Vic Chesnutt: Return engagement

Athens-based artist pairs up again with Canadian collaborators

Athens singer/songwriter Vic Chesnutt is as excited as anyone to be joining post-rock punkers Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-la-la Band for a five-date tour that ends in Atlanta Sunday. The discordant, cinematic Canadian septet begun by Godspeed! You Black Emperor’s Efrim Menuck backed Chesnutt on last year’s terrific North Star Deserter, and plans are to repeat the process for a new album next year.

The group’s supple, nuanced atmospheres proved ideal backgrounds for Chesnutt’s downcast gems, from the somber, world-weary ache of “Warm” to the pretty, easy-answers broadside, “You Are Never Alone,” where Chesnutt sardonically notes, “It’s OK/You can get a quadruple bypass/And then keep on keeping on.”

Chesnutt’s friend, filmmaker Jem Cohen, will produce again, choosing both the songs and the players (who will all return, including Fugazi guitarist Guy Picciotto). Though Chesnutt was initially intimidated – he ranks Godspeed! as one of the best live shows he’s seen – they hit it off immediately.

“It was like love at first sight,” Chesnutt says. “They made me feel very welcome, and then when we started playing music, something really clicked, and they inspired me very much.”

Chesnutt claims he’s “not at liberty” to reveal if the band will be backing him live on this short jaunt, but he did confirm a September release on Orange Twin of the album he recorded at home last year with Elf Power. It was recorded quickly, a song at a time.

“I made up the song one day, we played it the next and recorded it,” Chesnutt explains. The quick turnaround actually led Chesnutt to rewrite one of the songs: “I instantly realized after hearing it – the music turned out so well, the lyrics were stupid. Sometimes it’s not instant gratification you get, but instant perspective.”

After its release, they’re planning European and American tours together, and when Chesnutt returns he says he’ll begin work with Cohen and company, admitting that he’s yet to demo any of the songs. It’ll keep him busy, and that’s a good thing. “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings; it’s very true,” he offers.

Vic Chesnutt w/ Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-la-la Band. $17. Sun., May 25. 8 p.m. Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Ave. www.thedrunkenunicorn.net.