Just like old times, Todd Snider went live from his Purple Building studio in East Nashville, TN for a digital performance on Sunday. Much has changed since the troubadour’s series of pandemic livestreams, which went by a number of names including The Get Together, What It Is, and First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder. For one, this week’s performance included a live studio audience for the first time. Additionally, Snider has a new live album on the way, Return of the Storyteller, out on September 23rd via his own Aimless Records.
Sunday’s Return of the Storyteller livestream served as a preview of what’s to come, with Snider running through many of the 16 songs found on the album including the opening “Big Finish”. The Peace Queer addressed the apparent abnormality of beginning an album with a song called “Big Finish” and closing it with another called “Opening Statement”.
“This makes sense to come out and start,” Snider said of the Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables cut. “Especially because of how long I’ve been touring, and I feel like I’ve been so many different people over 30 years that this feels just like a good thing to say to somebody if they’ve seen me a bunch of times.”
The stream was as career-spanning as the forthcoming live album, stretching back to his ’90s beginnings all the way through 2021’s First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder. He gave off the feel of a live performance with a slick pairing of “Play A Train Song” into the first verse of Johnny Cash‘s “Folsom Prison Blues”, back into “Play A Train Song”—a live maneuver possibly gleaned from his days in the jam band Hard Working Americans.
Just like his 2021 album and just like his most recent tour, Sunday’s stream was also filled with tributes to late friends and mentors including John Prine, Neal Casal, Jeff Austin, and more. The past few years have brought their share of grief for Todd, but he is able to shoulder the losses and craft memorials for those he and the rest of us have lost. He’s taken on the job of an oral historian, traveling from town to town and singing of the greats who came before him.
Check out the Todd Snider Return of the Storyteller livestream and pre-order the album here. Todd will celebrate the album’s release on September 24th at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium with Ramblin’ Jack Elliot as part of the former’s ongoing American Troubadour Tour.
Todd Snider – Return of the Storyteller: Livestream – 8/7/22