Biography
Vic Chesnutt (1964 to 2009) was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia, known for a frayed, unmistakable voice and for songs that joined black humor with unguarded tenderness.
James Victor Chesnutt was born in Jacksonville, Florida on November 12, 1964 and raised in Zebulon, Georgia.[1] At eighteen he was partially paralyzed in a car crash, and he used a wheelchair and had limited use of his hands afterward.[1]
He moved to Athens in the mid-1980s, played with the band La-Di-Das, and then performed solo at the 40 Watt Club, where Michael Stipe of R.E.M. noticed him.[1] Stipe produced his first two albums, *Little* (1990) and *West of Rome* (1991).[1] The tribute record *Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation* (1996) helped widen his audience, and he released about seventeen albums in all.[1]
Later collaborators included Widespread Panic, Lambchop, Bill Frisell, Elf Power and Jonathan Richman, and in his last years he made two albums with members of the Montreal Constellation Records circle, *North Star Deserter* (2007) and *At the Cut* (2009).[2][3] He spoke candidly about his suicide attempts, and *At the Cut* includes his most direct treatment of the subject.[3] He died in Athens on December 25, 2009, at age 45.[1]
References
- Vic Chesnutt (Wikipedia) — Biography: birth, accident, Athens scene, Michael Stipe, discography and death.
- Vic Chesnutt: Warm Heart, Dark Folk (ALARM) — Career context, collaborators and the final interview.
- Vic Chesnutt interview (The A.V. Club) — Chesnutt on the song's personal origins, its earlier title, the narrative turn toward living, and the album as memoir.