Pat's Peeps Podcast

Ep. 362 Today's Peep Enjoys a Cozy Night with a Warm Fire, Split Pea Soup and Pies Made from Scratch, New Music from Johnny Quality, NFL Takes, and Say Goodbye to Beloved Songwriter and Artist Todd Snider Who's An Alright Guy

• Pat Walsh

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Rain on the glass, fire in the stove, and a brand-new song hitting the headphones for the very first time. That’s where we begin—a cozy Northern California night that quickly swells into a music-first journey, a kitchen tale, a sports rollercoaster, and a heartfelt goodbye to a songwriter who meant more than a chorus or two could hold.

We kick off with local love for Rock and Soul Diner’s two-for-one dinner deal and then spin straight into a cold premiere of Johnny Quality’s Sweet Jesus. No pre-listen, no notes—just raw, gritty textures that echo Tom Waits and dark-country grit. The track unfolds like a neon-lit back road, and we talk about how a song’s pulse can slow the room down until you can finally hear yourself think. Between sips of split pea soup (with a soft asparagus twist) and a brown-butter pie story, we dig into why cooking from scratch feels a lot like good radio: it takes time, intention, and the courage to share the result.

From there, the mood shifts to the weekend’s NFL beats: Rams bringing heat that forces mistakes, Niners steady over the Cardinals, and the eternal tug-of-war among family fandoms—Vikings, Bears, Rams, and Niners all claiming a corner of the living room. We pull the lens back from blame to the trenches, where pass rush and protection write the truth most box scores miss. A quick nod to Herb Alpert and a charming archival drop from Rick Moranis on the intimate cadence of FM DJs bridge us into the night’s heaviest moment.

Todd Snider’s passing lands hard. We remember the wit, the roadside wisdom, and the vulnerability inside songs like Alright Guy, and we trace his path through alt-country circles, Oh Boy Records, and festival stages that still hum with his stories. We share what made his writing feel like a friend you could count on—honest, funny, a little bruised, and always trying. The episode closes where his music lives best: out under festival lights, among people who listen with their whole hearts.

If this mix of first listens, kitchen warmth, sports perspective, and a sincere tribute resonates with you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Your notes and stories keep the fire going.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Pat's Peeps Podcast, number 362. Yeah, it's been a it's been a couple of days only because I had business to deal with on Friday. It's good business, by the way. Speaking of Pat's Peeps, it was very good business. Appreciate you listening to my podcast. My name is Pat Walsh, also the host of the Pat Walsh Show on Radio KFPK News Radio 93.1 FM at 15.30 a.m. 7 to 10 p.m. Sacramento. Thank you for listening to my radio show as well. I hope you've had a great weekend today. It's a Monday. Taking a look out my studio window into the beautiful foothills of Northern California where the sun's peeking out right now. It's been cloudy all day, rainy. It's been it's rained the last couple of days, and uh just really enjoying the weather. So this on this day, this being a Monday, uh I've got the for the first time this year, just because it was a little, you know, it wasn't necessary, it's not necessarily cold. It is just that it's uh it's just the right time. So I have my first fire going in my wood stove right now. I'm sitting all nestled up right next to the fire, cozy. I've got split peas soup, homemade split peas soup going in the crock pot right now. So this is gonna be one of those kind of nights. Wherever you are, thank you for listening. I sure again, I sure appreciate it. Hey, by the way, can I just say, you know, oh thank you to many of you who went over to Rock and Soul Diner. Yes, Rock and Soul Diner. I heard from many of you uh who went over there this weekend, some of you going to see Herb Alpert. And thank you for stopping over. Because remember, Rock and Soul Diner, R O C and S O L in downtown Sacramento is going to give you two for one dinners. Again, please, I'm underlining and emphasizing dinner, not breakfast or lunch, even though they have spectacular breakfast and lunch. But if you go for dinner, because they like the dinner. I say we flood the place with a Pat's Peeps. For those of you listening, please, I implore you, go to go to Rockin' Soul Diner. All you have to do, literally say Pat, Pat's Peeps, that's it. You get two for one dinner. I mean, you really can't beat that. You're looking for a way to beat the budget, there's a way right there. And plus, Matt, great guy, the owner, so tell him Pat sent you. Just say Pat's Peeps, and you get yours you get you two for one there, okay? Okie doke. So let's see. But that's a good start to the day. And the geese just flew overhead. I was trying to start the show so you can hear the geese flying overhead. If you go back and listen right before the beginning of the song to start the show, you can hear the geese. I'm so happy I got new music from my buddy Sean. Johnny Quality. He's got a new song called Sweet Jesus. Tell you what, this guy's becoming my favorite artist. I'm not kidding. Okay, this is a song. Let's see if we can listen to this together. I have not listened to this. I can tell you this much though. Sean Moody, who again does my intro music, just again, it's this. John Equality. Not John Equality, it's Johnny Quality. Just to clarify. So this song is called Sweet Jesus, and he always releases this new music to me first, which I am honored. I mean, this guy, Johnny quality, is quality. The guy made a movie a few years ago starring his kids. It was a Western. And I'll tell you what, it was the best western I've seen in a long time. Insert hotel jokes right there. Anyhow, that never mind. But um, the best western that I've seen in a while. What's it called? Bang bang? Something like that. Let's take a listen. Again, we're gonna hear this for the first time together, so.

