no VIC CHESNUTT thread? (Dec 2009: RIP Vic Chesnutt)

Dude is a force of nature and just put out TWO new albums. One with Guy from Fugazi and the Silver Mt Zion cats, one produced by Jonathan Richman. Maybe we can stop talking about Grizzly Bear for like two seconds and discuss one of our greatest living songwriters?

I found his last album - North Star Deserter - somewhat joyless on first listen, but grew to love it as much as his best work. Planning to pick up the new ones ASAP.

Anyone know whatever became of that documentary that was planned like five years ago?

really like this dude when he's collaborating - the lambchop/vic chesnutt album is my favorite by either of them, and his album from last year (?) with elf power was pretty great too.

saw him open for Jonathan Richman this summer.
used to listen to his stuff a lot in the 90s, and then kind of lost track.
he's great.
he's really got his own kind of phrasing and song structure.

At The Cut is more rewarding than North Star Deserter imo. "Coward" is easily one of the best songs he's ever written.

Yeah, the first and last tracks on it are really solid and the filling isn't half bad either. I just reviewed At The Cut so scouted around for info on what he's been up to of late but didn't know about the J Richman thing! Doh.

i lost track after "is the actor happy?" which i really liked. in my memory it is one of those perfectly flowing albums where everything falls into place.

I'd say his first four to five albums were all solid: Little, West of Rome, Drunk, Is the Actor Happy?, About to Choke with the extra nod going to Rome and Actor. Both At the Cut and Skitter at Take-Off sound very promising on first couple of listens. Both apparently came out within a few weeks of each other. Only stuff I don't care for is the stuff with Lambchop (Salesman and Bernadette). I like both acts on their own, but Vic really shines when he's kept simple. His wife isn't a great bass player in the traditional sense, but the way she let those bass notes ring out from under him were perfect.

Documentary? I don't know of any recent ones, but Speed Racer came out years ago (it had film from the West of Rome sessions).

At the Cut is just a bit better than North Star Deserter. I think you can tell he and Guy and the Silver Mt. Zion guys have grown a lot more comfortable around each other since NSD, and their live shows are supposed to be really good. I still think Actor is his best album and "Onion Soup" his best song, but he seems to deliver pretty regularly, even if he's no longer getting the press he used to.

longish quietus article culled from an interview (including several mp3s):
http://thequietus.com/articles/02982-vic-chesnutt-interview-at-the-cut-skitter-on-take-off

i guess guy is playing in the live band!

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/vic-chesnutt-reportedly-coma-following-apparent-suicide-attempt/

:-(

really sad this aft

Goddamnit.

wtf

:( :( :(

fuck. very sad.

Dang <3 this dude

that fucking sucks so hard. time to put on "at the cut," again

I've now read, unconfirmed, that he has passed away?

http://www.billboard.com/news/vic-chesnutt-dies-at-45-1004055514.story#/news/vic-chesnutt-dies-at-45-1004055514.story

that story hasn't been updated yet, except the url, weirdly. A confirmed update from Spinner:

http://www.spinner.ca/2009/12/25/vic-chesnutt-dead/

RIP. those Constellation records were amazing, I need to hear more.

I watched you charm a big, disinterested crowd one night, and knew you had some magic in you. RIP.

man. this is so rough.

wow this is sad news. I kind of got behind in his catalogue and didn't even know about these last two records. I did see him about....eight years ago? with kristin hersh, and it was so incredibly great.

i saw him a while back, late '90s i guess, and he was great then too. i hadn't really been paying much attention to him, though. i liked what he did, but i guess not enough to keep track. still, very sad if the reports are true. a serious and seriously talented guy.

Apparently this is still unconfirmed.. billboard have revoked the story, and several comments on the spinner page are calling for confirmation..

Kristin Hersh posted that "Tina Chesnutt needs all the love you can send her right now" a couple of hours ago so perhaps they've put two and two together...

