If Tomorrow Never Comes

 Todd Snider wrote some touching lines, some biting, funny, and sad lines.  Sometimes they were all one line.  Don't believe me?  Check out "Sunshine".  He toured relentlessly, and came to and within driving range of Ithaca many times in his 30-year career.  I never regretted going to a show, listening to a tape or cd, or watching a show or video.  Still don't, I've watched a shit-ton just writing this blogpost and looking for stuff to link to in it.  But now it's all a melancholy trip down memory lane , because as he wrote, "Ive learned nothing but that there is another sunrise coming.  All but one of the times it sets"

  A particularly special show for me was his appearance at GrassRoots in 2019.  I'd been lobbying the music director at the Heron, David Tidquist, for years to book Todd as I felt it was the perfect gig for him, but it never happened.  GrassRoots was good enough. 

  Pat came with a buddy from Buffalo, Jason came from Rochester, and a guy who looked just like our brother/Jason's dad materialized from somewhere.  While we were standing around waiting for the set, we saw Todd and his manager, Brian, on the track, and like I often do when I'm talking, I took one of his lines and said, "Hey, let's go hassle him."  We had a good, long chat and then he did his set. 

  Pat and Bobby ran into him after the set and got a picture.

  John thinned down for this show.  He was back to his full weight when he came back to Ithaca for a show at the Hangar.  Jason made it back for that one too and managed to get blacklisted by Air BNB.  Those kinds of things happen after a Todd show.

The Burmese boys were into it as well, though I'm not sure what Eh Soe was listening to on his earbuds.  I insisted they go since I got a couple of them their wristbands.  They said they could relate to his songs, and the fact that he swore a lot helped.

  

As happens quite often at the Grandstand, the sound was a problem, but we were up front and his monitors were working fine so he kept playing until enough people farther back demanded they fix it.  It gave him a chance to mention that as long as the show is good for him, that's all that he really cares about.  They got the sound right for everyone and I bought this poster that's still displayed on our freezer door:

 

  Monday morning after GrassRoots is a tough time, but the dog still needs to be walked.  I had a suspicion (hope?) that the bus would be parked downtown as they had three days off on their schedule.  At the merch table after the set, I offered my services as a guide since I knew Todd and a couple of the entourage were avid walkers.  I located the bus before 7 AM.  I got distracted while leaving a note and gave him a name change.  If you haven't heard the story from me why Todd Snider Rules, then give it a listen from him:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMOhaJ3zst8

  An entire show from 2009 was posted upon his death.  It's already a favorite as it's professionally done for a community TV station in Colorado, coincidentally named GrassRoots (20 years before the festival of the same name in T-burg started).  In addition to the full show, there are pieces of an interview they did with him (and lots of commercials- it's community TV):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL6r9REITo8 

Founded by citizens of Aspen, Colorado in 1972, GrassRoots TV is the first and oldest community operated and programmed open-source media center and television station in the United States. Virtually all of the programming is created by local residents, occasionally with world renown guests. 

  He came back to town one more time after the pandemic and played the Hangar.  That was the last time he made it within 200 miles of Ithaca.  He had to take a couple years off from his version of the Never Ending Tour due to health complications that included two surgeries.  Thankfully, he recorded a few more shows from the Purple Building, put out a couple cds, and recorded each of his previous cds with stories about how they were originally recorded.  Then he made them all available for free download and on youtube.  The Purple Building is where he broadcast every Sunday during the pandemic and the regular listeners started calling him the preacher for our Sunday services.  It became a thing and the title of his next cd "First Agnostic Church of Hope and Wonder," where we hope there's another day and we wonder, what the fuck?  All those shows are still posted on youtube.  I recommend them all, but for something truly unique, the tributes he did after two of his mentors,  John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker, died are fantastic.  I hope to make a pilgrimage there someday, I wish I'd done it before his death.  

  

Jason got there, but no one was around.  

  His death has really rocked me and a wide swath of the music world.  A few tributes have been written and posted with many more to come.  Now that I'm a semi-regular dj on WVBR's Salt Creek Show, I was able to go to the studio the day after hearing he died and played a couple sets of songs and told some stories.  I'll keep doing that whenever I host the the show.  Someone who toured with him, Otis Gibbs, has several interviews with him and some kind words that fill some of the void.  There are a few videos from the last show, the only one he did before cancelling the rest of the tour. 

  

  While I was on the radio on East Hill in Ithaca, this is how the sky looked in Trumansburg.  The County Fairgrounds, home of GrassRoots, is near the north end of the rainbow.
 