SPEAKER_06:

Little grass licking in the sun. When this flat is lead. I gave my terrorist. God knows the drugs. Just one more time. It's the one. Just one last breath. Let me know I'm still alive. Read to me.

SPEAKER_07:

All switches go down on me. Go down on me.

SPEAKER_01:

I wonder if I can get a hold of him right now. I wonder if he'll answer. Let me see if he'll answer. Hey now, your call's very important to us. I'm gonna tell him how good this song is. Johnny quality, you're on my podcast. I was hoping I'd catch you at home. Hey, brother. Just listen to your song. Just put it on my podcast. Let me know if that's cool, because it's bad. Hey. Love it. Talk to you. Anyhow. So there you go. Whatever. Whatever. Man, I you know what? I I'm pretty sure he's my favorite artist right now. Everything that he puts out, everything that he has played for me uh in the last five, six, seven, whatever, ten years is just amazing every single time. I like that he that had a started off almost like how would I describe that? There was some Tom Waits maybe mixed in with some dark country sound. Very gritty. Again, that song, by the way, hold on a second. It's called Sweet Jesus. I mean, that's right in my lane for music. Wow. Way to go, Johnny quality. That's peeps 362. We're almost to 365 of these things. 365. I'm telling you, man, that split pea soup smells good. I have secret ingredients in my split pea soup, by the way. Yeah, I do. And now if I say it, then it won't be secret anymore. Maybe I won't reveal the secret ingredient. Because then again, it wouldn't be secret. I like to take the asparagus. Okay, whatever, it's no longer secret. And you cut it up into little pieces and you put it in the split pea soup. So when you eat the split pea soup, you know you have the texture of the split pea soup. But then you'll get a bite of this very soft cooked asparagus. Changes things up, changes the whole dynamic within your mouth. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? It gives you this beautiful taste of well, you know, asparagus. And by the way, what's up with a what's up with that asparagus the next day, I'll tell you. Never mind. But it smells good out there, it smells real good. I made pies from scratch yesterday. It was just incredible. I don't even need squash. But I we made these pies from scratch. Made it with gale. Made these pies. And it took hours to do this. The crust itself took forever to do. It was a whole process, man. You get the squash, then you peel the squash, then you gut the squash, then you cook the squash, then you you mash the squash, you boil it, then you mash, you you know. That's just a squash. Then you gotta add all the ingredients, and then you got the crust. So you gotta make the crust. It was called the brown butter crust, very gourmet, very much from scratch, a hundred percent. And just having the time of my life doing it, though. I tell you, it was fantastic. Now, in the end we didn't come up with enough crust, so now but we have all this filling, so now we've got to make pies with the with the filling, and and we gotta make some more crusts. Healthy, delicious, wonderful pie. So that was perfect for fall, at least in my opinion. We gave it to someone, we shared it. Actually, with my brother, we shared it. Uh he gave us a slice, it was fantastic. Went over there and watched the Rams versus the Seahawks. Oh! Did he dive right into football from Pi? Oh no. Sorry, I took a left-handed alb Albuquerque right there. But yeah, that so, you know, I am in 49er country, they say. They've said that my whole life, so maybe I'll start there. Yeah, the 49ers won, beat the Cardinals yesterday. Got Brock Purdy back. I meant Mac Jones had to sit down. I don't know how you Niners fans feel about that, but apparently they look pretty good. But again, the