Biography Adam Snyder

It was the Summer of 2003 and the power had gone out for the third time that season. Adam Snyder had been in Europe the last couple of years, promoting his first solo album. Now he was back in Kingston and his hometown was, literally, dark.

Walking the eerily quiet streets at night, Adam could almost imagine it was 100 years earlier. Up from the waterfront through the twisted alleyways, the old moonlit buildings and busted up sidewalks seemed to echo with the voices of those who had come and gone long before. These ghostly sensations would follow Adam back up the hill to his own, darkened, 19th century house, where he’d light a candle and pick up his guitar.

Eventually the electricity problem was sorted out and the neighborhood blackouts became less frequent, but the spirit of those dark, nocturnal rambles remained, and This Town Will Get Its Due was born.

Adam had moved with his family up to Kingston from New York City in the early 70s when he was a boy. He’d spent his youth wandering the streets which are famed for their colonial houses but which also maintained the spirits of other time periods, such as The Great Depression.

Like a lot of people, Adam cut out of his hometown the first chance he got and spent the rest of his teens and twenties living all over the place. From New York City to London, from Seattle to the midwest, Adam played music constantly.

Then in the mid 90s, through some strange twist of fate, an indie band called Mercury Rev found their way from Buffalo to Kingston. Adam, home visiting his family, found himself connecting with them. Before he knew it, he had joined the band and was touring the world.

The band was in a period of transformation and Adam found himself a key player in the recording of a new kind of album for Mercury Rev called Deserters’ Songs. The album did not seem like it would find a place in the musical landscape of the time. What happened surprised everyone. The album went gold abroad and the band suddenly found themselves achieving success.

Some thought him impulsive, but after 5 years Adam decided he wanted to try something different. All along he had continued to write narrative songs based on his own life experiences, songs sung plainly with not much back-up other than his own guitar.

In 2000 he came to Mike Scott’s attention and was asked to open up for the Waterboys on an extensive tour throughout Europe. Then in 2001, he signed to David Gray’s HTI label out of the UK and spent that summer in London arranging his songs and recording Across The Pond.

Across The Pond was an immediate critical success overseas and its first single, Two Moons, was scooped up by the BBC and found its way to the top 40 in the UK. Adam continued to tour abroad for some time, particularly around Ireland and the UK.

One result of having signed to a UK label was that the attention Adam enjoyed overseas was something that barely made it back to his native country, despite his alt.country sound being an obvious fit.

This Town Will Get Its Due has various sonic influences, from the alt.county sounds of the first album, to what Adam calls “symphonic Americana.” Thematically, this is not an album that shys away from tackling difficult issues or dark emotions. But it is also an album with love songs and one that is incredibly hopeful for the future.

The predominant story is that of a small city trying to find its place in 21st century America. Adam readily admits that the town’s story and his own story do seem to have a few things in common.

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