Todd Snider   -  Biography

Singer-songwriter Todd Snider was born Oct. 11, 1966, in Portland, Ore., and lived there until his family moved to Houston. When he was 15, he ran away from home with a friend and went back to Portland. After high school, he moved to Santa Rosa, Calif., to be a harmonica player. Then his brother, who lived in Austin, Texas, bought him a ticket to move there. After seeing Jerry Jeff Walker in a local bar, Snider decided that he didn't need a band to be a musician.

After moving to Memphis in the mid-1980s and establishing residency at a club named the Daily Planet, he was discovered by Keith Sykes, a member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer Band. A longtime acquaintance of John Prine and Walker, Sykes began to work with Snider to help advance his career. Prine hired him as an assistant and then invited him to open shows. In time, Buffett heard Snider's demo tapes and signed him to his own label.

Snider's debut album Songs for the Daily Planet was released in the fall of 1994 and was co-produced by Tony Brown and Michael Utley. "Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues," a folk-rock song that struck a chord with younger people fed up with angry alternative rock bands, was added to the album as an afterthought only after intense lobbying by a Canadian music critic and ultimately became a minor hit. On his second effort, 1996's Step Right Up, Snider and his band the Nervous Wrecks (comprised of lead guitarist Will Kimbrough, bassist Joe Mariencheck, drummer Joe McLeary and keyboardist David Zollo) continued blending bluegrass, blues, folk-rock and country-rock to forge their own distinctive sound.

After Buffett's label closed, Snider moved to Prine's imprint, Oh Boy Records. Snider released Happy to Be Here in 2000, followed by New Connection in 2002 and Near Truths and Hotel Room in 2003. After being twice hospitalized for drugs and the death of his best friend, Snider released East Nashville Skyline in 2004.