For the past six weeks, singer-songwriter and longtime East Side resident Todd Snider has spent his Sunday mornings streaming a live set from inside The Purple Building in the heart of Five Points. A slew of artists have opted to stream during post-dinner prime-time hours, but Snider’s series What It Is offers up an easygoing vibe that feels like a comforting gathering of friends, still slightly buzzed the morning after a late-night party.
The livestreams have acted as a special sort of creative outlet for Snider, including a way to deal with an unexpected loss. During his Easter Sunday livestream, he paid tribute to his longtime mentor, collaborator and friend John Prine with a set full of covers from Prine's incredible career. This week, Snider kicked things off with a musical nod to another legendary artist: His first song was “The Ghost of Johnny Cash.” The song appears on Snider's 2019 LP Cash Cabin Sessions Vol. 3, and was released as a single on what would have been Cash’s 87th birthday. As you might expect from the album title, the song was recorded at Cash's own Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, where Loretta Lynn has also recently recorded, and it tells the story of Lynn’s encounter with what she believes was Cash’s ghost. It’s a brilliantly written story-song, and an example of how any situation retold by Snider feels like a long-lived piece of folklore.
“Is it Christmas already?” Snider joked after wrapping up the tune. His sharp sense of humor shined in his between-song banter, which also gave viewers an insight into the inspiration and true stories behind the tracks. From the mugging that inspired "Highland Street Incident” to his trip to “Tillamook County Jail” — which he was quick to note “wasn’t that big of a deal” — Snider doesn't shy away from documenting the weirder, harder moments of life.
During the show, Snider ran through an array of songs from throughout his career, including "Ballad of The Devil's Backbone Tavern,” "You Think You Know Somebody" and "Alright Guy.” As the set came to a close, Snider brought viewers back into the sometimes harsh reality of contemporary life by performing his brutally blunt and fittingly appropriate song “Tension,” which he segued into a cover of Woody Guthrie's folk classic “This Land Is Your Land” (not to be confused with Snider's own take on the tune, “This Is Our Land”). Although Snider may not have all the answers for how to navigate our strange times, his music and wit certainly help bring a sense of comfort in the chaos.
