With new album on the way, Vic Chesnutt maps tour
Singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt has assembled a month of spring club dates to support his forthcoming album "Silver Lake," which is scheduled for release on March 25.
Chesnutt will be backed on the tour by a group dubbed the Amorphous Strums: Curtiss Pernice (Porn Orchard) on guitar, bass, omnichord and backing vocals; Sam Mixon (Porn Orchard, Sunshine Fix) on bass, guitar, omnichord, piano and backing vocals; and Ballard Lesemann (The Causey Way, the Rock-a-Teens) on drums, bass and backing vocals.
"Silver Lake," the critically acclaimed Athens, Ga.-based artist's 11th release, was recorded in a large living room in the Paramour, an 80-year-old hilltop mansion in the Los Angeles neighborhood after which the album is named.
Though most of Chesnutt's previous albums featured bare-bones production and instrumentation, "Silver Lake"--produced by Mark Howard (Lucinda Williams, the Tragically Hip)--is a more ambitious affair. The band for the album included Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo) on guitars and vocals, Daryl Johnson (Neville Brothers, Emmylou Harris) on bass and vocals, Patrick Warren (Michael Penn, Tracy Chapman) on keyboards and Mike Stinson (Christina Aguilera) on drums. Don Heffington (Bob Dylan, Victoria Williams) assisted on drums and percussion, while Chesnutt sang, played guitars, harmonica, Casio keyboard and omnichord.
A 1983 car accident left Chesnutt partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair, but his musical career blossomed in its wake.
"I didn't start reading until after the accident," Chesnutt said in a statement. "Before that I couldn't sit still long enough--except to read Beatle books --and [Anthony Scaduto's "Bob Dylan"]. I was 18 when the accident happened and afterwards I moved to Nashville. I shoplifted the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry and stayed up nights reading it; Walt Whitman, Wallace Stevens, W.H. Auden, Steven Crane. And Emily Dickinson, I loved her nursery rhyme rhythms."
In 1996, Columbia Records released "Sweet Relief II: Gravity Of The Situation--The Songs of Vic Chesnutt," a benefit album to assist musicians with medical and financial hardship. Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Hootie & The Blowfish, Garbage, Live and R.E.M. were among the artists who covered Chesnutt's songs on the album.
April
4 - Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge
5 - Carrboro, NC - Carrboro ArtsCenter
7 - Arlington, VA - IOTA
8 - Philadelphia, PA - North Star Bar
10 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory
11 - Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw
12 - Cambridge, MA - House of Blues
16 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall
17 - Champaign, IL - Ward's New Place
18 - Chicago, IL - Martyr's
19 - Madison, WI - Orpheum Stage Door
25 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards Cabaret
26 - Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
27 - Portland, OR - Dante's
29, 30 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom Of The Hill
May
2 - West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
3 - Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture Center
Vic Chesnutt plots fall tour through 'Cut' [October 2009]
Editor's Blog: Vic Chesnutt in Sacramento, CA [November 2008]
Vic Chesnutt taps into Elf Power for new dates [December 2008]
Vic Chesnutt plots new 'Developments' [October 2008]
Jonathan Richman, Vic Chesnutt line up new tour dates [January 2008]
Vic Chesnutt charts 'North Star' expedition [September 2007]



































