July 5, 2024 • 36 mins
Join @TheBuzzKnight for this episode with singer, songwriter, troubadour Todd Snider. Todd's music combines elements of rock, folk, blues and country and he is celebrating 30 years creating his music.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Music is like a magic thing I think can do that.
It might I may be talking about you know how
some people like will just take a drug over and
over because they're certain of any day now it's it's
don't know, they're going to not need it anymore because
it's they saw it, you know. I guess I like
keep hoping to get it whatever it is, whatever it is,
(00:23):
to get with it. I want to get with it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm Buzz's Night, your host for the Taking a Walk podcast,
the podcast where I talk to musicians about the inside
stories of their creative process, their latest projects, and stories
of the road Today. My guess is a true artist
and a troubadour at heart. Todd Snyder. Todd has an
amazing career as a singer songwriter whose music spans folk, rock, blues,
(00:49):
also with a little bit of alt, country and funk.
He's currently going on a retrospective journey spanning three decades,
unveiling his complete discography included with new recollections, all for
free for his fans. Talking to Todd Snyder right now,
I'm taking a Walk. Todd Snyder, thanks for being on
(01:11):
Taking a Walk. It's an honor to be with you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
So you're unveiling your complete discography and its acoustic glory
recorded at the Purple Building, and each release features these
re recorded versions and personal reflections and it's fruble e free.
Tell me what motivated you to do this for your
(01:37):
loyal diehard fans.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Mostly I think that I want kids. It was like,
I guess the legacy is that the word like when
of them gone? I wanted to make sure that those
were someplace people could hear them. They were like to me,
they're my favorite versions of the songs. Even though it's
like because I can do what i'd do on these records,
(02:03):
I got to learn music, play around with different kinds
of music, go through fads, mostly because I could stand
up by myself and tell people how time I made
up a song and play it, and then record companies
be like, if you long I'm a drummer, you can.
I didn't have to. I just wanted to. I wanted
to learn music. But like I said, just naturally, I
(02:23):
feel like I came out of my mom doing that
thing where I liked that these were by myself and
I make up a song and I explain it and
then I play it, I can get fed that way.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And really it's been enjoyment first. That has been your motivation,
and then everything else coming second.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah. I mostly wanted to drop out of when I
was young. My plan was to be at like one
of the Dead Hitens, Like there's a group of kids
at that time that were just dropping out and being bums.
And then I found guitar and busking, and then that
turned in to a way of life. I found round
with Jack Elliott. It feels like if you're honest, if
(03:05):
you make up honest songs, you can pretty much bullshit
the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Tell me what inspired you first to make music? And
when that was so, you said, literally out of the womb,
you said.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, I think, But really I left home when I
was fifteen and became My friend said I was a gypsy.
And then I saw Jerry Jeff Walker playing and I
felt like I was his son. I felt like I
was living what he was singing about. He was playing
by himself and singing linear songs, and I just thought,
(03:40):
That's what I'm supposed to do. I felt like the
way I was living my life at the time, if
I had a guitar, where I can make up songs
about whoever was giving me a ride or let me
stay or whatever. I just thought I would be a
way better traveler or whatever. You know. Then I got
bit by the notion of wanting to make an album.
This guy, Keith Sykes, who told me he said I
(04:03):
was good. He is really good friends with John. He
writes with John running guy. My dad found his address
at the bar. Someone at the bar had his endors.
He helped me and got me a record deal and
showed me that if I got a record deal, I
could go around the world.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Do you remember the first song you wrote and what
it was about?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I do? That was I called bus Tubs Do And
I was a bus boy because again I had I
had just seen this Gary jamfs I. I got just things
about his life, and so I made up a song.
I was a bus boy at this place called Peppers
at the Falls, and I made up a song about
how if people didn't finish their meal, I would eat it,
you know. And when I got up on the stage
(04:45):
and didn't and went like, I think I'm supposed to
be doing this, that cemented it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, And then I made up a couple more went
open mic and I made up it and then I
just made up like fourteen total and started playing right away.
I started playing nineteen when I only had one job
before it was a busboy.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Was that your plan b being a bus boy?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Uh huh, Well that's part of why I felt like
it was I didn't have anything to fall back on
or anything to blow or my parents weren't going to
be ashamed or anything else. Just it was it was
going to be a bus boy, So why not pour
your heart out for a living. And it's kind of neat.
It's an easy grift. Just you say how you feel,
(05:31):
don't bullshit about it and singing a pleasure chorus and
you can get a ride in you one or you
know you end up in the bus.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Tell me about I mean, we could do just a
whole podcast just done the impact of Jerry Jeff on
you and John Prine on you. But tell me how
special they were to know them.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
They were close friends. And when I saw Jerry Jeff,
I went to the record store in San Marcus and
started getting all the records and the guy there, so
you have to try John Prime too. Then I went
and got all his things, obsessed on him, saw him
in Austin, and then he was friends with Keith Sykes,
(06:18):
and so I went down there and I was studying
under Keith. He had just taken me in. I found
out later that this is what we do. Some trouper
door knocks on my door off the levenment. So when
John made the Missing Years, I was getting cigarettes and
everything for everybody, and I knew all his songs. I
could beat him in the tribute contest about himself. He
(06:42):
must have loved that. Hey, we were close, although it
was more father son. I never got jocular with him.
I was always really respectful, like we weren't punching the
shoulder buddies. He would have don't be hard on me sometimes,
but he would also tell me that he loved me.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Who was harder on you, Jerry Jeff or John Jerry Jeff.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I had one time I gave I think thirteen songs
that have just written to John and he said, man,
you got a great that's a great song you got
in there, And that was that was kind of the worst.
But once he said that, that opened the door for
him to show me what he meant by that, and
I got to study songs under him. He got them
but Jerry Jeff and I bonded on music and asco
(07:28):
rep scaliation or after the show up title, and so
sometimes we'd get into argument. If we couldn't find someone
else to argue with, we'd argue with each other. I
stole his car. I mean we had some ship. One
time me and him were arguing. He drove r I
passed his gig and we ended up in a different town.
(07:49):
He's the freest person I know, or he was. You know.
We liked each other because we didn't have neither of us.
Well watch either of you. I'm sorry, like wore a
watch or cared about be in someplace certain. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How many fistfights did you get into with Jerry Jeff?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
None? None, just yelling a few times. I like Blue
one of my own shows. He really gave me. Shaver
hit me. Yeah, he had stacked all these bills on
the kitchen table on me. We didn't know we messed
them up, but he walked in and just right with
his bald up face right in my mouth, and then
(08:34):
he hit it me too.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
You can't make this up.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Huh mm hmmm. I miss him. He was also a
loud person. Billy Joe Shaver yeah, adventurous person. Shot hello.
