Emailing With Todd Snider: Remembering the Late Singer

In 2007, I was reporting a story about various music scenes in Nashville, and I figured I should interview Todd Snider . The singer-songwriter was, after all, a resident of and evangelist for East Nashville, Music City’s bohemian enclave. Snider had even named an album after the neighborhood, 2004’s East Nashville Skyline. I loved that one, as well as the Snider album that came after it, 2006’s The Devil You Know — loved Snider’s sly humor, the intelligence behind his stoner drawl, his feel for working folks and down-and-out characters. The details in his story-songs would roll around my head — like in “Play a Train Song,” a raggedly anthemic tribute to East Nashville legend Skip Litz, or “The Ballad of the Kingsmen,” a droll portrait of the “Louie Louie” band with some sociopoli