Snowden writes songs your mother would be partial to, delivered in a style your grandmother would approve of. One song, for instance, contains the lyrics “In Canada, they treat you like a queen/In Canada, they will never be mean.” As one local fan says, “She’s a nice elderly black woman with curly hair and big glasses who sings songs about friendship with Canada.”

“The songs you hear on the radio,” Snowden says, “don’t have respect for women. These rap artists calling them the b-word — that’s not what I’m about.” Yet for reasons she can’t explain, she has become the toast of the art-rock crowd. Indeed, in certain East Village circles, she is looked upon as a sort of matronly Lou Reed. “Some of those people who are into punk like my music,” she says from her home in Billerica. “A lot of my fans are from Newbury Comics.”

“People are really starting to flip over her,” says Erik Lindgren, the founder of Arf! Arf! records and a member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. “This is happening. I think she’s on the verge of being discovered.” And not a moment too soon.

“When I was at Berklee, I used to envision going to a hall and having people all around, watching me perform,” Snowden says. After her graduation in 1973, however, the dream failed to materialize. There were times, she says, when she almost gave up hope.

Snowden’s big break came a few years back, when Irwin Chusid wrote about her in his book on musical oddities, Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music. Though Snowden was ambivalent about the book at first — “The other musicians weren’t really musicians. Their music was weird” — Songs in the Key of Z got people’s attention. “I was eating supper one night,” she says, “and some guys from a New York record company called.”

Since that night, Snowden has appeared on MTV and in countless trendy music magazines. There are Web sites devoted to her. The Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra is a huge fan, as is Fred Schneider of the B-52’s. “Matter of fact,” she says with the insouciance of a Michael Stipe or a Beck, “I just spoke with Fred last Thursday.” She adds: “Yeah, he likes my music.”

Fame, though, hasn’t gone to Snowden’s head: she’s still driven to most of her gigs by her mother; she still invites her son — a budding guitarist — up on stage to perform with her. She still works as a Somerville music teacher. And she still maintains her love of Canada, the inspiration for “In Canada,” her most popular song to date.

“The people [in Canada] are very nice,” she says, “and the scenery is very beautiful.” One day, Snowden hopes to make enough from her music to move up there. “That would be nice,” she says. “It might happen. Things are really looking up for me.”

Snowden will perform with Erik Lindgren at the Zeitgeist Gallery (312 Broadway, Cambridge) this Saturday, February 24, at 8 p.m. The cover is $10. Call (617) 876-2182.