Ed Snodderly is a songwriter, singer and guitar picker, following in the footsteps of songsters as distinct as A. P. Carter , Gordon Lightfoot, Ray Davies. The songs carry a strong sense of place and the heart of them there in are distinctly Ed’s voice. Good food so to speak to a creative listener’s ear. A combined use of outstanding musicianship with storytelling, his performances might feel familiar but soon you’ll figure out he’s a particular communicator of style that embodies a lifetime of influence and pure originality.

“The charts call it Folk/Americana. I feel it as American Southern music; could be New Hillbilly.”

His upbringing is in the city and country of and around 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 of musics that sing with soul of old mountain roads, radio songs, to voices on street corners.

“I appreciate the being raised in and the being part of a special place and time like I am. I stay on some path to write and sing my views of this modern old 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. 2026 Ed is receiving the inaugural Hermitage Roots and Rhythms Legacy Award for his pioneering work and non-stop performance and proliferation of Bluegrass and Appalachian 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