Todd Snider
East Nashville Skyline

Review By Steven Stone
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CD Number: OhBoy Records 

  I love Todd Snider. He makes me smile no matter what kind of rotten mood I was in prior to plunking his disc on the CD player. If Lenny Bruce and Woody Guthrie had an illegitimate child, he would certainly turn out to be Todd Snider. On his sixth studio recording, East Nashville Skyline, Snider further cements his position as one of the best "unknown" superstar songwriters in music today.

You won't find any fancy arrangements or audiophile-quality production efforts on East Nashville Skyline. Instead Snider delivers powerful songs that require little adornment besides his voice, guitar, and a basic rock band. With Snider's songs, simple arrangements are best, since they allow you to concentrate of the essentials of the tune. His subjects range from The Kingsman, to Mike Tyson, to Nashville, to incarceration, and finally, to suicide. Even the not so cheery stuff is presented in a way that can't help but make you laugh.

East Nashville Skyline was recorded at Eric McConnell's small studio in East Nashville, TN, the same space where Loretta Lynn recently recorded her album with Jack White. The album's title came from Will Kimbrough, who plays guitar on the CD. Sonics are workmanlike - passable, but nothing that will garner much in the way of accolades from audiophile journals. But this album isn't about the sound, but about the music.

The last song on the album, a cover of the old standard "Enjoy Yourself" sums up Snider's current philosophy after going through a couple of close calls with over-self-medication - "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think." Fortunately we can enhance our remaining hours on earth by purchasing a copy of East Nashville Skyline.

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