Vic Chesnutt & Mr. and Mrs. Keneipp Merriment (Backburner)

Vic Chesnutt & Mr. and Mrs. Keneipp

Merriment (Backburner)

The most immediately noticeable thing about Merriment is the gusto with which Vic Chesnutt opens up his vocal chords and lets loose his enchanting, warbly voice. He charges songs like the title track and the twisted circus tune "Mighty Monkey" with a frustrated passion that brings his always engaging lyrics to startling life. Fellow Georgians and Jack Logan cohorts Nikki and Kelly Keneipp wrangled Chesnutt into making this album with them on their Backburner label, writing and playing most of the music before presenting it to the frangible poet to put to words. The results are as disarming and sadly gorgeous as nearly everything Chesnutt puts his pen to, creating a cohesive narrative and coughing up more than a few memorable "singles" as well. The music is largely piano-based, the compositions wide-open and accommodating for Chesnutt's strangely phrased and oddly metered lyrical squirmings. But even on "Preponderance" and "Deeper Currents," when the drums are audible and the fuzzbox is kicked on, Chesnutt still stands above it all, belting out hilarious verse after defiant verse, singing out the frustrations of a lightning mind inside a ruined body until, once again, pain becomes beauty.