Cardinals will make anyone look good. That's no disrespect to the Niners. I'm just saying, poor Cardinals, man. Now watch, they'll beat us. They'll beat my team. But I just feel bad. The Cardinals are just they've been hard to watch for a long time. Like the Browns and some other teams. I feel also bad for my brother Jim. He's a Vikings fan. I got a my brother Steve's a Bears fan. They never seem to have a good quarterback. Maybe Caleb Williams will be good this year. He seems like he's getting better. But you know, been in the league now a couple of years, so that helps. But my brother Jim, man, Vikings fan, just they're the heartbreak, the king of the heartbreak in the NFL. Even when they're good, they'll break your heart. And yesterday was no different. They're playing the Bears and the Vikings score a late touchdown. There's like a minute, under a minute left. And I said to uh I said to everyone, I said, you know, my brother Jim, he's must uh must be jumping for joy right now. However, this is the Vikings, I hate to say it, but you know, and there's like under a minute to go, but look out. And then of course the Bears went down and won the football game. So it's been a rivalry between my brothers for a long time, just like the Rams and the Vikings and the Rams and the Bears. My sister's a 49er fan, anyhow. So we're kind of all over the map that way. But the Rams beat the Seahawks, four interceptions. You know, when you want to blame Sam Darnold, like last year when the Rams beat the Vikings in the playoffs and they sacked him nine times, it was the most yardage ever for sack uh yardage-wise in sacks in the in the history of the NFL playoffs. And everyone wants to blame Sam Darnold yesterday. You know, he throws four picks. Everyone wants to blame Sam Darnold. And yes, you could argue that yeah, he threw them, and a couple of them were his fault. But at the same time, you just have to give credit where credit is due. The fact that the Rams were always in his face on those plays. They were right in his grill. You know, if you're not blocking for the quarterback, you're asking you're asking a lot to be able to, you know, lead your team to a victory, to be able to make throws the entire game, which they were. But with the win, yes, am I gonna be happy and brag about it? Yeah, I'm riding the crest of happiness in sports right now. Honestly. And I know, and I've always known I'm in the but I don't really care that I'm in the wrong part of the state, because you may not be listening to me in Northern California. Wherever you're listening, thank you. I'm riding that crest because you know the Dodgers win the back to back, and now the Rams are like the number one seed. Maybe the Eagles, I guess. I think the Eagles are eight and two. If they're both eight and two, then by virtue of uh head-to-head, then it would be the Eagles, but still the Rams are right up there. Very, very proud of them. Let's see. Oh, yes, thank you to those of you who went and saw Herb Alpert this weekend. I hope it was a great show. He was a great guest here on the podcast. I heard it was a great show with a Tijuana brass. So if you if you were there and you saw the show, good for you. I'm jealous. I wanted to be there, but I realized, you know, I just took a couple of weeks off to go to Europe, and perhaps I shouldn't ask for another night off so quickly uh after my return. Plus, I missed my I miss doing my show when I do that. So speaking of radio, just a random thing here on Pat's Peeps 362. You know, I'm always random on some of this stuff. You know Rick Moranis, right? Rick Moranis. Here's Rick Moranis sitting down with Peter Zowski in 1977, before he was became popular, Rick Moranis. Here he is discussing his day job as a radio disc jockey. As he does his best impersonation of a radio DJ.

SPEAKER_08:

