Co-Balt

Vic Chesnutt writes weird, wonderful folk-pop ditties that live by the credo ‘less is more.’ Widespread Panic, uh, don’t. Their thing involves big, meaty blues-guitar licks, deep grooves, and an instrumental prowess that would shame Joe Satriani. Co-Balt is the second collaboration between the two as Brute. It pairs Chesnutt’s lyrical and vocal quirks with more powerful, assured backing music than he’s used to. The problem is Chesnutt’s oddball tales rarely ask for more powerful, assured accompaniment. His strange, flawed characters fit best with a somewhat shaky soundtrack; in fact, they sometimes seem a little overwhelmed when Widespread start kicking out the jams. But the situation is hardly terminal. On “Cutty Sark,” the band plays it low-key, allowing Chesnutt’s charming braying the spotlight. The bluesy piano boogie “Morally Challenged” works too, if only because a song with the line “She’s your morally challenged sister from Albany, Georgia/You never liked her but then you never porked her,” can’t help but work. There’s plenty of similar moments enlivening Co-Balt, though with the talent assembled, there should probably be more than just moments.