Alice in Chains, ‘Nutshell’ – Butch’s Way Back Wednesday

As a music fan there is always something new and great, but there really is something special about the songs you grew up listening to. For me, that was 70′s and 80′s classic rock. If I am in a shi**y mood, I throw in a little Zeppelin or Rush and take a trip back to rolling in my mom’s T-Bird. Now every Wednesday you get to take that trip with me. It’s Way Back Wednesday with Butch, and today’s feature celebrates a historic album that entered the charts on this day exactly 20 years ago… Alice in Chain's, Jar of Flies.

Jar of Flies is the third studio EP by Alice in Chains, released on January 25, 1994. It was the first EP in music history to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 Chart with the first week sales exceeding 141,000 copies in the United States and was well received by critics. The EP has since been certified triple-platinum by the RIAA and has gone on to sell 4 million copies worldwide, making Jar of Flies one of the biggest sellers in Alice in Chains' catalog.

"Nutshell," although never released as a single, it is still today one of Alice in Chains' best-known songs. The song is notable for its emotional acoustic instrumentation and its electric guitar solo, as well as its dark lyrics dealing with loneliness, despair, and death. It is considered a staple of 1990's alternative rock despite not hitting a single U.S. Billboard chart or any charts around the world. The song is also well known for having opened the band's performance on MTV Unplugged in 1996.