Todd Snider has been off the road for four days and easing his way back onto touring.
“I didn’t really do anything,” he says of his time off. “I don’t have a home right now because a tornado took it away. A new home will be ready by the time I get back from tour.”
Snider is a singer-songwriter who has carved a place for himself in music with his poignant lyrics and irreverent humor.
Snider’s music career is long and storied with early ties to Jimmy Buffett and John Prine.
He released his new album “First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder” last year on which he created his own brand of funk inspired by Parliament and James Brown. He wrote a song about the massive vortex of trash that swirls in the Pacific Ocean but also paid tribute to Prine, his musical hero, who died in 2020.
Snider will bring his tour to Albuquerque at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, at the Lobo Theater in Nob Hill.
The journey to “First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder” was a long road due to the pandemic.
For the first time in his decades-long career, Snider was able to spend a chunk of time recording and writing.
“I had my own studio and we’d go down there from about noon to 3 p.m.,” he says. “It was a unique way to make a record for me.”
Snider was used to making records with a deadline, and having the time afforded him the opportunity to try something different when it came to songwriting.
“For me, the writing process was an adventurous thing,” he says. “It was way out there. I had been wanting to do a record like this all my career. There are some very unfolky songs on there. I began to make up words which gave me the excuse to make an odd little album.”
Music has been at the forefront for the now 55-year-old musician.
As he gets older, he takes time to look back at his career.
He released his debut album “Songs for the Daily Planet” in 1994. Since then, 18 more albums.
“Living the life on the road can be extremely difficult,” Snider says. “You miss a lot of holidays and family time. In my 30s, I would drink enough to keep myself going. I don’t do that anymore and try to be present every day.”
