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From the archives: 'Sweet Lou' Snider in 1996

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In 1996, MPR News profiled piano bar singer "Sweet Lou" Snider, who died recently at 81.

Listen to the audio portrait of Snider in her own words in the audio player above.

Snider was known for her long-running gig at Nye's Polonaise Room in Minneapolis.

"The truth is they should have just shut Nye's Polonaise Room down when Louella Mae Snider played her last song at the piano a few years ago," wrote Bob Collins on NewsCut Wednesday. "She was the whole joint, sitting in the middle of a cacophony, some off-key bubba trying to sing Sweet Caroline and assaulting the sensibilities and eardrums of anyone still sober enough to notice."