A Vic Chesnutt Memorial Playlist

A playlist to memorialize the late Athens, Ga. singer/songwriter, who died at age 45 on Christmas Day:

1. Band Camp
A joyous bit of boyhood nostalgia, complete with a colorful anecdote about a schoolgirl soaking her tampon in vodka. (From the 2003 album Silver Lake.)

2. Lucinda Williams
This somber, sighing acoustic ballad illustrates the strange amalgam that made Vic so unique—his bizarre and creative word choice, vague but evocative poetry, unconventional phrasing and unmistakable voice. (From 1991’s West of Rome.)

3. Guilty By Association
A gorgeous song anchored by strings, guitar and piano, “Guilty By Association” was covered by Madonna ad Joe Henry on the 1996 compilation Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a tribute and benefit album for Chesnutt, a wheelchair bound paraplegic since a car crash at age 18. With the star-studded lineup (feat. Garbage, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins and many more), the set brought Chesnutt his first major national attention. (From 1995’s Is The Actor Happy?)

4. Concord Country Jubilee
A wistful bit of Americana: watery guitar, loping drums, everything just a little bit weary (but not unpleasantly so). It sounds like a B-side from The Band. (From 2009’s At the Cut.)

5. Panic Pure
A foreboding, anxiety-inspired track in which Chesnutt admits his nostalgic tendencies, then turns around and knocks you flat on your back with them. From the moment he chillingly whisper-sings opening line, “My earliest memory is of holding up a sparkler,” wringing out every ounce of emotion from each syllable of the final word, it’s pure rapture. (From West of Rome.)

6. Aunt Avis
There are frequent references to grandmothers in Chesnutt’s music, often inspired by the close relationship he had with his own. And this sparse, haunting tune calls down the wisdom, guidance and strength of a whole crew of elders and ancestors—mama and daddy, granny and grandaddy, great uncle and the titular aunt Avis. (From 1993’s Drunk.)

7. Mystery
In an unexpected melodic twist, this broody, twangy power-ballad borrows the chord progression of Pachelbel’s “Canon.”
(From 2008’s Dark Developments, a collaboration with Elf Power.)

8. Sad Peter Pan
A wistful tune pondering innocence lost. The lines, “I’m a reluctant rebel / I just want to be Aaron Neville / With a crown on my head / And my denim shirt all dark with sweat,” are vintage Chesnutt. (From Is The Actor Happy?)

9. Girls Say
A sleepy, creepy commentary on gender roles. Chesnutt sings the male and female parts alike. Women fare better, but neither sex comes out looking particularly great. (From Silver Lake.)

10. Wallace Stevens
Chesnutt’s music was a lot of things, but it wasn’t usually pretty. This song is an exception, a brief and beautiful ballad.
(From 2008’s North Star Deserter.)

11. The Garden
In a late-‘90s interview with Athens, Ga., alt-weekly Flagpole, Chesnutt discussed the way songwriters pressure themselves to make grand statements every time they write a tune, which can be creatively stifling. He said he didn’t approach his craft in that way. Since he’d written songs from an early age, it was just a part of life for him—he’d just as soon whip up a tune about what he’d had for lunch as he would an earth-shattering tune of existential despair. And that’s part of what makes his music so wonderfully human—it covers all aspects of life, from the mundane everyday occurrences (which can still be rich with metaphorical possibility) to the life-changing moments of high drama. Lazy and loping, “The Garden” is a great example of the former, with its lines about spring, broken tillers, splitting tomatoes and lazy, petulant children. And extra points for the excellent “mouth trumpet,” which—in this hushed yet shambolic context—is better than the real thing. (From 2005’s Ghetto Bells.)