That's tough.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Loss is such a terrible part of life, and obviously
with John's loss and Jerry Jeff's loss, and then most
recently the loss of another friend who I know you
spoke with all the time, Richard Lewis. Tell me what
Richard meant to you.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I was closer to Richard really than any of them
because he we don't He and I mostly stay to ourselves,
and we get on and off the phone multiple times.
We talked a lot every day. And then I knew
he was getting I mean, he didn't die of what
he would say, each had a heart attack, but he
was tired from fighting. He's had a really bad couple
of years with his health. Like I called him about everything,
(09:34):
and that's kind of the last guy, you know, the
last mentor I think I'm fifty seven, so it's my
turn to ask. There's this kid named Josh morning Star.
It's really good. It just was wroped me this morning.
You know, he's going through some issues and stuff and
he called me, and I guess it's my turn to listen.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And how did you first meet Richard?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
He wrote me a letter on the computer just out
of the blue. It was oh, I know what it
was too. He had a group of this adorable and
this is him to his wife Joyce and him, well
she's still meant to me. But he had a group
of about four guys he talked to every day all
(10:20):
the time, and like two of them died and he's
really neurotic. He couldn't deal with that. He had his
four people, and his wife said you got to you
have to replace them, and he sat around thinking about
and he wrote me a letter. I was like, I
literally like I kind of looking for someone to talk
to every day. I had this little group. My wife
says I should replace the guys that were in it.
(10:42):
He knew all my albums and stuff, and I knew
everything about him. And I had this story I tell
called about taking mushrooms and I got home from two
of them. He had left it on my machine, like
he told it on my machine, and that was the
biggest compliment. But he he'd like, who I've talked about
rurals and stuff anything anything. Yeah, yeah, Like I had
(11:06):
to say, I had a lady break into my house
and he's he has that kind of stuff all with.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Him, just the oddities of life. Right, yeah, yeah, tell
me about your songwriting process, how it works. How do
you turn an idea into a finished song?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Okay, I mean I'm enjoying this, thank you me too.
When I started, it was like this healing thing like
I was. I think it was angry at like my
parents are going through a divorce, and I sang about
it and it's like manto almost. Of course, you know
you're repeating something. It's like good. So I learned to
(11:46):
use it as a tool like that to get moved
past things. And then that so if it felt like
it helped, I thought it was done, and then it
became this thing I could use at work. Then there's
another thing like which ones go to work, which wants
to show up for and those are like harder, like
to know if a song is going to move other people.
(12:09):
It's hard trying to. I try not to play songs
that I don't think other people relate to, because I
make up some that I know are too singular or whatever. Well,
let's see there's some that I just It takes a
long time and then one day it's that's a that's
a good question. It takes a while, and then it
feels like at some point I know that it's done.
(12:33):
I wonder how other people do. There's this guy named
Kent Finley who showed me how to do it like
meter and everything, but trying to say exactly what you're
trying to say and be concise about it and turn
as the release and take the poetry out and ask
yourself while you're really saying this, and you know, make
(12:55):
and make sure there's a it has. It's a rock
that there's something in it. For me, it's like even
dB Cooper, it's just a story about the guy that
jumped out of the plane that I don't know. But
there's a part in there where I talk about how
my dad and I disagree on what we hope happens
to him. And for me, that's the rock I put
(13:16):
my foot on when I sing that song. And if
I don't have something like that in there, why am
I telling people about dB Cooper. It doesn't move me
until I get to the part where I realized me
and my father's starting to see things differently, and that's
BB Cooper, And so I always want them to be
something like that in there somewhere, or if there's not.
(13:40):
It feels like a year after I start playing it,
it feels heavy, it feels like it goes on very
long time. I've got songs that are about girls. I
don't really know that, Like on my first or second
I got a couple of reps songs. There's a song
called turn it Up. Just made it up out of there.
I don't know who those people are or what they're
(14:00):
talking about. Just mortge, I said, because I had a
riff and that song feels like it goes on for hours.
I play.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
But you eventually tire of some of your songs, don't you?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Uh huh most Yeah, some of them?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, And why are you so tough on yourself in
that regard that you tire of them and kind of
just aggravated at him.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, I I don't think that might just be yeah,
I don't know. I wish I could stop that because
some people are like, these are my kids. I'm like
my kids. Some of them really love me. In fact,
there's thing that's coming out that's out I think more
of them. There's songs where I'll play and I'll talk
about why I don't like that, and then I'll play,
(14:48):
which I was glad to get the chance to go
on record, like that it gets it off your chest, right, Yeah,
that's a song called positively Negative. That's just this thing
I felt for about ten minutes, long enough to get
the song, you know, and then by the time the
song came out that wasn't mad about that.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
But you blend so brilliantly social commentary and humor. How
do you sort of balanced that or do you thank you?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I think that tried to. Like, I don't feel like
anyone knows, like when it comes to politics, the reason
why we argue about these things because we don't know
for sure what to do. There's like two really basic people,
Like it's science. There's like a certain person who's sort
of moving forward or thinks tomorrow is gonna be great.
(15:40):
There's another person that thinks yesterday was great, and we
get separated on that, like and so for Democrats, they
market with other people what they call blue wall or whatever,
and then there's people that think yesterday was the vator
in general, and they get I think it's like you,
I don't even know if it's your choice to those
(16:00):
sides you lean on or whatever. So like politics, I
don't take that seriously. It's like a form of entertainment
or a racket, like it's a low grow form of entertainment,
and it doesn't pay as much as it should for
as much as their lives as they have to give
(16:21):
to this act or whatever. I feel sampled because they're
a punching bag. The politician is like any money. We
were going to all set politicians or bullshit line pieces
of shit, that's the way to stop an argument. They're
all pieces of shit and it's just a racket, and
so I don't take it seriously. I look at them
(16:42):
all like their wrestlers, and I hope their kids get
that their pro wrestlers. Sometimes they fix potholes every once
in a while, or sometimes they fuck things up but
don't really do a ton up, they're say in Washington,
And so when I thing I've been at it, I
don't feel like I don't get angry about it, Like
(17:04):
Trump doesn't make me angry, thinks amusing I am. I'm
the Democrat. I don't want him to be the president.
I didn't like it when he was before, but just
because because I think tomorrow is gonna be terrific, and
they got me. I love about them, hippie what just
remes like could be I'm just that, and I can
(17:26):
admit it, I don't even care. You know, yeah, like
half the time, if it's a protest and there's a
good band, you know, tell me I'm coming the tip shit.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
But you are the unofficial mayor of East Nashville. So
if you were handed the keys to making decisions as
a political leader, what would your motto be?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Oh, that's the whole type for our side. I love
what's happened on the east side of town. I feel
like because that's like Billy String, Sierra Ferrel. I think
jelly Roll even live over on our side of town. Now, hm,
let's see, Because it feels like those cats on the
mainstream people they're they don't know. I mean, I'm just
(18:11):
watching as a fan. I'm not part of it. I
think maybe I'll get a song cut sometimes, But it
feels like that's the thing on Sixteenth Avenue, where they
have the system that's worked for over forever and over
and ever, it got rathered by a few guys that
didn't go through it, I think, and then they're cuge.
