Americana troubadour Todd Snider, alt-country singer-songwriter, dies at 59 : NPR

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Todd Snider, a singer whose thoughtfully freewheeling tunes and cosmic-stoner songwriting made him a beloved determine in American roots music, has died. He was 59.

His report label stated Saturday in a assertion posted to his social media accounts that Snider died Friday.

“The place do we discover the phrases for the one who at all times had the suitable phrases, who knew the way to distill every part right down to its essence with phrases and music whereas delivering essentially the most devastating, hilarious, and impactful flip of phrases?” the assertion learn. “All the time creating rhyme and meter that instantly felt like an previous pal or a favourite blanket. Somebody who may virtually at all times discover the humor on this loopy experience on Planet Earth.”

Snider’s household and associates had stated in a Friday assertion that he had been recognized with pneumonia at a hospital in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and that his state of affairs had since grown extra sophisticated and he was transferred elsewhere. The prognosis got here on the heels of the cancellation of a tour after Snider had been the sufferer of a violent assault within the Salt Lake Metropolis space, in response to a Nov. 3 assertion from his administration group.

However Salt Lake Metropolis police later arrested Snider himself when he at first refused to depart a hospital and later returned and threatened staffers, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The scrapped tour was in assist of his most up-to-date album, “Excessive, Lonesome and Then Some,” which launched in October. Snider mixed components of folks, rock and nation in a three-decade profession. In evaluations of his latest albums, The Related Press known as him a “singer-songwriter with the persona of a fried folkie” and a “stoner troubadour and cosmic comedian.”

He modeled himself on — and at occasions met and was mentored by — artists like Kris Kristofferson, Man Clark and John Prine. His songs have been recorded by artists together with Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver and Tom Jones. And he co-wrote a music with Loretta Lynn that appeared on her 2016 album, “Full Circle.”

“He relayed a lot tenderness and sensitivity by means of his songs, and confirmed many people how to take a look at the world by means of a unique lens,” the Saturday assertion from his label learn. “He obtained up each morning and began writing, at all times working in the direction of discovering his place among the many songwriting giants that sat on his report cabinets, those self same giants who let him into their lives and took him underneath their wings, who he studied relentlessly.”

Snider would do his best-known and most acclaimed work for Prine’s unbiased label Oh Boy within the early 2000s. It included the albums “New Connection,” “Close to Truths and Lodge Rooms” and “East Nashville Skyline,” a 2004 assortment that is thought of by many to be his greatest.

These albums yielded his greatest recognized songs, “I Cannot Complain,” “Beer Run” and “Alright Man.”

Snider was born and raised in Oregon earlier than settling and making his musical chops in San Marcos, Texas. He finally made his technique to Nashville, and was dubbed by some the unofficial “mayor of East Nashville,” assuming the title from a pal memorialized thusly in his “Prepare Track.” In 2021, Snider stated a twister that ripped by means of the neighborhood residence to a vibrant arts scene severely broken his home.

Snider had an early fan in Jimmy Buffett, who signed the younger artist to his report label, Margaritaville, which launched his first two albums, 1994’s “Songs for the Each day Planet” and 1996’s “Step Proper Up.”