Live: Return of the Storyteller – his third live album and nineteenth overall - plays like a masterclass by one man with a guitar and a freewheeling imagination. Threading his husky-voiced phrasing through a likable cosmic cowboy manner, he invites you on a tour of tunes humorous (“Big Finish,†and the have-meets- have-not “In Between Jobsâ€), Proustian (“Play a Train Song,†“Too Soon To Tell,†and the lump-in-the-throat snapshot of John Prine on “Handsome Johnâ€) and heart-worn (“Like a Force of Nature,†“The Very Last Time,†“Roman Candlesâ€). As the fifteen-song set unfolds, you can feel a tangible bond building between Snider and his fans.
While the album captures what Snider laughingly calls his “second tour - because I went out on the road in '94 and never went home until the pandemic†- it acts as both a summing up of a thirty-year career and a look ahead.