It's like, broadly, I don't know. I think some of
the big stars don't have any friends on Sixteenth Avenue
(18:36):
and that, so they're kind of I think they're kind
of calling time out and trying to I think they're
like studying Jason Isabel for a minute. And I'm not
sure where where country music's going to go, but right
now it seems like that cat, Jason Alban who said
something racist I guess, or something that defended PP. And
(18:59):
then so this other kid, there's another kid who offended hippies,
and they're they're the only people making it happen right
now in that I think sixteen down and it was
about itself caught up in whatever's going on in America,
you know what I mean, they're going to get themselves
out of politics, I think, because I don't think they're
(19:21):
meant to get there.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know, yeah Morgan Morgan Wall and maybe you were
talking about Yeah, yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Kid, that kid, he fucked up, I think through something
somebody or but I know he said did something racist.
I don't know what it was or if you I mean,
but like they're rallying around that kid like that, as
if they're rallying around those cats, as if they shot
a protessor, like they're standing up for them, you know
(19:49):
what I mean. It's like, you know, red neck people
who don't like people that don't look like themselves, and
to the point that they're angry about it. They wanted
to find they're We're coming to the rescue these two guys,
and the rest of the town's getting kind of artsy.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
We'll be right back with the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast. What do
you think Jerry Jeff would have thought about what's going
on these days?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oh? God, I think he would liked what was going
on music, But I don't know. Well, it will really
depend on if he was drinking or not, because if
he was drinking, whatever is causing chaos, and no matter
if it's positive or negative, it's hard to understand. It
was headquard, so he'd like all the chaos, even though
(20:43):
some of it has been of course, a lot of
it's been violent. But man, he had a way of
letting go of everything in a way that didn't make
you think that he was ignoring people's troubles. You sometimes
it's like, oh, you're on for a second. He was
(21:04):
a gifted at free in his mind. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Last following, Yeah, did your father impact your storytelling? Unbelievable abilities?
Was he one of the greatest influences in that regard.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I think. So the first time I saw Jerry Jeff,
I thought that's my dad, except for my dad wasn't
for real. So I remember saying, it's not hurting anymore,
you know, And I remember think, yeah, my dad would
have been a good troubadour. He was a criminal, but
like a very successful one. He died when he was
(21:39):
only fifty four. He was part of was this guy
named George never Say in Oregon. He brought heroin to
the Great North less like the early sixties and set
up his team in Beaverton, Oregon. And that's what my
dad was. That worked for him, And it was weird way.
(22:00):
It was a little suprana like without that the way
of sounding. It didn't sound like that. But there was
always a couple of guys standing around with people. Don't
believe me, So that's that's true. Oh I believe you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
What do you think is the most significant milestone to
date in your career?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Right after that, when you said that, I thought, I
went on the tour right before or after I think
it was before the pandemic with Bramlin Jack Elliott and
spent like two weeks on the bus with him, and
I felt like that confirmed a lot. I mean, I
felt like I learned a lot. I felt like I
confirmed a lot about what we're doing. And he was
(22:40):
always like, would always put me to bed. He was
always ready to go to the bus and to do something.
He's ninety two and so he was really into traveling,
and so we would go find cars and buses and
boats and things to look at during the day. It's
just really active and just seeing somebody who jumped in
(23:01):
head first to this lifestyle being so still so glad
that he did, still so free, still so amused and interested.
And they made me think that, like there's a fourth
quarter low, there's a little bit left, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Tell me what Towns van Zant has meant to you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
When I met the first time I saw him was
Keith Sykes took me to a Christmas party at a bar.
There was a whole hold him family, and I didn't
know what that meant. And when we went into the
back too, we went into the kitchen. And when we
walked in the back kitchen at his bars, Guy Clark
and Count Van's aunt John Crime and Nancy Griffith, and
(23:45):
they're playing the game where you throw dice on the wall,
and they had money in their hands and they're shouting,
you know, and I never met I only knew jump.
And then at a certain point, guys, I mean Towns
came and sat down next to me and grabbed my
arm and I could tell he was starting to cray.
And he said, I said, what's the matter, And he said,
(24:07):
this is all fucked up? And I said, what's all
fucked up? And then they all row it in laughter
it and he was like, this is all I never
knew what I meant, you know that, but it hurt
me for him. And then after they all went to
Jones and traded songs. I was the only other person there.
I just got up a record thing, but they didn't.
I didn't play any songs. And then after that guy
(24:30):
in Towns were really nice to me.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
They call me Keith or Psikes as a kid and
the only take you in now. I gave it, and
you know you have to. I was the first person
to tell me that, like.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
The people that came after me were going to make
me jealous, and if only for being younger. And you
just can't you can't be that. You can't do that
you have to go the other way. You have to
get everything you have to everybody that's doing this, and
it works, It really is. It's not a lot of
people that just want to be a troubadour, not very
(25:04):
many at all. And those guys really looked up that
were just good to each other, they weren't.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Don't you think there's people who pose as troubadours and
then there's people who really are troubadours.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Probably so you could sniff them. I bet you could
sniff them a mile away.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Though usually I sometimes I feel like I can. First
time I met Isabelle and the first time I saw
Sierra Farrell, I knew, and yeah, there is a it's
a calling or something. It definitely doesn't feel like a
seeing that you can plan. I didn't. I didn't have
(25:46):
a goal, you know. And then I was living like
this first, and then it was like a look at
these guys. They lived the same way, but they have
a guitar. Seems like they get an extra extra scupid everything.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
What's the biggest challenge in your career that you faced
or that you've faced to this day.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Right now, I feel like in the last couple of
years I haven't. I'm played because of my spin. They
call like a it sounds darker than this, they call
it a dark light of the soul where you where.
I'm like not sure how much I'm going to be
able to play again. I haven't played in a couple
of almost a couple of years, and I'm trying to
(26:32):
get healthy. You know, I'm not not off drugs. I'm
not on drugs. If if almost on drugs, I could
go play. But I can't live like that. And it's
gotten I'm in a lot of pain all the time,
not to dig. And I said, I'm going to the
chiropractor after this. And there's this guy that is I
(26:52):
think it's starting to help me. I wanted to play game,
but that so that part of it, like trying to
figure out would be if I wasn't that I'm not
so far come up with nothing.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
And then I think meeting heroes and not because of them,
not because oh, because they turned out to be jerks.
