at a glance...

Hometown: Athens, GA
Debut: 1989

Personnel:
Vic Chesnutt -vocals, acoustic/electric guitar, piano
Marky Nevers -guitar, atmosphere, vocals
Kurt Wagner -guitar, whistle, atmosphere, vocals, lap steel, recorder
Paul Niehaus -whistle, guitar, pedal steel, percussion, baritone sax
Tina Chesnutt -bass, whistle, vocals
Marc Trovillion -bass, percussion
Allen Lowrey -drums, percussion
Alex McManus -guitar, accordion, euphonium
Deanna Varagona -baritone sax, percussion
Jonathan Marx -trumpet, clarinet
Scott Chase -percussion, clarinet
Paul Burch -vibes, piano, Fender Rhodes, accordion
John Delworth -Hammond organ, farfisa
Dennis Cronin -trumpet
Mike doster -bass

Related Bands:
Lambchop, Brute, Widespread Panic

Notes:
Soon after a crippling car accident at the age of 18, Vic Chesnutt began writing and performing his songs in and around Athens, GA. With the production help of avid admirer Michael Stipe, Chesnutt released his debut, Little, on Texas Hotel in 1989. Three modest follow-ups, West of Rome(1991), Drunk (1993) and Is The Actor Happy? (1995), brought him to the attention of more well-known peers who covered a number of his songs for a tribute album, Sweet Relief Two. Capitol Records signed him shortly thereafter, with Chesnutt releasing About to Choke for the label in 1996. The Salesman and Bernadette is his most recent release.

Ah, The Salesman and Bernadette...wherein Athens, Georgia's dark-humored, lyrically loquacious, chemically-inspired songsmith, one Vic Chesnutt, sets his fictional tale "of loss and longing and sloppy satori" against Kurt Wagner and Lambchop's sonically rich ensemble arrangements, producing a work of startling beauty and subtle humor. Employing a pawn shop's array of instruments, including vibraphone, accordion, a king's share of percussion devices and atmospheric effects, as well as an endearingly loose horn/woodwind section, Wagner's cohorts provide a variety of sonic textures to convey the shifting moods and emotions of Chesnutt's "tale." Alternately country-inflected, soul-tinged, "lounge" jazzy and bluesy, the songs exhibit a malleability of genres and lushness not found on his previous albums. Raucous horn punches and back beats on the mid-tempo "Replenished" and the simple and highly infectious "Until the Led" provide a festive levity in contrast to the darker more pensive arrangements which predominate.

The story begins with a somber horn fanfare as our protagonist, the luckless Salesman, trudges through yet another airport on yet another lonely sales junket, "using up" all of his old currency at the Duty Free shop. Chesnutt once again delights in juxtaposing heart-rending observations of the human condition with sexual puns and absurd witticisms. To wit: "Some pommes frites and you know it's gonna drip on to his lap, yes, see the man slapping it off / Travellin' will do him in, trudging through the waves of people 'til his heart is cluttered and feeble." The character of Bernadette, serving as both muse and object of the Salesman's lust, appears as a "recollected voice" courtesy of Emmylou Harris on the dreamy and hauntingly beautiful piece, "Woodrow Wilson." Throughout other songs, Vic displays the expressiveness and surprising dexterity of his normally creaky voice by ambitiously breaking into inspired flights of falsetto or by swooping down into his lowest, guttural range.

Embedded in these mellifluous soundscapes, existing almost independently of the beauty of the music itself, are Mr. Chesnutt's lyrics. With novelistic detail and a stunning eloquence, he manages to chronicle the minutiae of a life - the flaws and peccadilloes of a "wilted lily-livered" soul - with such literary skill that nothing less than the ineffable poignancy of life and love are ultimately conveyed. This guy is a fucking national treasure!

If you like Vic Chesnutt, check out:
Vic Chesnutt West of Rome
Tom Waits Frank's Wild Years
Giant Sand Chore Of Enchantment
Lambchop I Hope You're Sitting Down (Jack's Tulips)
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
Lucinda Williams Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Joe Henry Trampoline

-- Gavin Foster