Todd Snider 2019 Album Release Tour Todd Snider Setlist
Chicago Farmer Setlist
Tour Dates
APR 20 Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN
APR 23 The Sheldon Concert Hall a St. Louis, MO APR 25 Sondheim Ctr for P.A. Fairfield, IA APR 26 Wooly's Des Moines, IA APR 27 Cavalier Theater and Lounge La Crosse, WI APR 28 Redstone Room Davenport, IA APR 30 20th Century Theater Cincinnati, OH MAY 2 The Jefferson Theater Charlottesville, VA MAY 3 The Rex Pittsburgh, PA MAY 4 Rams Head On Stage Annapolis, MD MAY 14 Duling Hall Jackson, MS MAY 16 Paramount Theatre Austin, TX MAY 17 John T. Floore's Country Store Helotes, TX MAY 18 The Kessler Theater Dallas, TX MAY 19 The Heights Theater Houston, TX MAY 21 Cain's Ballroom Tulsa, OK MAY 22 The Folly Theater KC, MO MAY 24 Fox Cities Performing Arts Center Appleton, WI MAY 25 Overture Center for the Arts Madison, WI MAY 29 The Bourbon Theatre Lincoln, NE MAY 30 The Fargo Theatre Fargo, ND MAY 31 Northrop Minneapolis, MN JUN 1 Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Duluth, MN JUN 6 Nelsonville Music Festival 2019 Nelsonville, OH JUN 7 River Roots Music and Arts Festival Madison, IN JUN 8 Appell Center for the Performing Arts York, PA JUN 9 Daryl's House Pawling, NY JUN 11 F.M. Kirby Center Wilkes Barre, PA JUN 13 Westcott Theater Syracuse, NY JUN 14 Gateway City Arts Holyoke, MA JUN 15 StageOne at FTC Fairfield, CT JUN 16 The Queen Wilmington, DE JUN 18 Boathouse Live Newport News, VA JUN 20 Neighborhood Theatre Charlotte, NC JUN 21 Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA JUN 22 Walker Theatre Chattanooga, TN JUN 23 Bijou Theatre Knoxville, TN JUL 19 State Theatre Greenville, NC JUL 20 Soundstage Baltimore, MD JUL 21 Grassroots Festival Trumansburg, NY JUL 24 Helsinki Hudson Hudson, NY JUL 25 Port City Music Hall Portland, ME JUL 26 Newport Folk Festival Newport, RI JUL 27 Sellersville Theater Sellersville, PA AUG 9 Englert Civic Theatre Iowa City, IA AUG 10 People Fest Hillsboro, WI AUG 11 Bell's Eccentric Cafe Kalamazoo, MI Read More
|
Cowboy Jim wasn’t impressed- he took a brief walk around the stage, then settled into a corner and slept-
But the dog of Todd Snider was the only one not excited for the Portland (now living in Nashville) folk singer/songwriter’s return to the Twin Cities, packing his faithful fans into the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul, for an entertaining evening of stories and songs.
Born and bred in a central Illinois town of twenty-five people, folk singer-songwriter Cody Diekhoff adopted Chicago Farmer first as a band name, but it soon became his solo stage moniker as he traveled, from town to town playing. His latest is a self-released double live album, last August’s Quarter Past Tonight and already brought in a built-on fan base, as many had seen him play previously with Northern Minnesota folk artist Charlie Parr.
“My goodness, I think this is the most people I’ve ever played to, indoors” said a beaming Diekhoff, mentioning he and Parr often had played locally in January and February, thinking this April date would be more Spring-like (but ten to twelve inches of fresh snow had just fallen).
Like an Arlo Guthrie or Jack Elliott, the songs were mostly people stories set to music, from the baseball players in ‘Dirtiest Uniforms’ to recounting hitting a deer in ‘Deer in the Sky’, and a gift from his grandmother with ‘The Twenty Dollar Bill’. Peppered with humorous comments of financial struggle like “you know times are tough if you’ve got a fraction in your address” and “I was living in tiny houses before they were cool”, made for a compelling forty-minute opening set.
Todd Snider maybe can’t count-- his new record is called Cash Cabin Sessions Vol. 3 (Aimless Records)… even though we never saw volumes one or two, but that’s just likely part of his overall humor. After recording several recent rock records, a 2015 visit to Cash Cabin Studio to record a song with Loretta Lynn helped inspire the new album, a provocative collection of subversively sparse folk songs.
Half of the new record was played over Snider’s hundred-minute headlining set and though we never got the explanation if there were volumes one and two, no one seemed at all bothered. Snider, in frumpy hat and smiling unshaven face with guitar and harmonica, started things with the title track from his 2004 album, East Nashville Skyline followed by the same album’s ‘Age Like Wine’ and ‘The Ballad of the Kingsmen’, about the legendary ‘60s band.
“Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated” Snider announced, having shaken off recent personal troubles and is back on the road, at perhaps at his healthiest in years. Snider appreciated the audience being receptive to the new songs, starting with ‘Just Like Overnight’ about the frustrations of difficult change, followed by ‘The Ghost of Johnny Cash’ inspired by those sessions with Lynn at Cash’s old studio.
The biting ‘Talking Reality Television Blues’ referenced today’s politics and how an “old man with a comb-over sold us the moon” and “reality was killed by a reality star” followed by a funny story of playing under the influence with his other project Hard Working Americans and another political ballad, from 2004, but still applicable today.
2009’s ‘Greencastle Blues’ was about getting pulled over and jailed in Indiana and Snider picked up a banjo for the new “Blues on Banjo’, mentioning he recently bought the instrument, determined to play blues on it, jokingly mentioning that all blues songs seem to start at sunrise with “woke up this morning” (which his song then did as well).
The new album’s opener, ‘Working on a Song’ is actually about another song, one he has frustratingly worked on finishing for thirty years, 2002’s ‘Beer Run’ remains a fan favorite and crowd sing-a-long, and 1994’s ‘Alright Guy’, his breakout early single, was stretched out to include a story in the song’s middle.
For the encore, Snider came out fiercely with ‘A Timeless Response To Current Events’ from the new record, featuring more lyrics than Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and a profane chorus.
The evening would end with the new ‘Force of Nature’ from the new album (recorded with Jason Isbell) as Snider imparted some bright words of wisdom- “may your hope always outweigh your doubt” and “may you play at least loud enough, to always wake yourself up” seguing out with a snippet from Dylan’s ‘Blowin in the Wind’.
A quarter-century later, Todd Snider proved himself to not only still be an alright guy, but a musical force of nature as well. Those that missed him on this outing, can travel to one of several upper upcoming Midwest shows, or see him in Minneapolis again in late May, opening for the legendary John Prine.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Todd Snider at Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul (12 April 2019) |
