Saturday, January 02, 2010

Music, Fishing, and Vic Chesnutt

The making of a good song and a good day of fishing consist of a similar pusuit, solving a puzzle to succeed. A good day of flyfishing means figuring out the right tactic coupled with the right conditions. Anything less, and you'll be catching fewer fish than the other guy. Sometimes, thinking out of the box will reward you in spades. The same goes for the writing of a good song. Putting each instrument together to form a new and different sound reflects the same ingenuity and time investment that flyfishing does.
One of the great solo songwriters in my lifetime, Vic Chesnutt took his own life last week, on Christmas Day. It was a tragically predictable ending for Chesnutt, who was dealing with bouts of deep depression since he became partially paralyzed after a one car wreck when he was 18. He was a master of words, and he wrote great songs, some with snide humor and very dark undertones. After his wreck, he could only play simple chords on the guitar but still managed to put his musical stamp on history through solving the puzzle of a great song time and time again. We will miss you Vic, I bet you would have made a great flyfishermen...

Here's some info on Vic.

Here's a couple of tunes he wrote


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