IF YOU GOWhat: Ed Snodderly in concert.When: 8 p.m. Saturday.Where: Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave.Admission: $10.Phone: 624-5347.Website: www.barking legs.org
Ed Snodderly, whose career touchstones making “new hillbilly music” run from songwriting genius to village idiot, will take the stage Saturday at Barking Legs Theater. This time he won’t have to give up the stage for the headliner.
“Ed opened for Missy Raines last fall, won the hearts of our audience, and now he’s back with a full evening of witty tunes and fine guitar picking,” said promoter George Parker in a news release.
Snodderly is a major figure in Americana music. The East Tennessee native is co-founder of The Down Home Pickin’ Parlor, which has presented some of the finest Southern and national artists to Johnson City audiences over three and a half decades.
In the 1990s, he and Eugene Wolf formed the duo known as The Brother Boys, earning critical acclaim for three classic recordings. In addition to Raines, a one-time collaborator with The Brother Boys, his songs have been recorded by John Cowan, Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.
In 2001, Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled its new building, with Snodderly lyrics inscribed into the wall.
Snodderly also has acted for most of his life. His most famous role came in the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou,” in which his unrestrained fiddling took center stage in the character known as the Village Idiot.
He is touring in support of “The Diamond Stream.” This career retrospective features new performances of his best songs from the past, with fellow “O Brother” alumnus and Rising Fawn, Ga., resident Norman Blake accompanying him on two tracks.