According to the New York Times:

December 24, 2009, 2:20 pm
Vic Chesnutt, Singer, Is in a Coma
By BEN SISARIO

Vic Chesnutt, a singer-songwriter from Athens, Ga., beloved by fans and critics for his disarmingly open songs about mortality and pain, is in a coma, his family has confirmed. They did not say what caused the coma.

News about Mr. Chesnutt's condition spread through the Internet on Wednesday through posts on Twitter by the singer Kristin Hersh, who has played with him.

Mr. Chesnutt, 45, has been in a wheelchair since a car accident when he was 18, and was discovered in the late 1980s by Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who produced his first two albums. Since then Mr. Chesnutt has released at least a dozen more albums, including two this year, "At the Cut" and "Skitter on Take-Off."

In a review of a recent concert in New York, Jon Pareles noted that Mr. Chesnutt's songs contemplate "not just mortality but also the broader inevitability of collapse and decay."