His music only had a slight impact on my record collection in the form of the second Sweet Relief tribute album, but I was saddened to read today of Vic Chesnutt's death on Christmas Day.
Sweet Relief is a charity that "provides financial assistance to musicians who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems".
Vic Chesnutt was paralysed in 1983, and according to his obituary in The Independent was facing "mounting medical bills of well over $50,000".
He appears to have taken his own life. Many of the lyrics on that tribute album point towards such an eventuality. But I always preferred the very last two words on the album artwork: Nil Desperandum.
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