American Songwriter » March/April 2009

An Interview With Vic Chesnutt

Evan Schlansky — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:00:02 +0000

"I ain't got time for the niceties." So sang Vic Chesnutt in 1996. The Athens-based singer/songwriter is a legend in his time-his songs have been covered by everyone from R.E.M. to Madonna. His latest record, Dark Developments, is a collaboration with his neighbors, Elf Power. This interview was conducted in March 2009. "I ain't got time for the niceties." So sang Vic Chesnutt in 1996. The Athens-based singer/songwriter is a legend in his time-his songs have been covered by everyone from R.E.M. to Madonna. His latest record, Dark Developments, is a collaboration with his neighbors, Elf Power. How did this collaboration come about? I became aware of Elf Power in the ‘90s. I kept up with them because I loved their music. And years later, Andrew asked me if I'd like to do some jamming, and I said I'd be honored. Also, besides Elf Power, there are two other dudes-The Amorphous Strums. Those two guys used to be in a metal band in the ‘80s, in Athens. How did you choose the song that ended up on the record? I wanted to exploit Elf Power, what they do. There were a lot of songs that I'd already had written, where I thought, "Wow, we could do a really good job on this," like "Bilocating Dog" and "Phil the Fiddler," these kind of pop songs with psychedelic overtones. Other songs like "Teddy Bear," we kind of just made up-I had this idea for a song one night, the next day we all got together and I said, "Hey everybody, I wrote this song last night." And it turned into a kind of weird reggae thing. Scratch that. Don't say reggae. I'm just kidding. It was a cool little groove, and I had these lyrics for it, and when I listened to it the next day to sing on it, I realized that the lyrics were stupid. Idiotic. I was like, what was I thinking, so I had to make up new lyrics. When you write, do you often reject what you have, and fix it later? A lot of times it'll go though five versions, with five totally different themes. That song is the only one that had two different versions on this record. But the rest of them are first drafts, with little tweaks. Do you typically write using stream of consciousness? No. Never. No, my songs are pretty thought out. I read something where someone described the record as having a "sinister vibe." Really? Hot damn. You like that? Well, I'm glad they noticed. So yeah, we think it has a sinister vibe. Can you elaborate? Well, we're sinister motherf**kers. I know I am. Especially when I have, um, a gang at my back. Sometimes maybe when I'm on my own, I'm meek and sad. But with a posse, you know, I'll cut ya ass. You don't shy away from things in your songwriting-you're not afraid to put yourself out there in all aspects. Yeah, in general, that's true. I'd say anything goes. If I'm gonna sing about something, I wanna sing about something that is worth singing about! I don't wanna sing about sappy shit You know? I wanna sing about something that fires me up! I wanna be about to cry when I'm up there, you know what I'm saying? Or I want to be so mad, I want to be spitting...I want spit to be flying out! You know what I'm saying? That's how I want to be when I write my songs.
AGE: 44 HOMETOWN: ZEBULON, GEORGIA FAVORITE SONGWRITERS: Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan

BEHIND THE SONG: “St. Louis Blues”

David Freeland — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:01:03 +0000

“I hate to see the evening sun go down…” “St. Louis Blues” Written by W.C. Handy “I hate to see the evening sun go down…” So begins one of the most famous songs in blues history, a work often compared to Shakespeare’s Hamlet for its iconic power and influence. At the time “St. Louis Blues” first appeared, however, in September of 1914, its 40-year-old composer (later to acquire a reputation as legendary as the song itself) was anything but renowned. It’s true that William Christopher Handy had already written one hit, “Memphis Blues” (1912), but its blessings proved to be mixed. After selling rights to the song for $50, Handy was forced to watch as others reaped the profits—an early lesson in the benefits of self-publishing. Teaming with a young lyricist and bank cashier, Handy established “Pace & Handy Music Company-Publishers,” at a time when few African-American songwriters had entered the publishing field. For his next big composition, the Memphis-based Handy turned to Beale Street for inspiration. Handy’s impressions of that vibrant thoroughfare, as recounted in his memoir, Father of the Blues, offer a distinct contrast to the sleepy tourist haven Beale has become today: Chitterling joints were as crowded as the more fashionable resorts like the Iroquois. Piano thumpers tickled the ivories in the saloons to attract customers, furnishing a theme for the prayers at Beale Street Baptist Church…Pimps in boxback coats and undented Stetsons came out to get a breath of early evening air and to welcome the young night. It was within this environment, holed up inside a rented room, that Handy created the work that was to seal his legacy. Even so, “St. Louis Blues” could hardly be described as an overnight success. The song’s reputation grew slowly, gathering stature as it traveled from town to town on the African-American vaudeville circuit—a crucial way of building publicity in those days prior to the development of radio. In their essay, “Sheet Music, Southern Vaudeville, and the Blues,” historians Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff write that the first performer to sing “St. Louis Blues” professionally was Charles Anderson, a popular female impersonator who included the song in his act as early as October of 1914. This supports an assertion made by singer Ethel Waters, who claimed to have learned “St. Louis Blues” from Anderson and, subsequently, to have featured it herself during a 1917 engagement in Baltimore. Eventually, Waters carried the song to New York, where she performed it in 1919 at Harlem’s Lincoln Theater—one of the city’s top showplaces for African-American talent. That year, Handy’s prized composition finally gained a wider audience—five years after its publication—through a hit recorded version by white vaudevillian Al Bernard. Even within the set framework of 12-bar blues, “St. Louis Blues” stands out as unique. The metaphorical line, “my man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,” was inspired, according to Handy, by a woman he encountered in St. Louis, “stumbling along the poorly lighted street.” Hungry and poor himself at the time, Handy was moved by the observation that the woman’s pain “seemed even greater.” Also unusual is the song’s bridge section (“St. Louis woman, with her diamond rings, pulls that man around by her apron strings”), which incorporates a shifting tango rhythm to lend what Handy characterized as a “tom tom beat.” With his genius for combining diverse musical influences, Handy established himself as one of the original genre-mixers. In time, “St. Louis Blues” would be interpreted by hundreds of artists, but few of them did it more brilliantly than the “Empress of the Blues,” Bessie Smith, whose 1925 version remains a landmark in musical history. Representing the pinnacle of what is now termed the “classic female blues,” Smith’s “St. Louis Blues” is a masterwork of control balanced with emotion. The young Louis Armstrong joins her for the first time on cornet, adding smooth and elastic phrases in what Smith biographer Chris Albertson has effectively cited as a duet between complementary voices (“one might mistake this effort for the fruit of a long and happy association”). It is through the Smith/Armstrong version that “St. Louis Blues” has most effectively journeyed into modern times, influencing a generation of rock vocalists—Janis Joplin once commented how Smith “showed me the air and taught me how to fill it”—and gaining a permanent spot in the American musical canon.

