Better just ride the mule
Grab my hat and a way I’ll go
Better just ride the mule
Get a little further on down the road
Better just ride that mule
I know where I'm going to
Come on gitty-up Bessie
We’ll ride on through
Yes we will...
Latest release: Chimney Smoke
Released 7.21.23 on You Need To Know Records
Produced by R.S. Field and recorded and mixed by Bil VornDick. Featuring guitarist Kenny Vaughn, Shawn Camp, Steve Conn, Chris Scruggs, John Gardner, Gary Smith and Steve Hinson and vocalists contributions by Amythyst Kiah, Malcolm Holcombe, Gretchen Peters, Maura O'Connell and Eugene Wolf. Early reviews suggest this is his best work to date. Buy album →
Ed Snodderly is a songwriter, singer and guitar picker, following in the footsteps of songsters as varied as A. P. Carter to Riley Puckett to Ray Davies. His songs beat with a strong sense of place and the heart of them is a fresh, creative twist to the listener’s ear. Combining outstanding musicianship with storytelling, the performances feel familiar, yet enlightening; like old ropes that pull the bells to ring. “The charts call it Folk/Americana. I feel it as American Southern music; could be New Hillbilly.”
His upbringing was in the mountains of East Tennessee, where roads twist and the valleys open to the four-lanes rolling all the way to Nashville. Ed’s lyrics feel like a cross-pollination with those old mountain roads, radio station songs, and voices on small-town street corners. ”I consider some of my songs a giving-back to my culture. I appreciate the being raised in and the being part of a special place and time. I stay inspired to write and sing my views to this modern world.”
In 2020 Ed was awarded a lifetime achievement award, presented to him from SERFA (Southeastern Region of Folk Alliance) for his contributions to southern folk music.
The third verse in his song, “The Diamond Stream”, is permanently displayed in the rotunda on the wall in the Hall Of Honor at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.
It reads…
“So take down your box and bow
And play the strings
Whisper up your own travelin’ tune
Listen to the sound that the water makes
In the Diamond Stream
The Diamond Stream”.
Ed is co-founder of The Down Home, a world renowned music venue in Johnson City, Tennessee, which opened its door in 1976.
You’ve most likely have seen him on the silver screen as the Village Idiot in the Coen Brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Missy Raines (Basket of Singing Birds, Magnolia), Sam Bush (Majestic), Jerry Douglas (Pearlie Mae), John Cowan (Working in the New Mine),The Brother Boys have all recorded Ed’s songs. His records have been released on such notable record labels as:
Philo, Zu-Zazz, Sugar Hill and Bear Family Records. (2023)
Chimney Smoke (Summer 2023)
Record Shop 2017
Little Egypt And Other Attractions 2011
Brier Visions 2004
The Brother Boys 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996. 2022
Sweet Light 1982
Sidewalk Shoes 1977
"Ed is carving himself a niche for his own genre of Appalachian music and prose.” — Jerry Douglas
Tour
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"Ed - you got it all. There is no way to adequately tell you how much I have enjoyed my many listens to Chimney Smoke. Your song "Jump Dance South" makes me not like you... that's a compliment". — Tony Arata
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"...his songs are evocative and original" — Alana Nash