  Todd didn't just write and cover great songs, he wrote stories, some that he told between songs for 18 minutes, and some he included in a book called I Never Met a Story I Didn't Like.  Please return my copy if you have it (same goes for the cd Happy to be Here).  When the Village Voice was commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dylan coming to NY, they had Todd write an article that I read every six months or so.  In the article, he mentions this analogy about Dylan fans.  I think it's safe to say it about Todd fans too:

   

  There are so many lines from his songs and stories that make it into my daily conversation, "sorry coach" comes to mind often.  The kids at school often remind me it's too late for me to die young, but when someone my age goes it's a tough reminder it's still possible to die too soon.  With Todd, we probably got so much more than we deserved.  By his own admission, he could have gone decades ago, before the 20-some albums, the Purple Building shows and all the rest.  This two-part video of a young man who indulged in some dangerous substances is a reminder of how lucky we were to have him survive and thrive as long as he did: Part 1 and Part 2.  Some of his rough times led to covering songs that were a reminder to keep looking for the light.  Al Bunetta, John Prine's longtime manager and mentor to Todd, walked around the studio during a recording session singing "Enjoy Yourself" as a warning for where he might be headed.  Another time, he was trying to write a song about how people in the music business can fall down a hole and not come up.  He eventually gave up on writing a new song and just recorded Fred Eaglesmith's "Alcohol and Pills."

  I was fortunate to get on this bandwagon in the mid-90s, right after his first album came out.  I hope you get to appreciate it too.

 Todd Snider October 11, 1966- November 14, 2025

   Not Todd Snider, but posted by the AP and picked up by every website (including Fox "News") that carried a story about his injury, arrest and death two weeks later.  Todd would have told a great story about this, but this time, we have to write it ourselves.

 

Water Water

   

I was walking home one day and noticed some water flowing down the street.  It wasn't raining.

It was a lot of water.

  It was coming out of the street.  A state highway just a block from downtown.  I helped build that stone wall, it's fine but should have more gravel behind it before it gets pushed over anymore.

The street was repaved not too long ago.  The water line was definitely from way back in the last century.

 Fortunately, it didn't interfere with my plan to clean up the garbage under the bridge, and I figured if I put the bags next to the broken pipe they would get picked up.  They did eventually.  The pipe and road were repaired eventually too, but not before much of a few weeks worth of traffic was diverted from a state highway past our house.

    A few days later, it rained enough to end the drought.  Since it's necessary to walk down the creek bed to get below the bridge, it's helpful to do it when the water level is low.  This was the lowest I've ever experienced.
 

Best In Show

 

  

  Gail and Roxy have taken to Agility like a dog to a carcass.  They come home from every event with so many ribbons our fridge has as many blue ribbons on the outside as inside.  They've were actively recruited at the first event to be on teams.  I think they'll be representing their district in no time.

   Second fastest time.  It goes so fast, it's hard to see the violation that got her disqualified.

  And a blue-ribbon dinner too.  Typical.

 

Gail went out to California to visit family, and imagine new agility courses utilizing the big trees out there.

 Roxy put up with me and the lame walks I took her on.  At least she got to jump onto the occasional wall. 

 

Goings on at IHS

 

 

  I really love teaching.  How else would I get to ask questions that lead to answers I hear that sounds like this?  And where else would I get to wait patiently to see how long it takes someone to notice what I write?  My job is like getting paid to be an ass.

  

  Since I never saw the value of getting my certification, I don't even make enough to register on this chart showing how ICSD teachers are going to be leaving other educators in our region behind if we accept working more hours.

 Awww.  Unplanned outfits meet up in the hall.

   Lauren and I did no planning for our outfits, or the class we taught on Halloween.  We're sure the kids learned a thing or two.

  

Way back in 2012, I stood in this very spot wearing roughly the same outfit (same banjo anyway).  A ninth grader stopped in her tracks and said she'd always wanted to play banjo.  That's how I got to teach something worthwhile.

   Mo went on to attend UB and became a Bills fan.  Now she lives in Atlanta and attended her first pro football game and learned the lesson all Bills fans get at some point: They lose a lot of games they should have won.

  The next banjo student?  Jeanna's mother went to a psychic at some point and was told she'd have a daughter that played banjo.  Who am I to deny fate?

   Nano and Will Mu haven't taken up the banjo, yet, but they still drop by and visit once in a while.

Fall's Nearly Finished

  The drought is over, and the leaves finally changed colors.  I'm not sure how they were affected by the dryness, or by the unusually wet spring, but we got some fine displays of pigment.

 

 

A new building at Cornell provided a backdrop to a tree that used to shade the outfield for the baseball team.

 

I used to work for Joan Sears at this house.  These decorations are not left over from her time there.

 

A bush that survived the restoration of McGraw Tower at Cornell.  They have planted the other beds that were the location of the scaffolding.

  

Out in Caroline, the leaves came down a couple weeks ahead of the city.  We made more progress on extending the rail trail beyond Banks Road.

 

I got to the 30' Reservoir for peak color, but couldn't stay long enough to get better light on the trees.  Maybe next year.

 

Ithaca Falls as the color came on and the rains returned.

 

Six Mile Creek from the pedestrian bridge.  I'm fortunate to just about get a daily view of this.

 

Beebe Lake always has a few spectacular-light mornings in the fall.  Not quite on my way to work, but not too far out of the way either.

Sometimes I even have time to go around it.

 And a regular visit up McGraw Tower for a chimes concert is worth the effort and time.