ZAC BROWN BAND > The Foundation

Jim Malec — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:35:21 +0000

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Atlanta sextet Zac Brown Band walks country music's fine line between commercial accessibility and artistic authenticity from the onset of the group's debut national release, The Foundation, which opens with "Toes," a peppy piece of Chesney-inspired beach escapism that finds lead singer Brown planting his ass in the sand while he rolls up a big fat one. Label: (ATLANTIC/HOME GROWN/BIG PICTURE) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Atlanta sextet Zac Brown Band walks country music's fine line between commercial accessibility and artistic authenticity from the onset of the group's debut national release, The Foundation, which opens with "Toes," a peppy piece of Chesney-inspired beach escapism that finds lead singer Brown planting his ass in the sand while he rolls up a big fat one. The Foundation melds capable takes on various staple country themes (lead single "Chicken Fried" hits on all the typical notes, from rural living to patriotism to "Cold beer on a Friday night") with a gripping cover of Ray LaMontagne's cocaine-flamed "Jolene" and a pair of deliriously fresh barn-burners, including the appropriately-plucked "Sic ‘Em On A Chicken," and "It's Not OK," a fiddle-driven recitation that, although stylistically derivative of Charlie Daniels, showcases gritty wit and an engrossing delivery by bassist John Hopkins, whose voice, full of gravitas, roars like a grizzly bear.

RAMBLIN’ JACK ELLIOT > A Stranger Here

Paul Zollo — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:25:19 +0000

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With a voice like the earth having grown even deeper and more resonant in recent years, Ramblin' Jack has teamed up with producer Joe Henry to deliver a starkly dimensional and soulful collection of dark blues. Henry casts his sessions like a savvy movie director, teaming up greats like Los Lobos legend David Hidalgo (accordion, guitar), the venerable Van Dyke Parks (vibes, piano), Jay Bellerose (drums) and more, and lets them play. The result has the authentic vibe of a field recording, like something captured rather than contrived, beautiful and brave in its purity. Some of the tracks, like "Soul of a Man" and "Falling Down Blues," combine layers of intimate acoustics deepened by portentous layers of mysterious sonics, like a man singing in a bomb-shelter with bombs bursting off in the distance. "Please Remember Me" is a weirdly wonderful amalgam of sorrow, blues-jazz, and exotica, sort of like a inebriated bordello band at a funeral. And when Elliott sings in heartsick tones of wanting somebody to tell him what is the soul of a man, the answer is not far off: these are dark old blues born in a different century-but that dark night of the soul is something we all feel and know, now maybe more than ever.

J.J. CALE > Roll On

Jewly Hight — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:23:23 +0000

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There's a songwriting philosophy that J.J. Cale has always seemed to follow, and it's his latest album title: Roll On. Cale's lean, minimal country-blues grooves are as constant and natural as a heartbeat.Label: ROUNDER
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

There's a songwriting philosophy that J.J. Cale has always seemed to follow, and it's his latest album title: Roll On. Cale's lean, minimal country-blues grooves are as constant and natural as a heartbeat. And yet, on this album, he also sounds like a man readying himself to stop for good. Four of the songs treat final concerns: "Former Me" remembers a distant younger self, "Leaving In the Morning" comes off like a living will, "Old Friend" savors meaningful friendships and "Bring Down the Curtain" is about timing an ending well. It's not surprising that Cale would write about such things. He is 70, after all. The songwriter/guitarist holed up alone in the studio to record several tracks, and some suffer from an uncomfortable blend of organic (his guitar playing and cool, grainy vocal delivery) and synthetic (texture-less drum machines). "Fonda-Lina" is the worst offender. But "Down To Memphis," "Oh Mary" and the title track prove Cale's enduring ability to balance reflection with hard boogieing.

