CRITIC'S CHOICE

Todd Snider, Friday, January 13, at the Bluebird Theater, Saturday, January 14, at the Fox Theatre, and Sunday, January 15, at the Boulder Theater for a taping of E-Town, stands out from the vast majority of young singer-songwriters for an exceedingly uncomplicated reason--he's funny. Not that he's a slacker version of "Weird" Al Yankovic: He knows the value of a good joke, but he isn't one. As is clear from his debut album on MCA, Songs for the Daily Planet, Snider is a sharp-eyed cultural observer with the ability to tell us things we already know in ways that make them seem both prescient and amusing. He may not be Randy Newman or John Prine yet, but he's talented enough to be mentioned in the same sentence with them. For those of you who aren't certain, that's a very large compliment.