Written by Peter Jesperson Equal but opposite ... |
What we have here is Merriment, the 1st collaboration between Vic
Chesnutt and fellow Georgia pals and musicos Kelly and Nikki
Keneipp.
It's also the 7th Vic Chesnutt album when you really get down to
it ...
The project began with something bordering on extortion. Kelly
and Nikki
(along with another musico supreme, the one! the only! Jack
Logan!!) had
started a record label called Backburner. It was their way of
escaping the wretched, unscrupulous and really smelly corporate
music
industry while providing an outlet that could keep up with not
only
their own prolific-ness but that of other artistes of like minds.
Vic
was, shall we say, between things. The Keneipps thought it might
be a
good time to take advantage of Mr. C.'s inability to say
"No!" and guilt
him into putting his world-famous moniker on a Backburner
release. Once
they had him irrevocably backed into a corner -- the games began.
Borrowing a template from bestseller "The Logan Method"
(a 'how to'
manual you might find at Amazon.com) the dynamic husband/wife
team
composed all of and played most of the music. Vic then wrote
lyrics and
sang them while occasionally contributing his inimitable
gut-string
guitar accompaniment. Curtiss Pernice and Sam Mixon from Porn
Orchard
stopped by and did some out o' this world backup vocals on
"Sunny Pastures."
When asked what in particular he was going for
this time around Vic replied, "I was just writing things I
thought
would tickle Kelly. We left it simmering on the backburner in the
crock pot for
a long while until it smelled like food. Then, we said it was
done."
The results are, quite audibly, one of a kind -- something
neither party
would have been able to conjure on their own. There are bits of
Lewis
Carroll, funny, ominous, Brecht-Weill-ian nursery rhyme words,
recitation, singing and music (stuff that will make you shudder
but then
you won't be sure just why). And some just plain silliness. It's
a piano
based record with six and twelve-string guitars and stunning
basses
(see "Preponderance"!) and clarinets and wacky
percussion ... all the while
Vic Chesnutt is SINGING HIS ASS OFF (you know, like he started
doing on
"Maiden" on The Salesman & Bernadette?). All
recorded at the Keneipp home
recording complex. If the neighbors only knew .
A little bit about the cast of characters:
Vic Chesnutt was born in Florida and raised in Georgia and began
his
career singing in cover bands. He wrote, sang and played piano
with
Athens, legends The LaDiDas before going solo in the late
eighties. He
made four albums for Texas Hotel (Michael Stipe produced the
first two),
one for Capitol and his most recent for Capricorn. He has been
the subject
of Sweet Relief II, a collection of his songs as sung by the
likes of Madonna,
The Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage.
Nikki Keneipp was born and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
and received a
Bachelor Of Musical Arts Degree specializing in MusicTheory.
Later she
had a short stint in graduate school with a focus on music and
literature which she found, ultimately, unfullfilling! Nikki
debuted her
many musical talents on Jack Logan's Tinker album in 1999.
Kelly Keneipp was born and raised in Lawrenceville, Illinois and
is best known as
the right hand man of Jack Logan. Kelly plays guitar, piano and
bass and
has co-written with Jack since they were in high school together.
Suffice to say that
without Kelly there would be no Logan.
(For Vic's Tour
Info Click here)
send your order
to:
Backburner Records
Mail Order
Department
PO Box 1212
Winder,GA.30680
or
e-mail us !!!