Nutshell

nutshell

“Nutshell” is a song by American rock band Alice in Chains that originally appeared on the band’s 1994 EP Jar of Flies. The band played it on MTV Unplugged in 1996, and this rendition of the song was included on both the box set Music Bank (1999) and the compilation album The Essential Alice in Chains (2006). Since 2011, guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell dedicates “Nutshell” to Alice in Chains’ late original members Layne Staley and Mike Starr during the band’s concerts.

The lyrics were written by vocalist Layne Staley, and the music was written by bassist Mike Inez, guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell, and drummer Sean Kinney.

Bassist Mike Inez said of “Nutshell”, when asked what song makes him think of Layne Staley the most:

I think the No. 1 for me is “Nutshell.” Layne was very honest with his songwriting. And in “Nutshell,” he really put everything in a nutshell for everybody. That song still gets me choked up whenever I play it. I get a little teary-eyed, and sometimes when we’re doing the arena runs especially, they’ll have some video footage of Layne. And I look and see me and Jerry [Cantrell, vocals and guitar] and Sean [Kinney, drums] looking the wrong way. We’re not looking at the audience, we’re looking back at Layne, and it’s pretty cool that there’s still that song for us. Yeah, it’s just a sad thing.

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.” – Maya Angelou