BJ Snowden to Play Sappyfest

Sappyfest has confirmed the addition of outsider music legend B.J. Snowden to the 2010 lineup. Snowden, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, was discovered in a record store in New York’s East Village when the staff pulled her tape out of a bargain bag and threw in on the stereo on a whim.

Snowden’s bio reports that the B-52’s Fred Schneider was in the store and immediately gave her a ringing endorsement. She released an album, BJ Snowden: Life in the USA and Canada and has since toured all over the place (accompanied by her son, Andreas and “chauffered by her starlet of a mother.”)

From a brief perusal, her music seems to fall from the same tree as David Liebehart or the immortal Jan Terri – sincere, unpolished, a little crazy and complete inimitable.

Here’s her tribute to Canada. I will admit that I was completely ignorant of this woman’s existence before this announcement, and now I think I’m pretty much in love with her.

This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2010.