** 1/2 Vic Chesnutt and Mr. and Mrs. Keneipp, “Merriment,” Backburner.

Neither the Georgia cult figure’s most accessible outing nor his most intoxicated, this brief set (just 33 minutes) has its share of melodic grandeur and verbal minefields. Both sad sack and smart aleck, Chesnutt sings with the exaggerated deliberation of a naughty kid in a choir, and while his anarchic tendencies are checked by his pals’ firmly crafted piano/guitar folk-pop, it occasionally all hangs out. Chesnutt plays the Knitting Factory Hollywood on Sept. 4.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.