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Last week, the world lost a funny and brilliant singer-songwriter named Todd Snider<\/strong>. He was 59 years old. <\/p>\n For the past week as I logged onto the social media, I found an overwhelming wealth of articles, memories and stories shared by a lot of folks that were deeply inspired by this man. Todd Snider was certainly prolific, \u2028\u2028For those that explored the world of Todd Snider, it was universally acknowledged (by anyone paying attention) that this man was truly a master storyteller. Brad Beheler<\/strong> noted this on galleywinter.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u2028\u201cTodd was as beloved for the tales as he was for the tunes. He could spin a story sharper than a knife and usually twice as funny. His intonation had a hint of (Robert Earle) Keen<\/strong>, his rambling owed a debt to Jerry Jeff (Walker)<\/strong>, and his whole \u2018I can’t believe this absurd shit either\u2019 vibe owed something to (John) Prine.<\/strong>\u201d \u2028<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Todd’s stories were at his best, he was as funny and engaging as any of those folks. With the added bonus that he would then sing a song that tied a button on the punchlines from the story. It was a truly incredible trick. One that he pulled off better than anyone else. Even his heroes.\u201d\u2028<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I loved the way Todd would prepare his audience with his \u201ceighteen minute speech\u201d (which was usually less than two minutes):\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n \u201cI wanna let you know that I also might share some of my opinions with you over the course of the evening. I’m not gonna share them with you ’cause I think they’re smart or because I think you need to know ’em, I’m gonna share ’em with you because the rhyme. I didn’t come down here to change any of y’all’s minds about anything, I come down here to ease my own mind about everything. It works every time.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n