Either way this is all pretty sad...

i'll revert the title change for the time being..

seems like a really bizarre thing to make up. in any case, my thoughts (and ears) are w/ mr. chesnutt today.

http://twitter.com/FlagpoleMusic/status/7035959200

Spoke with a friend that was at the hospital this morning, Vic Chesnutt is still with us although he is on life support.

about 2 hours ago from web

Saw him opening for Victoria Williams long ago at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. One of those instances of hearing someone for the first time in a live show, and being caught up in every single moment, every song. He sang one song where the chorus was "Sewing machine" repeated a few times, and I had no idea what he was singing about, but I felt it. And "Wrong Piano" from Is The Actor Happy?, also played that night, is a song I thoroughly love and have covered. Another mystery chorus:

Rupert Murdoch and Larry Flynt
Bob Guccione and the U.S. Mint

Another time a few years later I was going to see him do an in-store at Let It Be and then see him at First Avenue, but he had disappeared a day or two before, maybe took off in the tour van, and so the shows were cancelled--though the Scud Mountain Boys, his opener, still played a great set at First Ave, and...maybe it was Dave Pirner or a Jayhawk played in his place at Let It Be. Anyway, he had disappeared, showed up a few days later, and he has always seemed to be a difficult genius. When someone kills themselves (Cobain, E Smith, DF Wallace), their work usually stops resonanting for me--it feels like a dead end, fairly or unfairly. VC will be an exception to this.

I dream of him making it through, turning around, making another 20 records.

Sadly his death is confirmed:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/vic-chesnutt-singer-dies/

I dream of him making it through, turning around, making another 20 records.

in form, he's thwarted our christmas wishes

damn damn damn

I'm just now realizing how much this guy symbolized fierce indomitable spirit overcoming broken human frailty to me, and it really sucks that he's gone

really want to hear "florida" now

What would be the most credible source of a confirmation? (what a painful mess, this confirmed/retracted/confirmed/uncertain thing - RIP, if true, obv)

looks like Ny Times is saying he died. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/vic-chesnutt-singer-dies/?src=twt&twt=artsbeat
dang ... RIP, Vic. One of my fave TV performances ever was him with Lambchop on Conan a long time ago.

seems like there's a lot of going back and forth on whether he's died or not... NYT is pretty credible but that link *is* a blog, who knows if it's some reporter just repeating what he heard or somebody with an actual connection to the family

I hope it's not true and Vic can find contentment in this life. But I'm selfish and want another 20 records like the other poster upthread. I met Vic on several occasions and he always had a "devilish twinkle" in his eye. Tina is a sweetheart. Love At the Cut and found Skitter-On Take-Off even more affecting.

I have been listening to him non-stop since I heard about this yesterday. Not fair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Z-kjr4BLs

Family donation info and condolences from Kristin Hersh here.

fuck

Terrible news. RIP.

been listening to "It is what it is" from the last album over and over. so many great lines piled up in this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K0JgJCn3vs

wow just heard about this through a friend on facebook. so shocked and sad. missed the chance to see him in SF in november, really kicking myself now. RIP, vic, you will be missed.

triple fuck. sweet dreams, Vic.

Saw and enjoyed him live years ago and wanted to see him him with current touring band that included Guy P. from Fugazi. RIP. Moviemaker Jem Cohen is listed in an online article as a family spokesman. I wonder if he was doing a movie doc on Vic?

nice tribute on front page of constellation:

http://cstrecords.com/

Moviemaker Jem Cohen is listed in an online article as a family spokesman. I wonder if he was doing a movie doc on Vic?

No, the connection is that he already made a film, Empires of Tin, in which Chesnutt appeared. This was a documentary of a one-off performance in Vienna, which I attended. Details here:

http://cstrecords.com/promo/cst056/sections/info.php

RIP Vic - only surface level familiar with any of his records before the Constellation ones but I find the dude pretty fascinating and unique. I wasn't aware that Kristin was close friends with him, either, but she is typically moving and elopquent in her tribute thingy there so kudos and such

only knew salesman and bernadette, and somehow never knew he was a paraplegic

rip

RIP Vic. I met him once at a TapeOp conference and he totally had a twinkle in his eye. So sad to see this news.

Can someone add the RIP to the thread title again, please?

transcript from recent 'fresh air' interview, which ends with this:

GROSS: I read that you're in debt like $50,000 because of health insurance issues.

Mr. CHESNUTT: That's right.

GROSS: So - and this is because you had a series of surgeries and although you pay a lot for your health insurance, it didn't cover all of it. Is that - do I have that right?

Mr. CHESNUTT: That's exactly true, yeah.