Just it's intimidating. It's like being around like it was
intimidating to be around John Jimmy Buffeto, those people, but
Buffet in particular was somebody like I really wanted to
(27:26):
be a friend to him. But and he needed friends.
But they you'd have to be a genius. You were
going to have to be one of those guys Steve
Jobs and those were his friends, people that were running on.
I mean, I've been around that. I mean, now I'm
bad about him, but that guy knew a lot of
languages for Star Wars. He was a master surfer, master fisherman,
(27:49):
master golf pilot. You're not like the rest. Wasn't like
people that was. He was hard, like not hard to
be around, but you felt like, you know, it's such.
I wasn't slapped him on the back and telling him jokes.
I was just like, damn, you want to fly now, okay?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And he kept, you know, having this zest for his
performance and connecting with his fans and you know, kind
of keeping that fire always burning, right.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I think of him as the best troubadoor that And
he learned it from Jared Jeff. He learned it from
romand Jet and Jery. Jeff took him to Key West
even and he was to say he could parallel park
a pirate ship and I'm not I'm not kidding, he
can tat say it. So he went down there and
(28:38):
found more than music. Yeah, he found the wave Locke,
he created Jimmy Buffett understand there and then got to
be and the whole.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Time miss him dearly. I'm sure crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I'm still really close to his knees and that has
been a really hard one because he is like there
was a like for me particular, like he just said,
you can be a singer now with me. I'm talking
to you because he decided one day to let me.
Thanks doing that twenty times a year ever since the
(29:12):
song came out, just like you can do this, you
can always?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Are you happy how you have evolved as a musician
and a troubadour Thank you for asking me that.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'm really happy with the guitar playing and the harmmone playing.
That makes me. I feel like I've really come a
long way on those things. And then Troubadour and I
feel like I got through a no hitter and then
I've been't like that took my first like this is
the first break I've ever taken a I went I
(29:43):
ran away at fifteen, went on the road at about
twenty seven and never stopped. And I feel I know
that Ramblin Jack is proud of that. Lifestyle. There's a
camp where I'm I'm teached like that teacher, which is
a grip in itself. But there's a camp in which
(30:05):
stock were. Last year I did it, it was supposed
to be a songwriting camp, and this year it's a
freewheel in tribute or camp. And I'm like, there's way
more to it than just making up songs. You got
to learn to sleep anywhere, or you've got to learn
how to jump in the car just because the doors open.
All that shit. I love that.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
I want to ask you about some of your favorite
venues and then some of your least favorite venues.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Right, Greg is fun. Let's see I can do that.
Let's say Green Hall because I saw Jerry Jeff there
and I was like, this is what I am. And
then there's a place called Alice's Champagne Palace in Homer,
Alaska that it is like that town if somebody was
(30:55):
looking for a travel tip, that's the kind of town
you can go and meet everyone there and become you
know everyone there come back. I like that community and
I feel like I'm part of it. And then Santa
Cruz they used to have these fat fries outside and
that town too, the radio station in that town. There's
a community around that that's fun to go fall into.
(31:18):
Just see what they're doing tonight. And then says I
going to say, oh, the last one would be Key West,
because I first time I went down there was a
Jimmy So I've got that place dialed in pretty good.
And it is the tubadour. In the nineties, when I
went down there, there was like music on all the
(31:39):
streets up and down New Ball. But now if you
go up and down New Ball, it's one guy telling
stories and singing his own songs and people are paying
attention to It's like there's a buffet, there's somebody doing
my shit. There's twelve gigs to do what I do
every night on one street. So if you're into that too,
(32:01):
if you're in the like Boatcraft and Nate and songwriting types,
there's a ship coming qus and they're working. They have
lots of gigs, and so I'm going down there for
a while and I know those guys.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Do you have any hobbies other than being a troubadour
and a musician.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I'm a good gardener, bower gardener, and I'm a walker,
Like I think this that I walked a few times
a day, and a garden meditate, like to meditate, which
is mean to just sit there. That's about it. That's
my things.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I think, what advice would you give to aspiring musicians
that are listening to this podcast?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I will go in through it if you're see some
people go into it to succeed and other people go
into it to escape the part of the world that
is focused on success. You can go trying to be
a star, or you can be Vince Herman, which is
(33:07):
like he's just like I've kind of been allowed to
I don't know if you don't talking about his leftover salmon,
and he's a bonafide what do you call when people
figure out there ego and shake it. He used his
time onerous to do that and got away with it
by playing mandolin and singing, not making big buss, you know.
(33:30):
So it's like I went into it because I felt
like I had already was the big say tune in,
drop out it. So it's like, if you if you
want to have kids or be responsible or be don't
do it. Don't try to. You're not going to succeed
in a way that you're going to send your kid
to private school or whatever. And if you do like
(33:53):
em when Jack said, music is good for like a
horse or a truck and the rest is grab as.
And if you know that you might end up with
your own ranch accident, you might end up like Jimmy buffacident.
But if you think you're gonna end up like Jimmy Buffett,
it's just gonna be it drunk. You gotta like when
(34:15):
I started being a singers because I knew that I
was never going to have any money. I was never
going to do anything like that. I was never going
to have to sit down and meet with anyone or
anything like that. That was the payment. And then like
psychs was like, you can go to Europe if you
just get your shit together for six months. That's what
(34:38):
I told.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Sierra God And closing, what have you not learned about
life or being a musician that you're still in search
of that thing?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Then he did, And I do think I'm getting closer.
I would like to run out of things to say
and shake my personality completely. Even no, it's pretty warming
like he and then I've got him Alan want too.
In the last few years, I was like they didn't
really talk anymore, and he only really just laughed and
(35:11):
made funny sounds and stuff. And I could see that
happened in the bending and I'm trying to get right
in line behind me. I would like that. I would
like to go be like, go completely mad. I guess
is what someone might say, Oh, just get rid of
shake my name, you know, get back to before you
(35:34):
take on them. I think I don't know myself. It's
some hippie ship. But music. I think someday they're going
to figure out frequencies and like the in like music
is like a magic thing. I think can do that.
I may be talking about, you know how some people
like will just take a drug over and over because
they're certain at any day now it's gonna they're going
(35:56):
to not need it anymore, because it's they saw it,
you know. I guess I keep hoping to get it
whatever it is, you know, whatever it is, to get
with it. I want to get with it.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Thanks for getting with it with me, man, Thank you, man.
I so enjoyed this.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Thank you Man, I did too.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Thanks for being on.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Right on man. I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, I'll keep you posted. Thanks for everything, seriously. Thanks
good luck at the doc too. Thanks for listening to
this Taking a Walk episode with Todd Snyder. A quick
shout out thanks to one of our Ohio friends and
supporters of Taking a Walk, Buck, Mick Williams. Thanks for
supporting Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Music is like a magic thing I think can do that.
