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Big Weekend Shows At Stuart’s
< < Back toUPDATE: The Oct. 17 Todd Snider show has sold out. Standing room-only tickets are still available for Richard Thompson on Oct. 19.
Todd Snider
Stuart's Opera House is set to deliver a one-two punch this weekend with shows featuring "America's sharpest musical storyteller" and one of Rolling Stone's "Top 20 guitarists of all time."
Todd Snider will perform on Friday, followed by Richard Thompson on Sunday, and seats are filling up fast.
One of roots music's slyest, sharpest singer-songwriters, Todd Snider inhabits fictional characters with humor and imagination. The folk-Americana-alt-country artist creates vividly detailed, thoroughly memorable compositions—but provocative lyrics are only part of the story.
The rest is in the delivery: deliciously skewed punch lines, red-blooded melodic hooks, shambling grooves and a slacker-next-door delivery that makes clear this guy doesn't have a self-righteous bone in his body.
Snider's most recent album was 2012’s Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables, which Rolling Stone named one of that year’s top 50 albums, saying "One of the sharpest, funniest storytellers in rock, Snider keeps the indictments coming."
Deeply in tune with the America’s contemporary rock and country traditions, Snider has also recorded considerable cover material, such as the tribute album Time As We Know It: The Songs of Jerry Jeff Walker, an homage to the Texas musician who first inspired him to perform as a singer-songwriter.
In 2013, Snider formed the rock supergroup Hard Working Americans with Dave Schools, Neal Casal, Chad Staehly and Duane Trucks, and released a self-titled album featuring covers of songs of contemporaries such as Gillian Welch, the Bottle Rockets, Randy Newman and others.
Earlier this year, Snider released the book I Never Met a Story I Didn't Like, running the gamut from personal memoir to shaggy-dog comedy to rueful memories of his troubles and triumphs with drugs and alcohol to sharp-eyed observations from years on the road.
Tulsa singer-songwriter Jesse Aycock will open the show at 8 p.m. Visit www.stuartsoperahouse.org for information.
The legendary Richard Thompson returns to Stuart's for a solo acoustic show on Sunday at 8 p.m. Named by Rolling Stone as one of the Top 20 Guitarists of All Time, Thompson is also a critically acclaimed and prolific songwriter.
Having co-founded the groundbreaking group Fairport Convention as a teenager in the 1960s, Thompson and his mates virtually invented British folk rock. By the age of 21, he left the band to pursue his own career, followed by a decade-long musical partnership with his then-wife Linda and more than 30 years as a highly successful solo artist.
Thompson has received Lifetime Achievement Awards for songwriting on both sides of the Atlantic, from the Americana Music Association in Nashville to Britain’s BBC Awards and the prestigious Ivor Novello. In 2011, Thompson was the recipient of the OBE (Order of the British Empire) personally bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Most recently, the Americana Music Honors & Awards nominated him for Artist of the Year.
A wide range of musicians have recorded Thompson’s music, including Robert Plant, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Del McCoury, Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, David Byrne, Don Henley and many others. Thompson’s massive body of work includes over 40 albums, many Grammy nominations and numerous soundtracks, including Werner Hertzog’s Grizzy Man.
Texas musician Amanda Shires will open the show. A number of standing-room-only tickets are still available. Call 740-753-1924 or visit www.stuartsoperahouse.org for information.
Richard Thompson