline came out. What's the word on the next slab o' tunes?

"I'm on pace to do another one. I'm starting to feel pregnant again. I just sit down and wait for it. The last record I made, I was on a walk and I went into my friend Eric's studio and started recording 'Play A Train Song' with him, and it was really spontaneous. That afternoon we were just looking for something to do. We literally smoked a joint and I had this train song. I'd gone to Memphis and tried to get this bass player & drummer to do something and I couldn't explain it. I told Eric and he did it in like an hour. The next thing I know we were doing another one and another one! Next thing I knew I was telling the label I made an album last week!"

In the end, like all the best stuff in this life, Snider's music is about the hope for love, peace and a connection with someone that informs our lives in joyous, unexpected ways.

"I met a girl in a drug rehab 8 years ago and we've hit it off like crazy. And we're alive! I think it's held us together really," states Snider. "A lot of it was the first things we knew about each other was the worst s***. I just fell madly in love. I knew it before I left there, where I thought, 'I'm going to marry her.' I haven't changed my opinion one little bit."

I'll give the final word to Snider himself, again borrowed from his wonderful liner notes. Like the man, they give me hope for humanity. There really are a few good ones out there fighting the truly good fight. Thank the Lord above for them. Thank Him every f**** day.

I live in East Nashville. East Nashville is the part of town people leave so their kids won't have to go to shitty schools. It's where some parents smoke joints in front of kids. We're not proud of it. We just do it. Where all the musicians make our living on the circuit live. The part of town where we like and support queers. We like everybody. We fist fight a little but that ain't about disliking each other. We've kinda given up on the vice-president position over at work. We just pray for work. We love each other and look after each other. East Nashville is the little chunk of the world I live in, probably a little like your chunk.

Todd Snider website

Off COBO: Jimmy is mentioned in the liner notes of Todd Snider's new album:

Thanks to: "Jimmy Buffett for giving me a break and still being nice to me after all the sides of me he had to see."

Goodman wrote:Off COBO: Jimmy is mentioned in the liner notes of Todd Snider's new album:

Thanks to: "Jimmy Buffett for giving me a break and still being nice to me after all the sides of me he had to see."

Cool. Too bad some Buffett fans see more in common with artists like Chesney than they ever will in Todd Snider who is the real deal to me.

Ode owing to U.S. 101 run-in tells tale of jail
An Oregonian's spat with a road crew propels Tillamook County's lockup into the limelight in a "sterling yet overlooked" tune
Sunday, January 23, 2005
LORI TOBIAS
Elvis gave us "Jailhouse Rock" and Johnny Cash sang the "Folsom Prison Blues." Now, music fans can add "Tillamook County Jail" to the list of detention house tunes.

The county known for exporting 78 million pounds of cheese a year has a new claim to fame, and it can thank Todd Snider, a native Oregonian and musician, for the favor. Or not.

Snider's tribute to the county jail appears on his newest CD, "East Nashville Skyline." The single has started to get airtime, and the CD has captured attention as one of The Associated Press' "sterling yet overlooked albums of 2004" and one of Blender Magazine's 50 greatest CDs of 2004.

The folksy tune was inspired by a true story: Snider got a firsthand view of the county slammer after a run-in with road crew workers on U.S. 101.

Snider, a 1985 graduate of Beaverton High School, and his wife, Melita, were on their way in 2002 to visit his mom, Micki, in Port Orford when they came upon a construction zone.

Last week, Snider recalled that he wasn't sure where to stop, prompting choice words from a road crew worker who questioned his ability to read. Snider, who swears he was going "really slow," responded with a universally understood hand gesture.

Twenty miles later, Oregon State Trooper Bill Vanderberg caught up with Snider. It seems the worker reported that Snider blew by at 60 mph -- a misdemeanor crime called recklessly endangering a highway worker.

Vanderberg remembers Snider as a nice guy who went along peacefully. "After I put him in the back seat, he said, 'Yeah, maybe I did drive a little too fast.' "

Snider said he felt as if he'd gotten into an argument over who was smarter and lost. "Flipping someone off is pretty clever," he said, "but telling a cop that the guy tried to kill you, that's game, set, match."

Six hours later, Snider walked out of the Tillamook County Jail in Tillamook with a verse to his new song playing in his head. "The lady doing my fingerprints asked what I was doing. I said I was on vacation. She said, 'You're going to leave on probation.' I said, 'Hey, I'm going to use that.' "

Snider, who got a 90-day suspended sentence, 60 hours of community service and a $3,000 fine after pleading guilty, said he has no hard feelings. He'd even invite the road crew worker for a beer if he ever ran into him again. He may get a chance: Snider's scheduled to appear in April at the Aladdin Theatre in Portland.

As for those lyrics in the song about the lump on his head and the boot print on his chest, Snider said he used poetic license.

"It's like the 'Folsom Prison Blues,' " Snider said. "He didn't really shoot a man to watch him die, and I didn't really get kicked in the chest. They were good to me, and they gave me a song even."

Lori Tobias: 541-574-4392; loritobias@aol.com

Jahfin wrote:

Goodman wrote:Off COBO: Jimmy is mentioned in the liner notes of Todd Snider's new album:

Thanks to: "Jimmy Buffett for giving me a break and still being nice to me after all the sides of me he had to see."

Cool. Too bad some Buffett fans see more in common with artists like Chesney than they ever will in Todd Snider who is the real deal to me.

So.....Todd's a songwriter.. That's what he has in common with Jimmy musically.
After that what is there? I've heard he tells a story before he performs a song live which is what most singers do.
Just wondering and not intended to flame.