It might I may be talking about you know how
some people like will just take a drug over and
over because they're certain of any day now it's it's
don't know, they're going to not need it anymore because
it's they saw it, you know. I guess I like
keep hoping to get it whatever it is, whatever it is,
(00:23):
to get with it. I want to get with it.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I'm Buzz's Night, your host for the Taking a Walk podcast,
the podcast where I talk to musicians about the inside
stories of their creative process, their latest projects, and stories
of the road Today. My guess is a true artist
and a troubadour at heart. Todd Snyder. Todd has an
amazing career as a singer songwriter whose music spans folk, rock, blues,
(00:49):
also with a little bit of alt, country and funk.
He's currently going on a retrospective journey spanning three decades,
unveiling his complete discography included with new recollections, all for
free for his fans. Talking to Todd Snyder right now,
I'm taking a Walk. Todd Snyder, thanks for being on
(01:11):
Taking a Walk. It's an honor to be with you.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
So you're unveiling your complete discography and its acoustic glory
recorded at the Purple Building, and each release features these
re recorded versions and personal reflections and it's fruble e free.
Tell me what motivated you to do this for your
(01:37):
loyal diehard fans.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Mostly I think that I want kids. It was like,
I guess the legacy is that the word like when
of them gone? I wanted to make sure that those
were someplace people could hear them. They were like to me,
they're my favorite versions of the songs. Even though it's
like because I can do what i'd do on these records,
(02:03):
I got to learn music, play around with different kinds
of music, go through fads, mostly because I could stand
up by myself and tell people how time I made
up a song and play it, and then record companies
be like, if you long I'm a drummer, you can.
I didn't have to. I just wanted to. I wanted
to learn music. But like I said, just naturally, I
(02:23):
feel like I came out of my mom doing that
thing where I liked that these were by myself and
I make up a song and I explain it and
then I play it, I can get fed that way.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And really it's been enjoyment first. That has been your motivation,
and then everything else coming second.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah. I mostly wanted to drop out of when I
was young. My plan was to be at like one
of the Dead Hitens, Like there's a group of kids
at that time that were just dropping out and being bums.
And then I found guitar and busking, and then that
turned in to a way of life. I found round
with Jack Elliott. It feels like if you're honest, if
(03:05):
you make up honest songs, you can pretty much bullshit
the rest of the time.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Tell me what inspired you first to make music? And
when that was so, you said, literally out of the womb,
you said.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, I think, But really I left home when I
was fifteen and became My friend said I was a gypsy.
And then I saw Jerry Jeff Walker playing and I
felt like I was his son. I felt like I
was living what he was singing about. He was playing
by himself and singing linear songs, and I just thought,
(03:40):
That's what I'm supposed to do. I felt like the
way I was living my life at the time, if
I had a guitar, where I can make up songs
about whoever was giving me a ride or let me
stay or whatever. I just thought I would be a
way better traveler or whatever. You know. Then I got
bit by the notion of wanting to make an album.
This guy, Keith Sykes, who told me he said I
(04:03):
was good. He is really good friends with John. He
writes with John running guy. My dad found his address
at the bar. Someone at the bar had his endors.
He helped me and got me a record deal and
showed me that if I got a record deal, I
could go around the world.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Do you remember the first song you wrote and what
it was about?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I do? That was I called bus Tubs Do And
I was a bus boy because again I had I
had just seen this Gary jamfs I. I got just things
about his life, and so I made up a song.
I was a bus boy at this place called Peppers
at the Falls, and I made up a song about
how if people didn't finish their meal, I would eat it,
you know. And when I got up on the stage
(04:45):
and didn't and went like, I think I'm supposed to
be doing this, that cemented it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, And then I made up a couple more went
open mic and I made up it and then I
just made up like fourteen total and started playing right away.
I started playing nineteen when I only had one job
before it was a busboy.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Was that your plan b being a bus boy?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Uh huh, Well that's part of why I felt like
it was I didn't have anything to fall back on
or anything to blow or my parents weren't going to
be ashamed or anything else. Just it was it was
going to be a bus boy, So why not pour
your heart out for a living. And it's kind of neat.
It's an easy grift. Just you say how you feel,
(05:31):
don't bullshit about it and singing a pleasure chorus and
you can get a ride in you one or you
know you end up in the bus.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Tell me about I mean, we could do just a
whole podcast just done the impact of Jerry Jeff on
you and John Prine on you. But tell me how
special they were to know them.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
They were close friends. And when I saw Jerry Jeff,
I went to the record store in San Marcus and
started getting all the records and the guy there, so
you have to try John Prime too. Then I went
and got all his things, obsessed on him, saw him
in Austin, and then he was friends with Keith Sykes,
(06:18):
and so I went down there and I was studying
under Keith. He had just taken me in. I found
out later that this is what we do. Some trouper
door knocks on my door off the levenment. So when
John made the Missing Years, I was getting cigarettes and
everything for everybody, and I knew all his songs. I
could beat him in the tribute contest about himself. He
(06:42):
must have loved that. Hey, we were close, although it
was more father son. I never got jocular with him.
I was always really respectful, like we weren't punching the
shoulder buddies. He would have don't be hard on me sometimes,
but he would also tell me that he loved me.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Who was harder on you, Jerry Jeff or John Jerry Jeff.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I had one time I gave I think thirteen songs
that have just written to John and he said, man,
you got a great that's a great song you got
in there, And that was that was kind of the worst.
But once he said that, that opened the door for
him to show me what he meant by that, and
I got to study songs under him. He got them
but Jerry Jeff and I bonded on music and asco
(07:28):
rep scaliation or after the show up title, and so
sometimes we'd get into argument. If we couldn't find someone
else to argue with, we'd argue with each other. I
stole his car. I mean we had some ship. One
time me and him were arguing. He drove r I
passed his gig and we ended up in a different town.
(07:49):
He's the freest person I know, or he was. You know.
We liked each other because we didn't have neither of us.
Well watch either of you. I'm sorry, like wore a
watch or cared about be in someplace certain. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
How many fistfights did you get into with Jerry Jeff?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
None? None, just yelling a few times. I like Blue
one of my own shows. He really gave me. Shaver
hit me. Yeah, he had stacked all these bills on
the kitchen table on me. We didn't know we messed
them up, but he walked in and just right with
his bald up face right in my mouth, and then
(08:34):
he hit it me too.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
You can't make this up.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Huh mm hmmm. I miss him. He was also a
loud person. Billy Joe Shaver yeah, adventurous person. Shot hello.
