Todd Snider - Near Truths & Hotel Rooms Live

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Free Music Notes for Near Truths & Hotel Rooms Live

Free Music Review: Best album of 2003
Hit: 5 Stars

I first heard Todd play live a couple of years ago opening for Suzanne Vega. He seemed like a little bit of an odd fit but I liked him though since it was in Seattle and he did a song about Seattle music scene that was really funny, I just assumed he was some local guy. I think I may also have seen him open once before that for John Prine.

So why did it take me until now to get around to discovering his greatness through this record? Well, I think he's taken awhile to reach his peak as a writer and also he makes you laugh so easy and makes it look so easy to do what he is doing on stage that I might have easily assumed he's coasting a bit and not see how good he is. Play this album a few times and you will quickly realize that's just flat out misperception. Todd's a fully rounded songwriter and performer who can make you laugh one song and put a lump in your throat with the next one. For example, if you tend to have just heard him as a 'funny storytelling guy' check out "Lonely Girl", "Waco Moon", "I Spoke As A Child" or especially "Long Year" here. They are just fine well crafted tender songs that show he's as capable of observing about heart ache and the depths of the human condition in his songs as he is at making clever light verse. Oh, and not to discount the funny songs either. They are right up there with anybody's best when it comes to humorous songs. You will find that you can laugh just as much at Todd's lyrics and delivery of them in "Tension", "Beer Run", "Statistician's Blues", "Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues" and "The Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern" after multiple repeat listenings as you might have the first time they caught your ear. What's especially nice is the way they are sequenced and interspersed here with the more straight-up or sobering songs.

He's also best served here by being able to pick from among the best of his material (and he's got some great ones that didn't make it on here - if I have one nit pick here it's that I'd have traded a 2nd version of 'Beer Run' on here for 1 more from his rich songbook) and by presenting it in a solo setting where both he and the audience are clearly relaxed and can settle in and focus on enjoying his storytelling skills and concentrate on his fine well crafted lyrics and his timing and delivery of them. Each song comes off like a rough and ready diamond honed through years of touring and performing but because of his comfort in playing them live this way, they come off as fresh and inspired as if he had just sat down and played them all for the first time.

Buy this album if you love great folk songwriting like John Prine, classic 1960's period Bob Dylan, or Neil Young. I think Todd's best stands up next to the best of those guys if they are left to deliver songs in the solo performance format.

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