Lambchop – Punching The Clown

Punching The Clown began as a ghost hunt. After hearing a haunting minimal song on the radio late one night, frontman Kurt Wagner went looking for it and failed, but in the process discovered lined out singing, a centuries-old form of acapella call-and-response gospel that began in Scotland in the 1800s before becoming a root of American gospel and country music when Scottish immigrants settled in Appalachia.

That discovery shaped everything about Lambchop's seventeenth album. Recorded over just three days at Justin Vernon's April Base studio, the twelve tracks rely entirely on Wagner's vocals, Andrew Broder's guitar, Vernon's banjo, and castanets, stripping the band's sound back to something skeletal and profound.

Formed in Nashville in 1986 by singer-songwriter Kurt Wagner, Lambchop are a critically acclaimed American alternative country and indie rock collective celebrated for Wagner's distinctive droll vocals, surreal lyrical wit, and an ever-evolving, eclectic approach to sound across seventeen albums.

If you love Bill Callahan, Will Oldham, & Calexico, you'll love Punching The Clown by Lambchop.