That's tough.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Loss is such a terrible part of life, and obviously
with John's loss and Jerry Jeff's loss, and then most
recently the loss of another friend who I know you
spoke with all the time, Richard Lewis. Tell me what
Richard meant to you.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I was closer to Richard really than any of them
because he we don't He and I mostly stay to ourselves,
and we get on and off the phone multiple times.
We talked a lot every day. And then I knew
he was getting I mean, he didn't die of what
he would say, each had a heart attack, but he
was tired from fighting. He's had a really bad couple
of years with his health. Like I called him about everything,
(09:34):
and that's kind of the last guy, you know, the
last mentor I think I'm fifty seven, so it's my
turn to ask. There's this kid named Josh morning Star.
It's really good. It just was wroped me this morning.
You know, he's going through some issues and stuff and
he called me, and I guess it's my turn to listen.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And how did you first meet Richard?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
He wrote me a letter on the computer just out
of the blue. It was oh, I know what it
was too. He had a group of this adorable and
this is him to his wife Joyce and him, well
she's still meant to me. But he had a group
of about four guys he talked to every day all
(10:20):
the time, and like two of them died and he's
really neurotic. He couldn't deal with that. He had his
four people, and his wife said you got to you
have to replace them, and he sat around thinking about
and he wrote me a letter. I was like, I
literally like I kind of looking for someone to talk
to every day. I had this little group. My wife
says I should replace the guys that were in it.
(10:42):
He knew all my albums and stuff, and I knew
everything about him. And I had this story I tell
called about taking mushrooms and I got home from two
of them. He had left it on my machine, like
he told it on my machine, and that was the
biggest compliment. But he he'd like, who I've talked about
rurals and stuff anything anything. Yeah, yeah, Like I had
(11:06):
to say, I had a lady break into my house
and he's he has that kind of stuff all with.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Him, just the oddities of life. Right, yeah, yeah, tell
me about your songwriting process, how it works. How do
you turn an idea into a finished song?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Okay, I mean I'm enjoying this, thank you me too.
When I started, it was like this healing thing like
I was. I think it was angry at like my
parents are going through a divorce, and I sang about
it and it's like manto almost. Of course, you know
you're repeating something. It's like good. So I learned to
(11:46):
use it as a tool like that to get moved
past things. And then that so if it felt like
it helped, I thought it was done, and then it
became this thing I could use at work. Then there's
another thing like which ones go to work, which wants
to show up for and those are like harder, like
to know if a song is going to move other people.
(12:09):
It's hard trying to. I try not to play songs
that I don't think other people relate to, because I
make up some that I know are too singular or whatever. Well,
let's see there's some that I just It takes a
long time and then one day it's that's a that's
a good question. It takes a while, and then it
feels like at some point I know that it's done.
(12:33):
I wonder how other people do. There's this guy named
Kent Finley who showed me how to do it like
meter and everything, but trying to say exactly what you're
trying to say and be concise about it and turn
as the release and take the poetry out and ask
yourself while you're really saying this, and you know, make
(12:55):
and make sure there's a it has. It's a rock
that there's something in it. For me, it's like even
dB Cooper, it's just a story about the guy that
jumped out of the plane that I don't know. But
there's a part in there where I talk about how
my dad and I disagree on what we hope happens
to him. And for me, that's the rock I put
(13:16):
my foot on when I sing that song. And if
I don't have something like that in there, why am
I telling people about dB Cooper. It doesn't move me
until I get to the part where I realized me
and my father's starting to see things differently, and that's
BB Cooper, And so I always want them to be
something like that in there somewhere, or if there's not.
(13:40):
It feels like a year after I start playing it,
it feels heavy, it feels like it goes on very
long time. I've got songs that are about girls. I
don't really know that, Like on my first or second
I got a couple of reps songs. There's a song
called turn it Up. Just made it up out of there.
I don't know who those people are or what they're
(14:00):
talking about. Just mortge, I said, because I had a
riff and that song feels like it goes on for hours.
I play.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
But you eventually tire of some of your songs, don't you?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Uh huh most Yeah, some of them?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, And why are you so tough on yourself in
that regard that you tire of them and kind of
just aggravated at him.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, I I don't think that might just be yeah,
I don't know. I wish I could stop that because
some people are like, these are my kids. I'm like
my kids. Some of them really love me. In fact,
there's thing that's coming out that's out I think more
of them. There's songs where I'll play and I'll talk
about why I don't like that, and then I'll play,
(14:48):
which I was glad to get the chance to go
on record, like that it gets it off your chest, right, Yeah,
that's a song called positively Negative. That's just this thing
I felt for about ten minutes, long enough to get
the song, you know, and then by the time the
song came out that wasn't mad about that.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
But you blend so brilliantly social commentary and humor. How
do you sort of balanced that or do you thank you?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I think that tried to. Like, I don't feel like
anyone knows, like when it comes to politics, the reason
why we argue about these things because we don't know
for sure what to do. There's like two really basic people,
Like it's science. There's like a certain person who's sort
of moving forward or thinks tomorrow is gonna be great.
(15:40):
There's another person that thinks yesterday was great, and we
get separated on that, like and so for Democrats, they
market with other people what they call blue wall or whatever,
and then there's people that think yesterday was the vator
in general, and they get I think it's like you,
I don't even know if it's your choice to those
(16:00):
sides you lean on or whatever. So like politics, I
don't take that seriously. It's like a form of entertainment
or a racket, like it's a low grow form of entertainment,
and it doesn't pay as much as it should for
as much as their lives as they have to give
(16:21):
to this act or whatever. I feel sampled because they're
a punching bag. The politician is like any money. We
were going to all set politicians or bullshit line pieces
of shit, that's the way to stop an argument. They're
all pieces of shit and it's just a racket, and
so I don't take it seriously. I look at them
(16:42):
all like their wrestlers, and I hope their kids get
that their pro wrestlers. Sometimes they fix potholes every once
in a while, or sometimes they fuck things up but
don't really do a ton up, they're say in Washington,
And so when I thing I've been at it, I
don't feel like I don't get angry about it, Like
(17:04):
Trump doesn't make me angry, thinks amusing I am. I'm
the Democrat. I don't want him to be the president.
I didn't like it when he was before, but just
because because I think tomorrow is gonna be terrific, and
they got me. I love about them, hippie what just
remes like could be I'm just that, and I can
(17:26):
admit it, I don't even care. You know, yeah, like
half the time, if it's a protest and there's a
good band, you know, tell me I'm coming the tip shit.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
But you are the unofficial mayor of East Nashville. So
if you were handed the keys to making decisions as
a political leader, what would your motto be?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Oh, that's the whole type for our side. I love
what's happened on the east side of town. I feel
like because that's like Billy String, Sierra Ferrel. I think
jelly Roll even live over on our side of town. Now, hm,
let's see, Because it feels like those cats on the
mainstream people they're they don't know. I mean, I'm just
(18:11):
watching as a fan. I'm not part of it. I
think maybe I'll get a song cut sometimes, But it
feels like that's the thing on Sixteenth Avenue, where they
have the system that's worked for over forever and over
and ever, it got rathered by a few guys that
didn't go through it, I think, and then they're cuge.
