This year’s AthFest compilation slims things down a bit,
with ten tracks clocking in at just under 40 minutes and in a new twist, it’s available
exclusively on vinyl. This is a very
fine collection of songs that doesn’t so much show the breadth of Athens music
as its depth, with tracks by Elf Power, Drive-By Truckers and New Madrid. The sale of this compilation supports AthFest Educates, a non-profit dedicated to local music
& arts education.
Favorites include Faster Circuits with their Beatlesque
pop on Relative Obscurity, and
Family and Friends, whose Rust and Bone
starts out like a delicate Donovan track and ends up as a rollicking
rock-n-roll song. The Drive-By Truckers continue their support of local music
and education with Rock Solid, a
track that was previously only available on their digital-only Dragon Pants EP. New Madrid contributes
Forest Gum, a track from their new
Normaltown Records release Sunswimmer. In 2014, just as it has been for years
and years, the fields of Athens, Georgia are ripe with musical fruit. This
compilation is just a taste.
“I hate Todd Snider and I’m going to tell you why.” No, not me, I kinda like the guy. I enjoy his
songs, his goofy stories, and his general outlook on life. That line came from a review Todd read about
himself and it made its way into his
first book, a collection of remembrances, lyrics and an unflinching look into
the life of a singer-songwriter. That he includes this piece of information in
a chapter in this book is very telling, because he doesn’t go on to talk about
why the reviewer didn’t like him or his music, because that part’s actually irrelevant.
Todd uses this as a teaching moment (yeah, I know…life lessons from this guy,
whose motto is “safety third?”) about fame and why artists sing their songs for
others. Todd says that if you’re doing
it so that people will like you, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
Having seen Todd Snider perform several times and
listened to all his records and literally dozens and dozens of live recordings,
I thought I had heard all his stories and this book would be a rehash of things
I already knew. Part of that’s true, of course, there are times when he retells
his stories verbatim, or at least as verbatim as is allowed in his patented stoner-speak,
stumbling cadence, but in every case, he largely takes advantage of the medium
of print to dig deeper into his adventures, like meeting his buddy Moondawg of Moondawg’s Tavern fame. (They threw him out of so many bars/he
finally built one in his own backyard.) Songs and stories that you just
know are made up out of his own head turn out to be actual, factual things that
have happened to Snider. Todd credits Jerry Jeff Walker as his main inspiration
but it seems the chorus of Kristofferson’s The Pilgrim – Chapter 33 when he’s
stoned could easily be Todd’s bio. (He's a poet, he's a picker/He's a prophet, he's a pusher/He's
a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned/He's a walkin'
contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,takin' ev'ry wrong direction on
his lonely way back home.)
I Never Met A
Story I Didn’t Like is just shy of three hundred pages, but if you’re like
me and go back to re-read a paragraph or two, just to savor the words and roll them
around in your head, it will take you much longer to read. For someone who appears to be busy most of
the time just passing a bong around, he is surprisingly introspective about his
life, what he does and why. He’s like
the Buddha of East Nashville. He invariably has something nice to say about
everybody – the guy who yells Beer Run
all through the show, the guy who stole his song (but it’s okay, Todd stole one
of his back), groupies, drug dealers, police, you name it. Fans of Todd’s music
won’t need to read this review to know that they’ll want to pick up this book.
Music fans in general will appreciate this look into the life of an artist, but
I think this book will appeal to anyone who enjoys a good story, even if they
are mostly true.