GLASVEGAS > Glasvegas

Nicole Boddington — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:20:41 +0000

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Label: COLUMBIA
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

In the midst of a noise-pop resurgence (See: A Place to Bury Strangers' self-titled debut, The Magnetic Fields' Distortion, The Raveonettes' Lust Lust Lust, etc.), Glasvegas released two well-received singles: "Daddy's Gone" and "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry." The Scottish indie rock quartet got people's attention for pairing the sonic grandeur of Jesus and Mary Chain with ‘50s doo-wop and rockabilly. Produced by Rich Costey (Interpol, Mars Volta), the band's melodramatic debut doesn't live up to the hype. Album opener "Flowers and Football Tops" seems promising as singer James Allen wields his exaggerated Glasgow-ian drawl around the word "baby" with ease and charm. While his voice is affecting, at times, his baby-pool lyrics ("liar liar pants on fire") prove shallow and unimaginative, thus killing the mood the band tries so hard to create. It's easy to want to like them, but, in the end, Glasvegas is all noise and no soul. The album keeps you interested only in the hope that something wonderful is on the verge of happening, but unfortunately, it never does. Their inability to dig deep and truly resonate with listeners might keep this Next Big Thing merely on the verge as well.

MIRAH > (a)spera

Nikolai Schulman — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:18:39 +0000

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Label: K
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Call it anything you want: Mirah genre blends and bends like none other. She makes it whisper; she makes it haunt. Call it for lack of a better point of reference a perfect record. Ten tracks effortlessly evoke the essences of both baroque and minimalism simultaneously, with a peerless lyrical wisdom beyond her years. With her vocals up front, and every deftly employed instrument via exquisite arrangements, if there was a flaw somewhere, it couldn't be found or went unheard. For effect think Elliott Smith. In 2004 Mirah beckoned: C'mon Miracle. In 2009, it arrived in the guise of (a)spera.

MICHAEL STANLEY > Just Another Night

Holly Gleason — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:16:47 +0000

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Label: LINE LEVEL
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The Heartland's been reduced to unseen flyover. Not hip enough, nor glamorous enough? Is there a place for hard-working man and woman to get by? For Michael Stanley, the Cleveland rocker who got close, but never quite, it is a fertile reality for consideration-and with a Telecaster slung low, he tears into dead-end dreams, deals made with fate and the reckoning of lives lived as best as could be, evoking River-era Springsteen. Whether it's politically biting indictment "Lap Dogs Dance," marital erosion "Throwing Shadows," exhortative "Somebody Do Something" and "The Only Time That Matters" or the shrinking opportunities of "Angelina," there's urgency to the tracks and passion to the voice. The tour de force is the reckoning of a life more lived than to left "Winter," which considers the consequences and weighs victories for what they were rather than weren't. An article of faith in a time of falter... A witness to what could be, if only we'll pay attention.

LONEY DEAR: New Faces 09

Dustin Allen — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:14:49 +0000

Swedish twee-poppers Loney Dear know what it's like to tough it out under the radar. After years of promoting his homegrown CD-R demos with little more than an unwavering grit to guide him, frontman Emil Svanängen finally broke through with 2007's Loney, Noir when Seattle taste-makers Sub Pop gave him his shot. A bushy-tailed blush of sunshine, the album pushed against its dainty exterior with a level of song craft the former bedroom artist had never achieved before, especially with the track "I Am John" that easily stood out as one of the year's peaks.

Dear John, Loney Dear's latest release braves even deeper territory. Like all of Svanängen's work, the album centers around his pinched falsetto and an unshakeable fusion of crisp, finger-swept acoustics and synth-pop tweaks. But what truly pushes Loney Dear beyond typical singer-songwriter boundaries is how brazenly Dear John delves into dusky orchestral embellishments and turns his penchant for subtle Casio blips into a full-on electronic charge. An artist intent on the value of repeat play, Svanängen may never break past a fickle low-profile stature, but his music only expands within its finite, alluring confines. In other words, Loney Dear are too sweet for rock and roll, and all the better for it.

…AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD > The Century of Self

Evan Rytlewski — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:13:15 +0000

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Living up to their epic 2002 major-label debut Source Tags & Codes proved tricky for Austin's ...Trail of Dead, who stumbled trying to regain the right balance of muscle and grandeur, but the songs flow freely and forcefully on The Century of Self, a foam-mouthed effort that more than absolves the band's scattered failures. No ambitious gambles or gaudy excesses this time out, just oversized everything: leaden pianos, crashing guitars, chest-beating drums and sing-along rally cries. These are cheap thrills so perfectly executed that they cease to be cheap, and they're richly fleshed out with gorgeous tangents that never slow the album's breathless momentum.