Yeah, I do. I work on an FM station. Well, actually, that's my afternoon job. In the mornings, uh, I write with uh Ken Finkelman, who uh is brother of Dan and has been on the show. And uh we did a a series on uh radio series on CVC and we're working on some other things now. In the afternoon, I become an FM Disc jockey. Can you can you do the FM Disc jockey talk in that manner really? Well, it's it's sort of an it's sort of in typed as a a certain sound, and you and you almost can't avoid it. You just it's a very intimate kind of space. It's just you're right on microphone and you uh you know you just say uh it's from the new Moxie album. Wait a minute. Very good. Can we get the microphone down? I don't have the voice for this. I'm one of the few FM jogs that that is, you know, that has no voice. It's uh from the new Moxie album. There's a trick called uh I Left You in the Barn from uh Right and High. It's uh 12 minutes after four, and I'm asleep. Anyway. Well, I used to do top 40 radio, and the calls on top 40 were really strange. FM calls, FM listeners seem to be a little more intellectual. So there was this there's there was this one guy, and this is uh this was the all-time classic. We had we were running a contest, and the guy called up and he said, uh, hey man, um really is um you do you can you tell me um where you know like where I send in the the entrance, the entry I said, okay, send it to uh uh Chum FM, uh his address. And he said, uh Yeah, uh, you got a pencil?

unknown:

True story.

SPEAKER_01:

Also, some sad news as this guy who I just I just heard this. Um this is a guy that I'd seen live a couple of times at the Strawberry Music Festival. I just realized he passed away. I was sad to hear this. At 59 years old, Todd Snyder has died following an assault. He had to cancel his tour, he got an illness. Singer-songwriter Todd Snyder, uh, who I used to love listening to him as Todd Snyder and the Nervous Rex, experienced a string of high-profile events over the last month, has died at the age of 59. He had a great song called All Right Guy, died from undisclosed causes. I was so sad to see this. He was really fun to see in concert. Very playful artist, native of Portland. His song sometimes showed vulnerability. His stage presence grew, even though apparently he was going through chronic pain. You could never really tell. And then over the last month, Todd Snyder experienced an assault and arrest, and his tour was scrubbed because of that. Uh, earlier this month, Todd Snyder sustained severe injuries as a result of a violent assault, canceled his high, lonesome, and then some tour. He was uh he was assaulted outside of his hotel room or outside of his hotel in Salt Lake City. Back on November 3rd, the his team announced that uh Todd had sustained severe injuries as the victim of a violent assault outside of his hotel. He will be unable to perform for an undetermined amount of time. We appreciate your understanding as Todd receives medical treatments. For those of you who don't know Todd, maybe you do. This is his song, Alright Guy, Pat's Peeps 362.

SPEAKER_04:

You know just the other morning, I was hanging around in my house. I have that new book with pictures of my diamond naked, cause checking it out Just then a friend of mine came through the door Said she'd never begged me first, come back before She said she didn't ever wanna see me anymore And I still don't know why I think I'm an alright guy I think I'm an alright guy I just wanna live until I've gotta die I know I ain't worth it, but the God knows I try I think I'm an alright guy I think I'm alright Now maybe I'm dirty And maybe I smoke a little bit It ain't like I'm going on TV and turn up mixtures of the bow I know I get wild and I know I get drunk When it ain't like I got a bunch of bodies in my truck My old man used to call me no good punk and I still don't know why I think I'm in all right guy Later police body cam fin uh footage revealed that during Todd Snyder's arrest they arrested Todd Snyder after being assaulted.

SPEAKER_01:

He had to tell the officers that he wasn't homeless. Police responded to a disturbance involving a man that hospital staff described as loud, obnoxious, and allegedly threatening to kick a staffer's ass. And here come the officers who then handcuffed Todd Snyder. He says, I can't wait to tell you my story. They charge him with disorderly conduct, threat of violence, and criminal trespassing. Unbelievable. His 2004 album, East Nashville Skyline. I mean, I love the all-country. This was firmly in the all-country universe. You have Gary Allen, Mark Chestnut, Loretta Lynn, Tom Jones recording his songs. He put out a lot of albums for, well, a string of these for uh John Prime's indie label, Oh Boy Records. Like I said, I saw him in concert at Strawberry on a couple of occasions. So I thought I would finish things up today with um May 24th, 2018 appearance by Todd Snyder. Man, rest in peace, man. You went away too quickly, and I just enjoyed you and I enjoyed your sense of humor. This is Strawberry Music Festival again, May 24th, 2018, Grass Valley, the Nevada County Fairgrounds. Pat's Peeps 362. We'll see you on the radio.

SPEAKER_03:

This one's my favorite. Except for me a run. People think I hate that one. It's my favorite. I played that song three times already today, just for myself.

SPEAKER_04:

Nothing to do, except for nothing.

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