“He Built The Legend”: Turnpike Troubadours Pay Moving Tribute to Todd Snider with Cover of ‘Just Like Old Times’

Some artists are legends. They’re more than a singer, more than a songwriter; they find their way into the highest realms of music, getting there on a road that was entirely their own.

That’s how Todd Snider was. The Oregon native made Nashville his home and had crafted stories full of humour, pain and harsh realities since the nineties, and along the way he built up a loyal group of listeners.

In a month that seemed as much an emotional whirlwind as the rest of Snider’s life, it was reported that the songwriter was the victim of an alleged assault when he was on tour in Utah. Not long after that, he was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and hospitalised for treatment. On November 14th, the Folk Hero passed away at the age of 59, saying goodbye to the world in Nashville, a place where his spirit is felt through the bars, the backyards and the record stores.

It’s not uncommon for Snider to be listed when you ask fellow artists who their inspirations are, he drifted in the same world as John Prine and was led by the guiding words of Kris Kristofferson.

He had a talent for turning normality into a song that stopped the world, even just for three or four minutes; it’s the skill of a troubadour, to take a tale, weave it into a song and make it fit an audience of just about anybody. Being able to throw some humour in the mix too just made his music all that more special. Snider was East Nashville’s Troubadour, and with the legacy he left behind, he always will be.

It can be hard to compare a legend to a contemporary artist, but one band that captures many of the same sentiments that Snider did is the Turnpike Troubadours. In a moving tribute to the songwriter, the Oklahoman band have released a cover of Snider’s ‘Just Like Old Times’ today (November 25th). Accompanied by a music video capturing moving moments in the studio, it's evident that Snider's words have been tangled up in the group's musical world throughout their career.

“I forget how much, especially in the early days, we tried to learn from him. To be like him. Everything from talking on stage to writing a song,” frontman Evan Felker reflects about Snider. “He wrote all kinds of songs. Every genre of music there was. He wrote funny songs. He wrote some of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard. Deeply personal stuff. Random observations, and he made that into art.”

Snider’s 2004 album 'East Nashville Skyline' introduced the alternative side of Music City to the world, and has become an emblem for what the Americana scene stands for. “East Nashville was Todd Snider to us.” Felker reflected, speaking about the band’s first trip to Nashville. “Music Row, Broadway, that’s cool for the tourist. But we wanted to see East Nashville. Todd Snider’s Nashville. He built the legend.”

Some people write their own lives into being, a writer like Snider was well practiced but never lost his creativity. He etched his stories into the streets of Nashville, onto the hearts of his listeners and throughout the paths of future artists - he wrote his way into the company of greats.

“One of the few people where you always felt like he knew something you didn’t. Had something up his sleeve. He preached the idea of being a lifer.” ‘Just Like Old Times’ is a track from Snider’s 2006 album ‘The Devil You Know’, it’s written to be a nostalgic recollection of a couple of characters Snider imagined up. A band like Turnpike - one that is centred about the creation of short stories in their music - choosing to tell that tale again makes perfect sense. Stories are meant to be passed on.

Produced by Shooter Jennings, like their most recent album, Price of Admission, the cover holds onto the charm of the original, while feeling like a song that Turnike could easily fit into a future setlist.

“I don’t know that there’s ever been, or ever will be, anyone better at that [storytelling] than him.” The Turnpike Troubadours’ cover of ‘Just Like Old Times’ is available to stream now.

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