The Song Remains: Todd Snider (1966-2025)

Songwriter who climbed the same peaks as his heroes.

Todd Snider, self-proclaimed “Nashville Antihero”, died on November 14^th, 2025, from pneumonia, according to his publicist. This followed a difficult few weeks for Snider, where he had been involved in a violent incident outside of his Salt Lake City hotel and a police incident when he refused to leave hospital following the hotel attack, and subsequently had to cancel his remaining tour dates. While he had his own personal challenges over the years, his songs mixed a well-developed sense of empathy and lyrics that reflected his satirical sense of humour. His music mixed folk, country, blues, rock, and alt-country, and his songs piqued the interest of artists like Keith Sykes, Jimmy Buffett, and John Prine. Songs like ‘Alright Guy’ and ‘Conservative, Christian, Right Wing Republican, Straight, White, American Males’ helped make him a favourite with fans of alternative music.

Born on October 11^th, 1966, in Portland, Oregon, Todd Snider moved to San Marcos, Texas, in 1985, and Texas music was a major influence on a young Todd Snider. He was inspired to write his own songs after attending a Jerry Jeff  Walker gig and discovering the songs of Texans Kris Kristofferson and Guy Clark. Keith Sykes’ early albums from the 1970s were also very influential, so much so that Todd Snider managed to get a demo tape of some of his songs to Sykes, who suggested he move to Memphis. At the time, Sykes was a member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, and this led to Snider being signed to Buffett’s Margaritaville Records, which released his debut album, “Songs For The Daily Planet”, in 1994. At the turn of the century, Todd Snider signed with John Prine’s Oh Boy Records.

His third album for Oh Boy Records, 2004’s “East Nashville Skyline”, was the first full flowering of Todd Snider’s style in the studio, where he matched the lyricism and humour of his live shows. Snider recorded for various labels, including his own Aimless Records, and with various other artists like Amanda Shires. Jason Isbell, Kris Kristofferson, Aaron Lee Tasjan, and Don Was.  His live shows were eagerly awaited by his fans, and his appearance on the January 15^th 1996 episode of “Austin City Limits’ was key to expanding his fanbase and is available on YouTube. Snider’s songs were covered by other artists throughout his career.

If anyone doubted Snider’s musical eclecticism, these doubts evaporated when he cofounded jamband Hard Working Americans with Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, and they added Neal Casal, Chad Staehly, and Duane Trucks. The band received many plaudits for bringing songcraft to a genre known more for performances. Many of Snider’s favourite songwriters were covered by Hard Working Americans, including Gillian Welch, Hayes Carll and Randy Newman.

Todd Snider was a songwriter whose songs were good enough to stand up to those of his prime influences, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, and Jerry Jeff Walker. His talents also made his live shows something to be cherished by his fans, where his poetry and mix of humour and emotion could be found in his song introductions and his musical performances. He worked with, and his songs were recorded by, many of the greats of country, folk and americana music, and his own music will continue to remind future generations of what a talent he had. He was a link between the best of ‘60s and ‘70s music and the modern era. This just adds to the tragedy of his career being cut short at the comparatively young age of 59.