Texas Hotel
1990
Little
About This Album
Vic Chesnutt is a singer/songwriter who can divide a room, and that might be one of the highest compliments one can pay. Listeners can be turned off by his personal style that values storytelling -- though not necessarily straightforward narrative -- over smooth and even-metered rhymes. But his legion of fans -- including many singer/songwriters -- embrace these very distinguishing characteristics. He is surely an original, taking up traditional music streams folk, country, rock & roll, and producing his own idiosyncratic song style. It is tempting to place Chesnutt in the Southern gothic literary tradition. There is a certain Southern flavor in his songwriting -- Southern in the sense that the lyrics are peopled with misfit outsiders who forge their own way, all described through Chesnutt's own cracked lens. But Chesnutt's scope extends well beyond the South, with allusions ranging from the San Franciscan ex-patriot dancer Isadora Duncan to the English poet Stevie Smith, whose voice is heard here in an aural-collage tribute. Michael Stipe, who produced Little, felt compelled to get the songs recorded after seeing live performances of Chesnutt. Stipe described Chesnutt as "an acerbic reporter on the events of the town (Athens, Georgia), who could've been lost forever.
Track List

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