I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt

Todd Snider

Todd Snider, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Lyons, CO, August 21, 2005 Todd Snider I’ve always been a gamblin’ man Roll them bones with either hand –TVZ, “Dollar Bill Blues,” from Flyin’ Shoes T odd Snider’s increasingly political songwriting crested during the George W. Bush Administration (“Conservative Christian, Right-WingRepublican,Straight,White,AmericanMales”and “You Got Away with It: A Tale of Two Fraternity Brothers”) and peaked with the pointed anti-war EP Peace Queer (2008).1 However, Snider, a satirical writer who often addresses serious cultural and political topics with skewed humor and plays himself the fool, keeps a lighthearted viewpoint. “With political songs, I risk sending out the message that I 90 I’ll Be Here In THe MornInG have knowledge that I clearly do not have,” he says. “Anyone who knows me could tell you that.”2 Todd Snider, born October 11, 1966, in Portland, Oregon, admits to being “the natural bullshitter in the neighborhood.”3 That locality changed frequently as he moved through an itinerant early adulthood from Oregon to Texas to Tennessee. Before settling for a time in Memphis and eventually for good in Nashville, Snider cut his teeth at Central Texas roadhouses such as San Marcos’s Cheatham Street Warehouse and the nearby Devil’s Backbone Tavern, both of which he has written autobiographical songs about (“The Ballad of the Devil’s Backbone Tavern” and “Cheatham Street Warehouse”).4 “Cheatham was the first place to hire me, and [its owner] Kent Finlay was the person to tell me I was good enough at songwriting to go for a living at it,” Snider says.5 Todd Snider draws inspiration from several Texas singer-songwriters including Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Willis Alan Ramsay, Nanci Griffith, Al Barlow, and Aaron Allan.6 He employed their sensibilities and developed a niche following with such early albums as his debut Songs from the Daily Planet (1994), Step Right Up (1996), and New Connection (2002). In the mid-1990s, the minor hit “Talkin’ Seattle GrungeRockBlues,”from SongsfromtheDailyPlanet,brieflymadeSnider a popular MTV staple. However, Todd Snider’s buoyant stage presence has always been his main attraction. Snider typically appears barefoot with plastic beer cup inhandandintroduceshimselfwithashortmonologueearlyineachset. “My name’s Todd Snider,” he says, “and I’ve been driving around [for] fifteen years, making this shit up and singing it for anybody that’ll listen to it. Some of it’s sad, some of it’s funny, some of it’s short, some of it’s longer than others, and sometimes I’ll go on for as many as eighteen minutes in between the songs.”7 “I sort of go into a trance,” Snider says. “It feels like once I say that part, I can relax.”8 SeveralmajorartistshaverecordedSnider’ssongs,includingJerryJeff Walker(“AlrightGuy”),CrossCanadianRagweed(“IBelieve”),andGary Allan,whomade“AlrightGuy”thetitletracktohis2001album.9 Country ToDD SnIDer 91 musicsuperstarGarthBrooksrecordedthesamesongforhis1999album The Life of Chris Gaines, but later cut the track, reportedly fearing that his mother would disapprove of its reference to marijuana. “[Brooks] was really gracious about it, and he gave me a bunch of money just for my time,” Snider says. “That was a cool experience. I got to play guitar and the harmonica. Boy, it was on the record until the last minute. I mean, like the day before.”10 Snider, who performs most frequently as a solo acoustic troubadour like Townes Van Zandt, met the songwriter at a John Prine gig in Nashville in the early 1990s. “I thought it was cool that people used to say that Townes would always have five new songs every time you’d see him: long, sad songs,” Snider says. “Of course, he’d never remember them if you saw him again. That’s what Jerry Jeff told me one time.”11 • • • Todd Snider I know how to play “To Live’s to Fly,” “Lungs,” “I’ll Be Here in the Morning .” I could probably do more if I thought about it and had a couple more beers, like “White Freightliner Blues.” The one I play out most is “To Live’s to Fly.” He played “To Live’s to Fly” the night I met him, and thenheplayed“PanchoandLefty.”TheonlyonesinTownes’sleagueare Guy Clark and John Prine, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young. Like Prine or Randy Newman, I’d put Townes in the same category as Dylan because he found this thing that he made his own. The first record I got...