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MP3 Merlin Snider - Right Here
12 MP3 Songs in this album (55:08) !
Related styles: FOLK: Folk Blues, COUNTRY: Alt-Country
People who are interested in Neil Young John Prine Steve Goodman should consider this download.
Details:
Merlin Snider is a singer, songwriter, and acoustic guitar player in the Americana story-telling tradition. His music is a fresh stew of folk-blues, western swing, alternative country and folk-rock. His probing and witty lyrics have prompted award-winning songwriter Mary Coppin to call him a “folk genius.” Jo Anne Montana said he is “my newest favorite folksinger—a Woody Guthrie for the 21st century.” Others have compared him to Neil Young, John Prine, and Steve Goodman.
Snider’s first CD, “Between” (Barking Dog 1999) revealed a distinctive voice, wry and evocative story-telling, and what the Ventura County Star called “a good amount of wicked humor.” The Pasadena Weekly reported that “Between,“ notable for its skillful guitar work and beautifully spare production has garnered both critical acclaim and radio airplay across the United States and Europe.”
John McLaughlin of ESU Radio, Pennsylvania, said, “The writing is acute, the playing is sharp. “Between” is high quality across the board.” David Weide, KUNV, Las Vegas, named Snider’s song, “Hello Jesus” among the best songs of 2000.
Pre-release reports on the new album, “Right Here,” are very positive. Award winning composer and long time bassist for Weird Al Yankovic, Stephen Jay, has said – "Amazing arrangements, I love it. The record bleeds love . . . A great album and a beautiful gift from Merlin to the world."
Born in Joliet, Illinois, in 1953, the youngest of five sons, Merlin moved from the Midwest to Southern California with his family at an early age. His father, Allan G. Snider, was a Pentecostal preacher, a Ph.D. in sociology, and a homebuilder in his spare time. Merlin’s mother, Rhoda M. Snider, was an accomplished musician, skilled on piano, organ, and piano accordion. She led the church orchestra and choir and was intent on getting the hands of all five of her sons wrapped around one musical instrument or another at any early age.
Merlin started on the piano, repeatedly abandoning it for a basketball or football, then picked up the trumpet, and then in high school dropped that and all else for the acoustic guitar and harmonica. He began writing songs as soon as he knew three chords.
The teenager became intoxicated with the vibrating strings, pressing his ear to the side of the guitar’s body, not able to get close enough to that sound. He taught himself to play in time by repeating chord changes over and over, hours on end, until he would he would lay down on his back, still playing, falling asleep with the guitar on his chest.
Snider’s early music was rooted in the church. Later it grew into the world beyond, venturing into broader themes both earthy and universally spiritual.
This is a folksinger with an MA in theology and a Ph.D. in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, (1988). His dissertation was titled, Morals and Irreligion: Kurt Vonnegut as Social Ethicist.
All this education, the artist stubbornly believes, has made him a better songwriter. In the middle of it all Merlin wrote his talking blues, “Learn, Learn, Learn,” a satiric take on higher education that won honorable mention in the American Songwriting Festival.
The release of Merlin’s 1999 debut album, “Between” uncorked on the wider world Snider’s unique writing style, including distinctive melodies and chord arrangements, wry and evocative story-telling, and what the Ventura County Star called “a good amount of wicked humor.”
Folk Roots magazine wrote, “In a world filled with vanity releases of the solo, self-financed variety, it’s a relief to stumble across a songwriter that is a little contrary to ordinary,” and noted songs that provide “evidence of a thoughtful mind at work.”
Early reports on “Right Here” from listeners around the United States are starting to roll in. Like this one from Whidbey Island, Washington:
As I type I am on my second run of listening to "Right Here" which I found in the mail this morning...OUT OF SIGHT, GREAT, CLASSIC MERLIN!!! (And . . . I still get Phil Ochs coming through now and then.) Thank you. Well worth waiting for, though the next CD would be appreciated sooner!!!
Merlin and Deborah Snider reside in Ventura County, California in one of the houses the songwriter built while avoiding the recording studio.
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