Though a longtime admirer since the late eighties, Michael Stipe produced Vic Chesnutt’s initial two albums without propelling the songwriter to wider recognition until the 1996 tribute project Sweet Relief Two appeared. That collection paired Chesnutt’s compositions with performances by Madonna, Hootie & the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins, and R.E.M., spotlighting the Athens-based artist who had become paraplegic after an automobile collision at age eighteen. Shortly following the accident, Chesnutt began performing contemporary acoustic folk in local venues around Athens, Georgia; one appearance at the 40 Watt Club caught Stipe’s ear and led to production assistance on Little, issued by Texas Hotel Records in 1990, and its 1991 successor West of Rome. The same year, Peter Sillen completed the documentary video Speed Racer, which later aired on PBS. Chesnutt’s third album, Drunk, arrived in late 1993, yet work on a fourth was postponed when he joined the collective Brute alongside Widespread Panic members David A. Schools, Michael Houser, and Todd Nance plus John Hermann, Johnny Hickman, David Lowery, and John Keane.
Following the July 1996 release of Sweet Relief Two, Capitol Records signed Chesnutt and issued his major-label debut About to Choke that autumn. Capricorn then released The Salesman and Bernadette in 1998, with Lambchop serving as backing band; disappointing sales prompted the label to drop him. Chesnutt nevertheless pressed ahead, recording Merriment with Kelly and Nikki Keneipp for a 2000 release, and that year he also joined longtime admirer Kristin Hersh for a series of U.S. concerts. Left to His Own Devices, a set of rarities, outtakes, and demos, followed in 2001. In 2003 he reached an agreement with New West, which put out Silver Lake the same year. Ghetto Bells appeared in 2005 and included contributions from jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and multi-instrumentalist Van Dyke Parks. Chesnutt tracked North Star Deserter in Montreal during 2006; Constellation Records issued it in 2007. Dark Developments, a collaboration with fellow Athens residents Elf Power, surfaced in 2008, and At the Cut arrived the next year. Vic Chesnutt passed away on December 25th, 2009.
