One Timely and One Belated Obituary. R.I.P. Jay and Vic

(note: This post was imported from Iapetus Beat)

I’m sad to hear about the death of Memphis punk-garage rocker Jay Reatard. Although I was more of an appreciater of his than a fan, I liked his music and enjoyed his audacious interviews, and I’m sorry to hear he’s gone. I’m trying to keep this blog at least tangentially about science, but there are some things I can't ignore. Another musician died over the holidays, and it deeply affected me, though it took me a while to digest. I'll take an aside from science writing to remember Vic Chesnutt, who died on Christmas Day, 2009.

Vic Chesnutt

Vic Chesnutt was a unique songwriter and a truly unusual voice from Athens GA – the home of many talented and unusual musicians. I heard his album The Salesman and Bernadette right before I moved to Athens, and its bizarre literate emotionalism still stands for me as a standard of Athens rock. Later, at the UGA Chapel, I saw him talk and play his way through a weird song cycle about the first president of the University of Georgia, Abraham Baldwin – songs which were, to my knowledge, never released. If that seems an odd choice of material I can only say that it wasn’t that far out for him, and the songs were meaningful and heartfelt. He was an eclectic and prolific songwriter. Michael Stipe of REM produced his first albums; he appeared in Billy Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade; he played with musicians as far removed as the great J. Mascis, Athen’s own jam band Widespread Panic, and Athen’s perrenial indie band Elf Power. He mentored his niece Liz Durrett, who has turned into a fine musician. He played some of his best work, to my mind, with the criminally underappreciated Nashville ensemble Lambchop. His last album, At The Cut, is among his best. Like most of Athen’s notables (and there are many), if you were around town you saw him at shows and bars once in a while.

He died of an overdose. It’s not for me to sort all that out, but he wrote about suicide throughout his career. If you want more biography you can read about him on online or listen to him on one of his last interviews on NPR’s Fresh Air. Some musicians we follow as something more than fans, even if we don’t know them personally, and that’s how I always felt about Vic Chesnutt. I offer my own small consolations to his family and friends. Goodbye, Vic.