It's like, broadly, I don't know. I think some of
the big stars don't have any friends on Sixteenth Avenue
(18:36):
and that, so they're kind of I think they're kind
of calling time out and trying to I think they're
like studying Jason Isabel for a minute. And I'm not
sure where where country music's going to go, but right
now it seems like that cat, Jason Alban who said
something racist I guess, or something that defended PP. And
(18:59):
then so this other kid, there's another kid who offended hippies,
and they're they're the only people making it happen right
now in that I think sixteen down and it was
about itself caught up in whatever's going on in America,
you know what I mean, they're going to get themselves
out of politics, I think, because I don't think they're
(19:21):
meant to get there.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know, yeah Morgan Morgan Wall and maybe you were
talking about Yeah, yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Kid, that kid, he fucked up, I think through something
somebody or but I know he said did something racist.
I don't know what it was or if you I mean,
but like they're rallying around that kid like that, as
if they're rallying around those cats, as if they shot
a protessor, like they're standing up for them, you know
(19:49):
what I mean. It's like, you know, red neck people
who don't like people that don't look like themselves, and
to the point that they're angry about it. They wanted
to find they're We're coming to the rescue these two guys,
and the rest of the town's getting kind of artsy.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
We'll be right back with the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast. What do
you think Jerry Jeff would have thought about what's going
on these days?
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Oh? God, I think he would liked what was going
on music, But I don't know. Well, it will really
depend on if he was drinking or not, because if
he was drinking, whatever is causing chaos, and no matter
if it's positive or negative, it's hard to understand. It
was headquard, so he'd like all the chaos, even though
(20:43):
some of it has been of course, a lot of
it's been violent. But man, he had a way of
letting go of everything in a way that didn't make
you think that he was ignoring people's troubles. You sometimes
it's like, oh, you're on for a second. He was
(21:04):
a gifted at free in his mind. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Last following, Yeah, did your father impact your storytelling? Unbelievable abilities?
Was he one of the greatest influences in that regard.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
I think. So the first time I saw Jerry Jeff,
I thought that's my dad, except for my dad wasn't
for real. So I remember saying, it's not hurting anymore,
you know, And I remember think, yeah, my dad would
have been a good troubadour. He was a criminal, but
like a very successful one. He died when he was
(21:39):
only fifty four. He was part of was this guy
named George never Say in Oregon. He brought heroin to
the Great North less like the early sixties and set
up his team in Beaverton, Oregon. And that's what my
dad was. That worked for him, And it was weird way.
(22:00):
It was a little suprana like without that the way
of sounding. It didn't sound like that. But there was
always a couple of guys standing around with people. Don't
believe me, So that's that's true. Oh I believe you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
What do you think is the most significant milestone to
date in your career?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Right after that, when you said that, I thought, I
went on the tour right before or after I think
it was before the pandemic with Bramlin Jack Elliott and
spent like two weeks on the bus with him, and
I felt like that confirmed a lot. I mean, I
felt like I learned a lot. I felt like I
confirmed a lot about what we're doing. And he was
(22:40):
always like, would always put me to bed. He was
always ready to go to the bus and to do something.
He's ninety two and so he was really into traveling,
and so we would go find cars and buses and
boats and things to look at during the day. It's
just really active and just seeing somebody who jumped in
(23:01):
head first to this lifestyle being so still so glad
that he did, still so free, still so amused and interested.
And they made me think that, like there's a fourth
quarter low, there's a little bit left, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Tell me what Towns van Zant has meant to you.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
When I met the first time I saw him was
Keith Sykes took me to a Christmas party at a bar.
There was a whole hold him family, and I didn't
know what that meant. And when we went into the
back too, we went into the kitchen. And when we
walked in the back kitchen at his bars, Guy Clark
and Count Van's aunt John Crime and Nancy Griffith, and
(23:45):
they're playing the game where you throw dice on the wall,
and they had money in their hands and they're shouting,
you know, and I never met I only knew jump.
And then at a certain point, guys, I mean Towns
came and sat down next to me and grabbed my
arm and I could tell he was starting to cray.
And he said, I said, what's the matter, And he said,
(24:07):
this is all fucked up? And I said, what's all
fucked up? And then they all row it in laughter
it and he was like, this is all I never
knew what I meant, you know that, but it hurt
me for him. And then after they all went to
Jones and traded songs. I was the only other person there.
I just got up a record thing, but they didn't.
I didn't play any songs. And then after that guy
(24:30):
in Towns were really nice to me.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
They call me Keith or Psikes as a kid and
the only take you in now. I gave it, and
you know you have to. I was the first person
to tell me that, like.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
The people that came after me were going to make
me jealous, and if only for being younger. And you
just can't you can't be that. You can't do that
you have to go the other way. You have to
get everything you have to everybody that's doing this, and
it works, It really is. It's not a lot of
people that just want to be a troubadour, not very
(25:04):
many at all. And those guys really looked up that
were just good to each other, they weren't.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Don't you think there's people who pose as troubadours and
then there's people who really are troubadours.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Probably so you could sniff them. I bet you could
sniff them a mile away.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Though usually I sometimes I feel like I can. First
time I met Isabelle and the first time I saw
Sierra Farrell, I knew, and yeah, there is a it's
a calling or something. It definitely doesn't feel like a
seeing that you can plan. I didn't. I didn't have
(25:46):
a goal, you know. And then I was living like
this first, and then it was like a look at
these guys. They lived the same way, but they have
a guitar. Seems like they get an extra extra scupid everything.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
What's the biggest challenge in your career that you faced
or that you've faced to this day.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
Right now, I feel like in the last couple of
years I haven't. I'm played because of my spin. They
call like a it sounds darker than this, they call
it a dark light of the soul where you where.
I'm like not sure how much I'm going to be
able to play again. I haven't played in a couple
of almost a couple of years, and I'm trying to
(26:32):
get healthy. You know, I'm not not off drugs. I'm
not on drugs. If if almost on drugs, I could
go play. But I can't live like that. And it's
gotten I'm in a lot of pain all the time,
not to dig. And I said, I'm going to the
chiropractor after this. And there's this guy that is I
(26:52):
think it's starting to help me. I wanted to play game,
but that so that part of it, like trying to
figure out would be if I wasn't that I'm not
so far come up with nothing.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
And then I think meeting heroes and not because of them,
not because oh, because they turned out to be jerks.
