While his songs play out as evocative tone poems—humorous and tragic short stories and dreams with literary aspirations—they wouldn't reach their euphoric heights without Vic Chesnutt's aching and beautifully rustic voice lending them power beyond the written page. 2003's Silver Lake was his first album since 1998's The Salesman and Bernadette to utilize a reasonable studio budget and professional musicians suited to providing color and power to his acoustic tracks. Patrick Warren's keyboards complement Chesnutt's introspective style on the forlorn "Stay Inside." "Girls Say" is a sad but darkly humorous take on the battle of the sexes. Don Heffington and Mike Stinson add drums and percussion to the tunes as if they were ladling out a precious commodity, giving Chesnutt the maximum amount of space. Chesnutt's own instrumental chops can be heard on the folksy harmonica of "2nd Floor" (before the song lifts off the ground) and with the blistering guitar solo that nails down "Stay Inside."