Todd Daniel Snider (born October 11, 1966)[1] is an American singer-songwriter whose music incorporates elements of folk, rock, blues, alt country, and funk.

[2] With help from his brother Mike who bought him a plane ticket, Snider relocated to San Marcos, Texas, after leaving SRJC in late fall of 1985.

Finlay, who was a songwriter in his own right, became an important mentor and introduced Snider to the songs of Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, John Prine, and Shel Silverstein, among others.

[18] Produced by Tony Brown and Mike Utley, the album was literally composed of songs he was playing at the Daily Planet nightclub in Memphis.

No longer recording for Margaritaville or working with Brown and Utley, Snider produced some sides at engineer Justin Niebank's studio in Franklin, Tennessee, with mixed success.

He was backed by Kimbrough on guitar, Mariencheck on bass, Paul Buchignani on drums, and Rick Steff on keys, and the result was a more straight-ahead rock record than his first two.

[26] Working with producer Ray Kennedy, Snider recorded all the songs solo acoustic, then additional instrumentation was added to his guitar and vocal tracks.

[27] Besides Kennedy who played a variety of instruments on the record, guitarists Pat Buchanan and Will Kimbrough, bassists Joey Spampinato and Keith Christopher, keyboardist Johnny Neel, drummer Paul Buchignani, multi-instrumentalist Peter Holsapple, violinist Tammy Rogers, and horn men Jim Hoke and Wayne Jackson all contributed to the album.

[45] Working again with co-producers Will Kimbrough and Eric McConnell, who both played multiple instruments on the album, Snider also was backed on the record by guitarist Tommy Womack, bassists Billy Mercer, Robert Kearns, and Dave Jacques, drummers Paul Griffith and Craig Wright, pianist Dave Zollo, violinist Molly Thomas, and legendary steel guitarist Lloyd Green.

"[50] As Snider tells it in the press bio for the album, he was kidnapped by an international league of peace queers who forced him to write the protest songs that appeared on the record.

Produced by Don Was and released on June 9, 2009, the album featured Snider with minimal backing: Was on upright bass, Jim Keltner on drums, and Greg Leisz on dobro and pedal steel.

[60] The performances were selected from recordings of concerts in 2010, primarily from shows in Nashville, Asheville, North Carolina, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, but also from his appearance that year at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.

[62] The Austin Chronicle said the album "does a magnificent job of capturing the onetime San Marcos scenester's genius, a heady combo of post-folk punk and stoned comedian.

The first, Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables, was released on March 6 and included nine original songs plus a cover of Jimmy Buffett's "West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown.

Snider, who played acoustic and electric guitar and harmonica, was also accompanied on the record by violinist/backing vocalist Amanda Shires, Great American Taxi keyboardist Chad Staehly, and drummer Paul Griffith.

"[80] The following month on April 24, Aimless released Snider's tribute album honoring one of his early mentors, Time As We Know It: The Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker.

The band's lineup was Snider on vocals, Schools on bass, Neal Casal on guitar, Chad Staehly on keyboards, and Duane Trucks on drums.

After they recorded their first album at Bob Weir’s TRI Studios,[84] they added a sixth member, guitarist and lap steel player Jesse Aycock.

The record featured a dozen songs with lyrics by Snider and music by the entire band, plus a cover of Guy Clark’s "The High Price of Inspiration.

[93] While it was released under Snider's name, the material grew out of his side project/alter ego Elmo Buzz and the Eastside Bulldogs who specialize in ’50s and early ’60s rock and roll.

Six of the ten songs originally appeared on an EP Shit Sandwich that Aimless released in 2011 as a free download under Elmo Buzz's name.

Snider was backed on those sides by Eric McConnell on bass, Jen Gunderman on piano, Mark Horn on drums, and Dennis Taylor on saxophone.

In 2016, Snider cut four more sides to complete the album with backing from Aaron Lee Tasjan on guitar, Keith Christopher on bass, Paul Griffith on drums, Robbie Crowell on sax, and Rorey Carroll on percussion, among others.

[99] Coproduced with Chad Staehly, Snider returned to his folk roots on the solo acoustic album, playing all the instruments on the 10 songs recorded at Cash Cabin Studio in the fall of 2018.

[119] Snider contributed a cover of "A Boy Named Sue" to the 2010 album, Twistable Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein.

The record also included covers by Kris Kristofferson, John Prine, Bobby Bare, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, and Black Francis.

[128] He appeared as himself in the season finale, the half-hour, all-star musical special, "America: Why I Love Her," which aired on July 18, 2010, and also included Lucinda Williams, Drive-By Truckers, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, among others.

The book, Kent Finlay, Dreamer: The Musical Legacy behind Cheatham Street Warehouse, was published on February 3, 2016, by Texas A&M University Press [142] Over the course of his career, Snider has written and cowritten a large number of songs that were covered by other artists.

[165] Willie Braun's band Reckless Kelly recorded a song he cowrote with Snider, "I Never Liked St. Valentine," which appeared on his 2011 album Good Luck & True Love.

[168] Somebody's Comin’ remained a favorite among Christian artists, and gospel legends Bill and Gloria Gaither covered the song on their 2011 record, Alaskan Homecoming.