Vic Chesnutt

cover:CST46

North Star Deserter CD CST46

  1. Warm
  2. Glossolalia
  3. Everything I Say
  4. Wallace Stevens
  5. You Are Never Alone
  6. Fodder On Her Wings
  7. Splendid
  8. Rustic City Fathers
  9. Over
  10. Debriefing
  11. Marathon
  12. Rattle
Constellation Recordings

The songs on 'North Star Deserter' are some of the most bracing and intense we've ever heard from him: macabre and fearless, playful and funny, at times deeply personal and at others, incongruously hopeful. Stripped-down songs like "Warm", "Rustic City Fathers", "Over" and "Marathon" are juxtaposed with explosive rockers like "Everything I Say" and "Debriefing", while "Glossolalia" and "You Are Never Alone" feature wonderful arrangements and group singing.

The broad cast of players - all seven members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, along with Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), Chad Jones & Nadia Moss (Frankie Sparo), Eric Craven & Genevieve Heistek (Hangedup), Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Esmerine) and T. Griffin (The Quavers) - offered influences and approaches to Vic's music that yielded a record unlike any other in his substantial discography.

Recorded over the winter of 2006-2007, at one of the last sessions to take place at the original Hotel2Tango location in Montreal (the studio moved in spring 2007), we believe 'North Star Deserter' is the very best album Vic Chesnutt has yet made (while humbly acknowledging the boldness of such a statement). The sessions were orchestrated by Jem, who also oversaw production (along with Efrim and Thierry of Silver Mt. Zion, and Guy from Fugazi). The album was recorded by Howard Bilerman.

The record is available on CD and double 180g LP, with artwork by Michael Ackerman and Jem Cohen.