Lambchop Returns In October

Solo tour from Kurt Wagner to follow.

By Fred Mills

It’s one of the more idiosyncratic album titles of the year thus far, but then, it’s by one of Americas most idiosyncratic combos. 'OH (ohio)' is by Nashville-based Americana eclectics Lambchop, and it’s due Oct. 7 from Merge.

According to Merge the record wax co-produced by the group's songwriter/vocalist  Kurt Wagner and part-time 'Chopper Mark Nevers, at the latter's Beech House studio. It features eleven new songs all written by Wagner, “notably the soul folk of ‘ Slipped Dissolved and Loosed,’  the galloping rhythms and chiming guitar-piano interplay of
‘ National Talk Like a Pirate Day,’  and the funky ‘ Popeye’  —  that have come to be a Lambchop hallmark.”

In a statement, Wagner commented on his group and its many changes over the years,  saying, "The last few years have been about a distillation of the collective into a core band: Tony Crow (piano), William Tyler (guitar), Matt Swanson (bass), Alex McManus (guitar) and now Ryan Norris (keyboards, guitar) and Scott Martin (drums). This is their sound, and it's Lambchop's sound. But Lambchop more and more has become a vehicle for my songs and myself as an artist. I've fought against that interpretation for twenty years, but now I've just given up trying to fight it anymore."

Wagner added that he is planning a U.S. solo tour around the release of 'OH (ohio).'