GROSS: Uh-huh. So, what are your thoughts now as you watch the health care legislation controversy play out?

Mr. CHESNUTT: Well, I have been amazed and confused by the health care debate. We need health care reform. There is no doubt about it, we really need health care reform in this country. Because it's absurd that somebody like me has to pay so much, it's just too expensive in this country. It's just ridiculously expensive. That they can take my house away for kidney stone operation is -that's absurd.

GROSS: Is that what you're facing the possibility of now?

Mr. CHESNUTT: Yeah. I mean, it could - I'm not sure exactly. I mean, I don't have cash money to pay these people. I tried to pay them. I tried to make payments and then they finally ended up saying, no, you have to pay us in full now. And so, you know, I'm not sure what exactly my options are. I just - I really - you know, my feeling is that I think they've been paid, they've already been paid $100,000 from my insurance company. That seems like plenty. I mean, this would pay for like five or six of these operations in any other country in the world. You know, it affects - I mean, right now I need another surgery and I've putting it off for a year because I can't afford it. And that's absurd, I think.

I mean, I could actually lose a kidney. And, I mean, I could die only because I cannot afford to go in there again. I don't want to die, especially just because of I don't have enough money to go in the hospital. But that's the reality of it. You know, I have a preexisting condition, my quadriplegia, and I can't get health insurance.

GROSS: Is it true you can't get good health insurance?

Mr. CHESNUTT: I can't get - I'm uninsurable. The only reason I have any insurance now is because I was on Capitol Records for a while. And I had excellent health insurance there. And then when I got dropped from Capitol, I Cobra's(ph) my insurance for as long as it was legally possible. And then - and which was insanely expensive to cobra this very nice insurance. And then, when that ran out, the insurance company said they could offer me one last thing and that is hospitalization. It only covers hospital bills. That's all it covers. And it's still $500 a month. So, it doesn't pay for my drugs, my doctors or anything like that. All it pays for is hospitalization. And yet, I still owe all this money on top of that.

GROSS: Wow. Well, I wish you the best with your health and your music. And I really want to thank you�

Mr. CHESNUTT: Thank you.

That is heartbreaking.

I don't want to die, especially just because of I don't have enough money to go in the hospital.

Pictures from his last show - in a church, with a christmas tree

http://austinist.com/2009/12/07/snapshots_vic_chesnutt_at_the_centr.php

RIP.

fucking hell at that fresh air intrvw

fuck

( I should have linked to this gallery of those pictures, btw: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aasimsyed/sets/72157622952773388/ )

Michael Stipe remembers Vic on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121933081

extremely sad.

west of rome was definitely an album that was the soundtrack to a year in my life, but obv he's done tons of other good stuff too, but that one is special to me....

there are very few people that can hold my attention with a trad singer songwriter type thing and he was so special and unique and mesmerizing.

RIP.

I would recommend Is the Actor Happy? and West of Rome to get people started. If you love his voice, try the lo-fi of Little or the simplicity of his last album Skitter on Take-Off. If you prefer a bigger band behind him, try North Star Constellation or At The Cut. If you like horns, try the album with Lambchop -- The Salesman and Bernadette. I've rarely met two Chesnutt fans who agree on favorites beyond Actor and Rome, but like all great musical acts, everyone finds something to like in him. It's often been the insistence of others to go back and listen to one of his neglected albums that has started me on a brand new kick. So, by all means, make suggestions.

Some of my fave, oddball tracks: Westport Ferry (on a Widespread Panic album, maybe?), Injured Bird with Stipe on the End of Violence soundtrack and The Doris Days from the split single with Tom Leach.

This has hit me harder than I ever expected. I experience pure Nirvana sitting at his feet for a Knitting Factory show with his "scared little skiffle group." Not a wasted note and such an ache to songs like Panic Pure and Sad Peter Pan.

Thanks to everyone for sharing links and such. The whole health insurance / coverage thing just scares the hell out of me.

I'm delving into his catalogue for the first time now. These recommendations are helpful.

m@tt otm

a friend of mine once gave me a tape of an unreleased album. I listened to it, it was incredible stuff, and I was ready to move heaven and earth to get it put out.

it turned out she had goofed up and given me a copy of west of rome. I was relieved I wouldn't have to move heaven and earth to get it put out, but it was definitely a weird way to get introduced to his music. I spent about a week thinking I had discovered some unknown musical genius.

kristin hersh posted a link to a recording of her + vic doing "panic pure"

http://www.mediafire.com/?jhmyyeuzxmq

her twitter = </3

Indeed.