Just it's intimidating. It's like being around like it was
intimidating to be around John Jimmy Buffeto, those people, but
Buffet in particular was somebody like I really wanted to
(27:26):
be a friend to him. But and he needed friends.
But they you'd have to be a genius. You were
going to have to be one of those guys Steve
Jobs and those were his friends, people that were running on.
I mean, I've been around that. I mean, now I'm
bad about him, but that guy knew a lot of
languages for Star Wars. He was a master surfer, master fisherman,
(27:49):
master golf pilot. You're not like the rest. Wasn't like
people that was. He was hard, like not hard to
be around, but you felt like, you know, it's such.
I wasn't slapped him on the back and telling him jokes.
I was just like, damn, you want to fly now, okay?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And he kept, you know, having this zest for his
performance and connecting with his fans and you know, kind
of keeping that fire always burning, right.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
I think of him as the best troubadoor that And
he learned it from Jared Jeff. He learned it from
romand Jet and Jery. Jeff took him to Key West
even and he was to say he could parallel park
a pirate ship and I'm not I'm not kidding, he
can tat say it. So he went down there and
(28:38):
found more than music. Yeah, he found the wave Locke,
he created Jimmy Buffett understand there and then got to
be and the whole.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Time miss him dearly. I'm sure crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
I'm still really close to his knees and that has
been a really hard one because he is like there
was a like for me particular, like he just said,
you can be a singer now with me. I'm talking
to you because he decided one day to let me.
Thanks doing that twenty times a year ever since the
(29:12):
song came out, just like you can do this, you
can always?
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Are you happy how you have evolved as a musician
and a troubadour Thank you for asking me that.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
I'm really happy with the guitar playing and the harmmone playing.
That makes me. I feel like I've really come a
long way on those things. And then Troubadour and I
feel like I got through a no hitter and then
I've been't like that took my first like this is
the first break I've ever taken a I went I
(29:43):
ran away at fifteen, went on the road at about
twenty seven and never stopped. And I feel I know
that Ramblin Jack is proud of that. Lifestyle. There's a
camp where I'm I'm teached like that teacher, which is
a grip in itself. But there's a camp in which
(30:05):
stock were. Last year I did it, it was supposed
to be a songwriting camp, and this year it's a
freewheel in tribute or camp. And I'm like, there's way
more to it than just making up songs. You got
to learn to sleep anywhere, or you've got to learn
how to jump in the car just because the doors open.
All that shit. I love that.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
I want to ask you about some of your favorite
venues and then some of your least favorite venues.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Right, Greg is fun. Let's see I can do that.
Let's say Green Hall because I saw Jerry Jeff there
and I was like, this is what I am. And
then there's a place called Alice's Champagne Palace in Homer,
Alaska that it is like that town if somebody was
(30:55):
looking for a travel tip, that's the kind of town
you can go and meet everyone there and become you
know everyone there come back. I like that community and
I feel like I'm part of it. And then Santa
Cruz they used to have these fat fries outside and
that town too, the radio station in that town. There's
a community around that that's fun to go fall into.
(31:18):
Just see what they're doing tonight. And then says I
going to say, oh, the last one would be Key West,
because I first time I went down there was a
Jimmy So I've got that place dialed in pretty good.
And it is the tubadour. In the nineties, when I
went down there, there was like music on all the
(31:39):
streets up and down New Ball. But now if you
go up and down New Ball, it's one guy telling
stories and singing his own songs and people are paying
attention to It's like there's a buffet, there's somebody doing
my shit. There's twelve gigs to do what I do
every night on one street. So if you're into that too,
(32:01):
if you're in the like Boatcraft and Nate and songwriting types,
there's a ship coming qus and they're working. They have
lots of gigs, and so I'm going down there for
a while and I know those guys.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Do you have any hobbies other than being a troubadour
and a musician.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I'm a good gardener, bower gardener, and I'm a walker,
Like I think this that I walked a few times
a day, and a garden meditate, like to meditate, which
is mean to just sit there. That's about it. That's
my things.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I think, what advice would you give to aspiring musicians
that are listening to this podcast?
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I will go in through it if you're see some
people go into it to succeed and other people go
into it to escape the part of the world that
is focused on success. You can go trying to be
a star, or you can be Vince Herman, which is
(33:07):
like he's just like I've kind of been allowed to
I don't know if you don't talking about his leftover salmon,
and he's a bonafide what do you call when people
figure out there ego and shake it. He used his
time onerous to do that and got away with it
by playing mandolin and singing, not making big buss, you know.
(33:30):
So it's like I went into it because I felt
like I had already was the big say tune in,
drop out it. So it's like, if you if you
want to have kids or be responsible or be don't
do it. Don't try to. You're not going to succeed
in a way that you're going to send your kid
to private school or whatever. And if you do like
(33:53):
em when Jack said, music is good for like a
horse or a truck and the rest is grab as.
And if you know that you might end up with
your own ranch accident, you might end up like Jimmy buffacident.
But if you think you're gonna end up like Jimmy Buffett,
it's just gonna be it drunk. You gotta like when
(34:15):
I started being a singers because I knew that I
was never going to have any money. I was never
going to do anything like that. I was never going
to have to sit down and meet with anyone or
anything like that. That was the payment. And then like
psychs was like, you can go to Europe if you
just get your shit together for six months. That's what
(34:38):
I told.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Sierra God And closing, what have you not learned about
life or being a musician that you're still in search
of that thing?
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Then he did, And I do think I'm getting closer.
I would like to run out of things to say
and shake my personality completely. Even no, it's pretty warming
like he and then I've got him Alan want too.
In the last few years, I was like they didn't
really talk anymore, and he only really just laughed and
(35:11):
made funny sounds and stuff. And I could see that
happened in the bending and I'm trying to get right
in line behind me. I would like that. I would
like to go be like, go completely mad. I guess
is what someone might say, Oh, just get rid of
shake my name, you know, get back to before you
(35:34):
take on them. I think I don't know myself. It's
some hippie ship. But music. I think someday they're going
to figure out frequencies and like the in like music
is like a magic thing. I think can do that.
I may be talking about, you know how some people
like will just take a drug over and over because
they're certain at any day now it's gonna they're going
(35:56):
to not need it anymore, because it's they saw it,
you know. I guess I keep hoping to get it
whatever it is, you know, whatever it is, to get
with it. I want to get with it.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Thanks for getting with it with me, man, Thank you, man.
I so enjoyed this.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Thank you Man, I did too.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Thanks for being on.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Right on man. I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, I'll keep you posted. Thanks for everything, seriously. Thanks
good luck at the doc too. Thanks for listening to
this Taking a Walk episode with Todd Snyder. A quick
shout out thanks to one of our Ohio friends and
supporters of Taking a Walk, Buck, Mick Williams. Thanks for
supporting Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts
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