SONG PREMIERE: Loose Cattle Feat: Michael Cerveris Drop Poignant Cover of Vic Chesnutt’s “Aunt Avis”

“Help me remember how to be good/How to continue when I feel I really shouldn’t,” might sound disparaging to many, but translates to reality to many who are struggling to stay afloat. These are the lyrics penned by the late Vic Chesnutt on his song “Aunt Avis,” and more famously covered by fellow Athens musicians Widespread Panic in both album and in their live show repertoire routinely.
Chesnutt never hid his vague and sometimes undesired stance on life. The wheelchair-bound singer with the mighty voice and scaringly truthful lyrics that were self-deprecating and goose-bump inducing. In fact a year before his death in late 2010, he released the suicide trifle “Flirted With You All My Life.”
Tony Award-winning actor Michael Cerveris, who you may know from Mindhunter, The Tick, Gotham, The Good Wife, Fringe & Treme has always shared an affinity for Chesnutt’s candid musical presentations and his band Loose Cattle has released a poignant cover of Chesnutt’s “Aunt Avis, ” a chilling rendition that gives a new haunting element to the dim track. Cerveris sings with a brooding openheartedness that touches the nerves in the realm of Iron and Wine, Devendra Banhar,t and Bonnie Prince Billy. Glide is premiering the track below…
“Vic was a friend of mine in the years before he passed and he’s one of the songwriters I revere most to this day. This song of his always haunted me, and in the past year, the questions of “how to remember how to be good” and “how to continue” when you’re not sure how or why you should, seem pretty damn vital right about now,” says Cerveris.

Loose Cattle was formed Cerveris along with Kimberly Kaye (who started out in Warped Tour ska bands) from a shared love of Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash crossed w/ X’s John Doe and Exene. The current lineup also includes René Coman and Doug Garrison (Iguanas and Alex Chilton band) and Rurik Nunan (The Whisky Gentry and Cracker) on fiddle.

Cerveris was a sideman for Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould, he’s shared stages w/ Pete Townshend, The Breeders, Pixies’ Frank Black, Teenage Fanclub, starred in films w/ Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini and John C. Reilly… plus Broadway shows from The Who’s Tommy to Sweeney Todd.

Loose Cattle nods to their punky pasts and country roots while also showcasing their often-poignant punch as an alt-country band. According to Cerveris, “There’s something about having a clear-eyed, borderline cynical eye on the world while dancing a country waltz with a big old heart on your sleeve that is the place where this band lives.”

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