Cody ChesnuTTIF YOU GOWhat: Nightfall concert series featuring Cody ChesnuTTWhen: 8 p.m. Friday, May 17; Summer Dregs opens at 7 p.m.Where: Miller Plaza, corner of M.L. King Boulevard, Market and Cherry streetsAdmission: FreePhone: 423-265-0771Venue website: www.nightfallchattanooga.comArtist website: www.cchesnutt.comTHE OPENERSummer Dregs is a local indie pop band consisting of veteran local musicians Carl Cadwell (keys), Josh Green (drums), Travis Knight (bass) and Stephen Nichols (vocals/guitar) and occasional backing vocalists Mary Higgins and Nikki Ellis. For more information, visit the band’s Facebook profile at Facebook.com/SummerDregs.DISCOGRAPHY2002: “The Headphone Masterpiece”2006: “Black Skin No Value” (EP)2012: “Landing on a Hundred”
In a sense, Cody ChesnuTT is as much an emotional exhibitionist as a neo-soul singer with a vintage sound that’s as smooth as crushed velvet.
As he sings in a Teflon-coated tenor that’s immediately reminiscent of Marvin Gaye, the Atlanta musician says his greatest artistic goal is to keep his songs simple but honest. Through that simplicity, he says, he hopes to bring back music that people can connect with, a quality he says has become increasingly rare in modern music.
“There’s this whole robot thing that’s dominating the landscape, and I think that becomes a huge distraction,” he explains. “My music is about connecting on a human level again and feeling something — really feeling something.”
Music with feeling, with soul and flair, has been at the heart of ChesnuTT’s artistic universe since he was a child listening to Motown artists on the radio.