Chesnutt Gives Strong, Emotional Performance

I’ve always enjoyed checking out a band for the first time by seeing them in concert. It seems not to happen as much anymore, as I’ve discovered and seen hundreds of bands over the better part of the last decade. But last night I was introduced to the songs of a music legend in his own right, singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt. I went in to the show last night at the Southgate House not knowing what to expect or having never heard his music; in fact, I wasn’t even familiar with his backstory. It’s usually a good idea for a music writer to at least know a little about who he’s going to see, what kind of music they’ll be playing, and in general, who they are as a musician. But I often feel it’s better to go in not knowing anything at all, and just let the artist unveil their magic right before my eyes. This was the case for Vic Chesnutt and his supergroup of a band.

A little bit about Vic and his band. Vic is a forty-four year old, kind of a folksie singer/songwriter from Athens, Georgia, who was tragically left paralyzed from a car accident in 1983 at eighteen years old. He has worked alongside Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Widespread Panic, Lambchop, Bill Frisell and the Cowboy Junkies, and in film, alongside Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade. It was the 1996 tribute album, Sweet Relief II, that exposed him to a much broader audience, featuring a number of highly-esteemed musicians covering his music, such as Madonna, R.E.M., the Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage and Live. For the past few years, he’s been working with a number of greats from several bands like Fugazi, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion, who are accompanying him on his 2009 tour. He has recently released two albums in a matter of just weeks, Skitter On Take-Off, produced by Jonathan Richman, and At The Cut, featuring the musician’s who were joining him onstage tonight.

Most of the music last night came from the At the Cut record, as well as the album North Star Deserter, which also featured contributions from many of the same musician’s who were playing tonight. A drummer, keyboardist and several guitarists playing both acoustic and electric filled the stage, playing everything from quiet Americana folk-rock, to a distorted, slightly heavier mix of punkabilly and rock and roll. Chesnutt’s performance was really quite captivating and beautiful, and even with all of the bands I’ve seen before, I have never seen a single artist put in as much heart, soul or truth into what they’re doing. He’s clearly one of the few coming from a rare breed of musician’s; I think the music world would be much better off if there were more Vic Chesnutt’s.

But it wasn’t just Chesnutt and company whose performance blew me away. Opening the show were four members of the indie pop band, Clare and the Reasons. Clare Muldaur, a product of the Berklee College of Music, quietly belted out a powerful and beautiful voice, all the while jumping back and forth from the guitar, to ukulele, to washboard. She was joined by three multi-instrumentalists, who added everything from guitars, to strings like the violin, to soft brushes of tiny snare drums, to members of the horn family like trombone, trumpet and flute. Most of the music of the night came from their most recent effort, Arrow, as well as their 2007 debut, The Movie.