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posted September 21, 2009

This fall Vic Chesnutt will embark on a six-week North American tour in support of "At the Cut," the Athens, GA-based singer-songwriter's latest effort. The touring band features Fugazi's Guy Picciotto and members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion, all of whom collaborated with Chesnutt on the new album which is out September 22nd on Constellation Records. "At the Cut" is the follow-up to North Star Deserter, Chesnutt's 2007 collaborative recording with the same group, lauded by SPIN for "[turning] chronic disquiet into disturbingly palpable dread-folk" and Pitchfork for "[sounding] like a return to the dark woods after years in the city."
Recorded by former Arcade Fire member Howard Bilerman at Montreal's Hotel2Tango studio (the same location where the band recorded "North Star Deserter"), "At the Cut" focuses on themes of cowardice, courage, mortality, tenacity, defiance, mourning and memory. The opening track, "Coward," was originally written for director (and Chesnutt collaborator) Jem Cohen's Empires of Tin and premiered in a live performance by Chesnutt and his band at the 2007 Vienna Film Festival.
To be made available on CD and LP, the album's artwork features original and found photography by Jem Cohen. Constellation Records has made a pair of album tracks, "Chain" and "Philip Guston," available for download in advance of the record's release.
In the 19 years since Chesnutt's debut album, he has made his mark by collaborating with a wide range of artists including Michael Stipe, Lambchop, Bill Frisell, Elephant Six mainstays Elf Power, Widespread Panic and the Cowboy Junkies. Hailing from rural Georgia and confined to a wheelchair since an automobile accident at the age of 18, Chesnutt has released 15 critically acclaimed records; been covered by a number of artists on the tribute album Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation including R.E.M., the Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna and Sparklehorse; was the subject of the 1992 PBS documentary Speed Racer and appeared in the Oscar Award-winning film Sling Blade.
VIC CHESNUTT