todd snider- great show at the hockhocking folk fest

Todd Snider put on a great show at the opening night of the Hockhocking Folk Festival last evening. The two lead up acts were talented and solid. Todd came out, ready for the chilling weather, but ready to capivate the audience; it seemed a pretty familiar crowd; with two previous shows in Nelsonville in the past two years or so. He wove in some old songs, no long stories but some good short ones, that were hilarious as usual, and give a glimpse into his songwriting genius. Many slower, of the more poignant type songs, too- great for the appreciative audience in the beautiful spring night air. Played a decent length set for a festival- and suffered through the usual crazily wide range of shout-out requests from the audience- and played a few of the requests in the course of the evening- long year, play a train song, db cooper. Finished up with a sing along of "enjoy yourself..." A haunting memory that will stick with me from this show, was during "play a train song" this fairly big fellow was doing an interpretative dance right up by the corner of the stage, making the chugging motions of a train throughout the song. Spooky. But its a charming example of the impact a great musician/ songwriter can have on his fans over time; with a incredibly rich body of work. I had never heard the explanation about 45 miles before; and it was eerie how "my generation" had gotten lost in my memory until he told the story about sitting in the Daily Planet and the summer of 69 reminiscing in the summer of 89; where have all the hippies gone? PUtting the two "rock trivia" songs back to back was a nice touch- the ballad of the kingsman and thin wild mercury...........
Unbelievably cold evening for May- but Todd gave a glow of warmth to the audience- fun to think of him going on to Madison Indiana tonight- moving on down the ohio river- hope Beth can take in that show.