Unfortunately, I think of Joey Chestnut when I see his name.

I'd never really listened to Vic Chesnutt so I previewed the album Derris recommended--loving it. Sad news.

What album should I go to next?

Go with The Salesman and Bernadette...he uses Lambchop as his backing band. Great stuff.

This is terrible news.

I fixed the faulty pickup on his acoustic one early afternoon in '98 @ during an appearance at Amoeba in SF in support of not only his best record, The Salesman & Bernadette, but one full of warmth, gravity and humor. After he got up and running, he apologized for the bad sound and pointed out he'd yet to have his "morning fatty" to get into the spirit of things. The folks in the Haight-Ashbury Amoeba gave him a well deserved cheer.

Nice. Like MCap and Bloor said, Salesman and Bernadette is great.

Tentoze said "Drunk" which I've always meant to pick up.

Salesman and Bernadette was my intro to him. It's got a more live band vibe to it IMO since Lambchop is involved. Lots of different instruments and different approaches.

I just like Is the Actor Happy just because it's him at him most quirkiest I think. Something about his stuff is so off kilter. From the off beat subject matter to his weird phrasing of words. It's all so pure southern eccentric.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/ ... nger-dies/

He died

I never knew that. Spun through this twice today. Shitty news for sure. Fucker.

Just wish he could have chased his devils away through the music he shared, instead of letting them push him over the cliff.

Man, that's a big bummer. He was kinda riding a new wave of success this year. Thoughts are definitely with his wife and family especially with this happening at the holidays.

This makes me really sad.

Given the date this took place, is there really any other option than cremation?

Yup, Vic also contributed the artwork to their album What Another Man Spills (the cover is cooler in person than as a Google image unfortunately but I digress)

I would imagine this is going to happen sooner as opposed to later:
Speed Racer doc

Also, just in case you've gone through the discography 1 too many times this weekend, here's some live shows:
http://www.archive.org/details/VicChesnutt

pretty shitty to take your own life when you had a sweet relief benefit CD about you, even if it was the weakest of the three. fuck this if people make it out to be about medical bills, vic clearly had serious psychological problems that go way beyond owing 6 figures to a hospital

It's always horrible when someone kills themselves...no matter the reason. Also, I'm pretty sure it doesn't take a medical degree to assume that he probably had a lot of demons rattling around in that head of his. The guy didn't exactly have the easiest road in life.

Thread title was a joker, Doc.

IC CHESNUTT RIP

My beloved town is heartbroken this holiday upon losing Vic Chesnutt on Xmas morning.

Vic was a friend and absolutely the greatest writer I ever knew. Bar none.

His songs will be studied in Universities as fine southern literature. (Perhaps they already are).

I've lost way too many friends this year and losing Vic here at the tail end was a crappy capper.

(I think Vic would like hearing those two words used next to each other).

I have a lot to write about this year and will do so as soon as I can compose some thoughts, but not tonight.

Tonight is for drinking some wine (spodeeodee), smoking a fatty (as Vic was prone to say) and listening to some of the most beautiful songs ever written.

I do highly encourage you to read the following words from some folks who knew and loved him and who have articulated things better than I can right now.

I also encourage you to take to heart the parts about Vic's horrific medical debts and do what you can to help (both financially and politically).

If you haven't already, I also highly encourage you to seek out some of Vic's records. His last one (At The Cut) is as good as anything you'll hear.

I'm signing off for now but will resume very soon.

Much Love from Athens Georgia.

Patterson Hood

Late to the news on this one. Wow. I always knew he was a sad mother fucker, but just never expected suicide for some reason. He was incredibly prolific the last few years, so much so I took the output for granted. Someone should throw together a tenner of his stuff. I was introduced to him 10 years ago via Brute, the band he fronted with members of Widespread Panic and casually followed his career ever since. Northstar Deserter was one of the most morose records I've ever heard. Ghetto Bells featured Bill Frisell and gets the most listens out of any record outside of Salesman and Bernadette. I was lucky enough to see him perform years ago at the Athens Music Awards held at the Morton Theatre. He was a very gifted songwriter/wordsmith and a true Athens, GA legend and will always be a part of the town's music lore.

I only saw him once, at the 40 Watt, playing with just Doug Hollingsworth (former guitarist for the star room boys and boyfriend / husband type guy of Berry Buck, owner of the Watt). Vic was playing a Fender mustang, was pretty drunk, and was entertaining but pretty aggressive. Late in the show he had a female backup singer coming out from backstage, and yelled for her. When she didn't appear really quickly he said something like "get that stupid cunt out here goddamit" right into the mic without a trace of humor and the air sorta sucked out of the room. I have a picture of it at home, actually, him and Doug up on stage from that night.

I vote this as the worst thread title of the year. I purposefully avoided it because I thought it was something political. I had to read about Vic dying somewhere else and I though, "Why wasn't there anything about this on Obner. Ohhhhhhhhhhh."