Vic Chesnutt: Left To His Own Devices : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In 1999, folk weirdo Vic Chesnutt got together with the sprawling country-soul ensemble Lambchop and made his most expansive album yet, The Salesman & Bernadette. Two years later, he goes in the opposite direction for an album that, as the title indicates, is the work of Chesnutt, more or less, left to his own devices. It's filled with the kind of raw, intimate, quirky songs you'd expect from a guy holed up by himself with only a roomful of instruments he can sorta play, some cheap recording equipment and his imagination for company. Thankfully, Chesnutt's imagination is vivid, whether coming up with lyrical zingers like "your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas," for the spare, Dylanesque "Wounded Prince," or multi-tracking his vocals into sweet, strange country harmonies for the oddly moving, a cappella "Look at Me." He works pianos, organs, horns and strings into these diverse, detail-obsessed tunes, refusing to conform to the "guy with a guitar" folk cliché or let his limited resources stifle his creativity. (DAVID PEISNER - April 24, 2001)

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