third album, Viva Satellite, represented a turning point in his career. Prior to making the record, Margaritaville left MCA and signed with Island Records for distribution. But MCA retained rights to Snider's recordings, so they would release the album. No longer recording for Margaritaville or working with Brown and Utley, Snider produced some sides at engineer Justin Niebank's studio in Franklin, Tennessee, with mixed success. Only one of the tracks he cut there would make the album, the finale "Doublewide Blues." Snider recorded the rest of the album at Ardent Studios in Memphis with producer-engineer John Hampton. He was backed by Kimbrough on guitar, Mariencheck on bass, Paul Buchignani on drums, and Rick Steff on keys, and the result was a more straight-ahead rock record than his first two. Shortly before the album was released in May 1998, there was trouble at a private performance in L.A. for MCA execs and their staffs. Snider, who was struggling with drugs at the time, insulted those in attendance early in the set and then left the stage. Not long thereafter, MCA released him from his contract. 2000s Oh Boy years After leaving MCA, Snider disbanded the Nervous Wrecks and signed with John Prine’s independent label, Oh Boy Records. Oh Boy released his fourth album, Happy To Be Here, on April 18, 2000. Working with producer Ray Kennedy, Snider recorded all the songs solo acoustic, then additional instrumentation was added to his guitar and vocal tracks. Besides Kennedy who played a variety of instruments on the record, guitarists Pat Buchanan and Will Kimbrough, bassists Joey Spampinato and Keith Christopher, keyboardist Johnny Neel, drummer Paul Buchignani, multi-instrumentalist Peter Holsapple, violinist Tammy Rogers, and horn men Jim Hoke and Wayne Jackson all contributed to the album. Oh Boy released Snider's second album for the label, New Connection, on May 14, 2002. Produced by R.S. Field, Billboard said of the album, "Snider has settled into a groove of consistent quality and potent observation." The record included "Beer Run," a crowd favorite that he had been performing since the summer of 2000. Prior to the song's release on New Connection, Garth Brooks released a duet with George Jones in November 2001 that had the same title and same primary lyrical hook. Snider's manager wondered whether the song Brooks and Jones recorded infringed on his song of the same name, but ultimately it was concluded that while similar,