I write all the songs on my own and the collaboration is on the arrangements.” I hardly ever write in the presence of other people. “Sometimes lyrics first, sometimes I have a melody and chord progression and plug in the lyrics, sometimes I write lyrics and melody at the same time - the way I prefer to do it. “I write songs all kinds of ways,” he explains. I’m a folksong writer it’s pretty much Rock & Roll and folksong structures. “Where I do use poetic devices a lot - metaphor, symbolism, simile, rhyme, of course - I don’t consider myself a poet. “I’ve been accused of being a poet for a long time,” Chesnutt says. Then again, “Flirted With You …” is poetically direct: “When my Mom was cancer sick/She fought but then Succumbed to it/ but You made her beg For it/Lord Jesus, please I’m Ready’/o’Death … Clearly I’m not ready.” On an At the Cut song like “Chinaberry Tree,” he’ writes, “Me with a Machete/Going at the chinaberry tree/All the Key Players watching me/ Through their simian groupthink.” Whatever else about Chesnutt, his lyrics keep you riveted to (and sometimes mystified by) what he has to say. It’s very raw in some places but also very architecturally sound. I think it’s a very sophisticated album musically. The musicianship and arrangements are incredible. “And it encompasses most of what I do in my singing and songwriting. “It’s a very adult album in many ways,” Chesnutt says. It covers wide territory - the swelling orchestration on the imploring “Coward,” the intimately minimalist acoustic “When the Bottom Falls Out,” the slashing rocker “Philip Guston” and the powerful “Flirted With You All My Life,” maybe the most intensely felt song about death since Ralph Stanley’s “O Death.” In 2007, they all worked together on North Star Deserter, which was recorded in Montreal by former Arcade Fire member Howard Bilerman, just as At the Cut was.Ĭhesnutt believes this is his best album to date. Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Fugazi. At the Cut is his second collaboration with members of cutting-edge Indie bands Thee Silver Mt. It is music both peacefully down-home and very, very ominous, like The Band playing outdoors as a storm gathers.Ĭhesnutt has also steadily collaborated with bands like Widespread Panic, Cowboy Junkies, Elf Power and Lambchop, judiciously working with innovative arrangements and growing ever stronger as a rocker. And his voice exudes rustic authenticity as it jumps from falsetto sweetness to biting anger or world-weary confession. His deepest thoughts are revealed through his arresting wordplay, which can be surreal, spookily Southern Gothic and starkly straightforward. Through 15 albums - including the brand-new At the Cut - and constant touring, he has made a name for his meandering, gorgeous melodies and his fearless exploration of dark and mysterious, often-autobiographical subject matter. A paraplegic using a wheelchair since breaking his neck in a 1983 car accident, the 44-year-old, Athens, Ga.-based Chesnutt may be physically confined but not creatively.
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