Todd Snider is a throwback; an entertainer (as opposed to "artist") whose highest and best use is as a live performer, preferably in a small venue. He's a whip-smart trouper who combines the infallible crowd-reading instincts of a top-flight standup comedian with the brio of old bands like NRQB, A Train and Joe "King" Carrasco and the Crowns. (He's the antithesis of that other barefoot troubadour, the ill-fated Elliot Smith.)
And his show at South on Main on Thursday night, part of the Oxford American's Concert Series, felt much like a theatrical production -- a one-man play featuring Snider in the role of a weedy, self-deprecating character named Todd Snider, a singer-songwriter with a deep reservoir of shoulda-been hits and an uncommon empathy for his ticket-buying public (who probably cherish his song "Beer Run" a bit more than he does).
If you're familiar with Snider -- and why shouldn't you be, he admits to have been touring essentially nonstop for at least 25 years (though I believe I first saw him play at least 30 years ago) -- then you know his deal: Funny, poignant country-pop-rock songs mostly hung on the durable I-IV-V chord structure that has served American rockers since Chuck Berry. His lyrics are intelligent, his politics hippie, and his stage persona that of a cheerful stoner with just a hint of real damage. In other words, he's a national treasure.
And even as he earned the crowd's love with his willingness to indulge them, taking requests and sticking mostly to his most familiar material -- "Ballad of the Kingsmen," "DB Cooper," "Double Wide Blues," "Stuck on the Corner (Prelude to a Heart Attack)," "Alright Guy" -- he also impressed with his vocal chops, which aren't always evident on his records. (He broke out a Ray Charles-like growl on "Play a Train Song" and the Randy Newmanesque "Carla.")
Accompanied by his black Epiphone acoustic and racked harmonica, he held the crowd in thrall. Granted, most of them were already partisans. But if any of them had dragged any reluctant friends to the show he likely convinced them, too.
Metro on 01/05/2018