Vic Chesnutt — At The Cut

The question of whether a modern day poet writes purely from experience or from their fertile imagination comes screaming out at you when listening to any of Vic Chesnutt's extensive musical catalogue. Chesnutt, who was paralyzed in a car accident at the age of 18, has produced 15 solo albums filled with eerie tales of heartbreak.

With At The Cut, his latest album, that haunting quality echoes both through each well-enunciated word and the precise mannered quality to the album's musical choices. Chesnutt's voice has always come across as a mix of controlled anguish and chilling heartbreak.

Album opener "Coward" is a dark, ominous tale with stark, pensive guitar and strings backing Chesnutt's anguished vocals. This sets the clouded tone hanging over the majority of the album.

The bittersweet nature of Vic's lyrics encapsulates "Flirted With You All My Life" where the contrast of coy flirtations are buoyed by aching pain of remembering the slow, pained death of his mother.

Chesnutt's songs are filled with thought-provoking sincerity, ranging from his personal observations for his kin in "Granny" to the analogous "Chinaberry Tree."

While Chesnutt's voice is always front and centre throughout At The Cut, the tone and style of musical support varies from track to track. "We Hovered With Short Wings" features a single violin and brushed drumming that contrasts the heavier ambiance of the next track, "Philip Guston," which is dominated by swirling, edgy electric guitar and pounding drums that propel Vic's catatonic vocal repetitions.

After almost two decades, Vic Chesnutt continues to challenge and inspire his fans and fellow musicians with material that touches a myriad of emotions.

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