TRAGIC

Alt-Country Singer Dies at 59

The musician was previously hospitalized after suffering from a “violent assault.”

Todd Snider, an alt-country singer-songwriter who led the Americana music scene, has died. He was 59. Snider’s record label announced his death, which occurred on Friday in a post across his social media accounts, just weeks after he had “sustained severe injuries as the victim of a violent assault outside of his hotel.” “Aimless, Inc. Headquarters is heartbroken to share that our Founder, our Folk Hero, our Poet of the World, our Vice President of the Abrupt Change Dept., the Storyteller, our beloved Todd Daniel Snider has departed this world,” the Saturday statement read. The alleged Salt Lake City assault, which was reported by his team on Nov. 3, led to the cancellation of several tour dates. Earlier this month, Snider was arrested in Salt Lake City on charges of disorderly conduct, threat of violence, and trespassing. On Friday, Snider’s team updated fans, saying he had been hospitalized in Tennessee with “an undiagnosed case of walking pneumonia.” Snider, an Oregon native, moved to Nashville in the 1990s and studied under singer-songwriter legends such as Jimmy Buffett and Billy Joe Shaver. His 2004 album, East Nashville Skyline, became pivotal in the development of alt-country and Americana music.