Step Right Up (MCA)
On his second album, Step Right Up, Snider manages to cover as much
ground as Beck.In the latter’s line of work, though, it’s known as
“sampling”; among those of Snider’s ilk it’s usually called “ripping off.” But
he’s no lightfinger. Snider can be as folky and pointed as Dylan, as anthemic
as Springsteen and Neil Young, as outlaw as Steve Earle, Travis Tritt, and Hank
Jr., (and more Nashville-minded than either Tim McGraw or whoever that Rhett
Akins guy is), and as rock & roll as the Black Crowes, Uncle Tupelo, and
the Stones themselves — if he’s a mind to. If he is, he squashes whatever
Refreshments and Jayhawks are on the road. He can also be as earnest as Tom
Petty on a bad day, wincingly witty like the Reverend Horton Heat, and as
downright cloying and toss-your-locks-in-the-air as the Gin Blossoms. He’s not
shy about being an honorary Texan, either — not that he should be, because
he’s good at it. He owes a certain debt to Austin’s influence, but here again
he shows off what he’s best at: When he’s getting as gone as Robert Earl Keen
with his twister of a band the Nervous Wrecks, or is as wickedly precise as
Alejandro Escovedo in some of his axework and riff-writing, Snider is just
being himself. When you think about who’s out there these days, that’s way more
than enough.
HHH — Christopher Gray
This article appears in August 30 • 1996 and August 30 • 1996 (Cover).