This is also that all too familiar time when current events hang around someone's work like a millstone, making it impossible to not hear allusions all the time, even beyond the obvious ones, making it very very very hard to listen right now. And it already wasn't the happiest music.

They've got that final show at archive.org, btw, but do check out the earlier ones as well.

Kirstin interviewed

http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/12/26/vic-chesnutt-kristin-hersh/

Check out the post by Silverfrown here: a soundboard recording of a show from 2000 with (alternating songs and one duet) Vic & Kristin:

http://www.kristinhersh.com/forum/topic/vic-chesnutt/page/2

And be sure to watch this in HD, it's simply amazing and I hope someone releases the full show someday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPyQFmGmb4

Just noticed this article by Steven Deusner over at Pitchfork with a nice Lala playlist at the end.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7751-appreciation-vic-chesnutt/

i haven't listened to vic since it happened until today

god west of rome is killing me :(

he writes some of the funniest lines in the saddest songs:

where were you last monday when I was overwrought
I was watching the bright bug lamp flicker
you were doing up the dim dim 40-watt
I was alone with Pepe Lopez
I just couldn't do the schmooze

...my faculties on a shoestring vacation

i'm a sorry sorry knight
in a horrible castle
hoping to avoid
certain societal hassles

I still miss him.

I thought the revive might be about this:

http://gravityofthesituation.com/

Hell, I would have more expected it to be about this. Out this month:

http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/hersh-dont-suck-dont-die

He was no Mark Chesnutt.

Wow hilarious joke

I listened to "Flirted With You All My Life" hard to hear it now given how it all went down...Hersh always seems like a real hero to me sounds like she tried to do her best for him from what I've read

yeah hersh was just in town doing something w/ that, i think there's a documentary in the making about him but i've heard some depressing things coming out about it, apparently there's a conflict between the filmmaker and vic's widow and i'm very very skeptical that tina chesnutt is the part in the wrong there. i'd kind of lost touch w/ his work that last decade, going back and revisiting i'm very fond of north star deserter. insane it's already been nearly six years. in some ways that does feel like a different athens though.

he was really on point with those last two albums. i'd say they matched the highs of his first couple albums. sadly i lived in athens for 6 years while he was alive and never saw him live.

balls that conflict w/the doc is the subject of that link brad c. just posted...sounds really shitty

more on this mess ... I agree with balls, Vic's widow is not the problem here

http://flagpole.com/blogs/homedrone/posts/tina-whatley-chesnutt-responds-to-documentary-director-s-open-letter

I really like the Hersh book. It's a lot more dense and writer-y than I expected but she pulls it off for the most part.

she is a really, really strong writer! her autobiography is equally amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPyQFmGmb4

From a house show a month before his suicide, this and the other videos are amazing

listening to this is still very much like a punch in the gut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kssON-L0CQ

excellent tv footage of vic chesnutt & lambchop circa "the salesman and bernadette"

vic interviewed by david byrne at the end of interview

and yes the videos that milo posted in feb 2018 rule too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWwgqNc-0Dc

this in particular is devastating

man, over 10 years now....

thanks for posting those

always think of the intimations that he was partially despondent because his health insurance had run out, this stupid mean fucking country

Listening to West of Rome for the first time in forever. It hits so hard, jesus. This is still so fucking sad.

West of Rome, just east of the border
In a static-y ramada inn
Polishing his boots and pummeling his liver
Steeped in the dark isolation
Just what business does he have around here
Credentials are wearing out with each little bit of cheer
Yes it's a bad scene we're convening

Brushing his teeth and milking his ulcer
Preparing to waste another wily morning
Stroking himself and them phoning up his sister
He tells her their life would make one whale of a movie
Yes a childhood full of dry goods and wet neglect
The father they now sponge off they have no absorbing respect
Yes he's a glad boy to have such a void
Yes he's a martyr crawling accross cobble stones
From his cozy cottages just west of Rome
Yes its a sad state for great suffering

Nobody better at describing the mundane terror of human existence