Lambchop








Recent News & Press

4-8-2009 LIVE RADIO: NPR's World Cafe

Lambchop: Americana, Bound For 'Ohio'. Interview and live performances of "Ohio, "Slipped Dissolved and Loosed," and "National Talk Like a Pirate Day."
Read more...

3-30-2009 VIDEO: La Blogotheque’s The Take Away Shows

Every week, La Blogotheque invites an artist or a band to play in the streets, in a bar, a park, or even in a flat or in an elevator, and we film the whole session. Watch "National Talk Like a Pirate Day" and "I Believe In You."
Read more...

3-1-2009 VIDEO: Black Cab Sessions

Kurt takes a rainy cab ride and covers Dylan's 'You’re a big girl now.'
Read more...

2-12-2009 REVIEW: Live Last Night: Lambchop (Washington Post)

"The Chop Wagner brought to D.C. was modest compared to previous lineups (which have swelled to 20 players), but judging from the dynamic range they displayed, it may be the ideal setup to express his soul-rock-jazz-poetry hybrid. The key was guitarist William Tyler, who played with a sympathy, tastefulness and sting worthy of Steve Cropper. "
Read more...

2-5-2009 INTERVIEW: Lambchop's popularity comes as a surprise to front man (The Daily Times)

"Not that those who love Lambchop want the masses to discover their favorite band. Sure, they wouldn't mind a few additional ardent followers, but the music that Wagner makes is so sublime ... so ethereal and wonderful ... that it's like a secret getaway, a secluded place in the wilderness where you can wallow in beauty and drift away on clouds and not have to share it with anyone except for a chosen few."
Read more...

1-26-2009 REVIEW: Creative lyrics grab spotlight in show (The Columbus Dispatch)

"In its way, Lambchop found the sweet spot repeatedly during the concert, be it with a lovely melody, Wagner's special lyric emphasis, or the band's relaxed but intuitive reading of its leader's vision."
Read more...

1-25-2009 INTERVIEW: Titles don't describe sound of his songs (The Columbus Dispatch)

"When the entire album was being worked on, the presidential primaries and the notion of Ohio being a pivotal place was in the air a lot," Wagner said. "I'm sure it's confusing to what the hell the songs mean. But, to me, it's a legitimate thing. I always try to let the experience of what's happening when I'm writing enter into everything."
Read more...

1-24-2009 REVIEW: Lambchop and Theodore at Off Broadway, Friday, January 23, 2009 (Riverfront Times)

There's no band that really sounds like Lambchop...But with the opening chords of "OH (ohio)...it's clear how carefully arranged each part is, how Wagner's melodies quiver and surge, and how the whole feels like a living, pulsing organism. Bass player Matt Swanson was astonishing...Tony Crow...sat behind a Kurzweil keyboard, finding the right spaces for quick, elegant runs...drummer Scott Martin kept every song tight....
Read more...

1-19-2009 INTERVIEW: All I Have To Do Is Dream: Lambchop clears the way for its first St. Louis appearance in a decade (Riverfront Times)

Lambchop's most recent album, last year's OH (ohio), is its most evocative and most purely melodic disc, a collection of love songs and dream songs that pushes Wagner's word-association games past the point of simple play....OH (ohio) ends with "I Believe," a song written and recorded by Don Williams, a smooth and nuanced singer who has never resisted sentimentality. In Lambchop's hands, the familiar song becomes a mysterious reverie--beautiful, gossamer and strange, but utterly free of irony.
Read more...

1-16-2009 INTERVIEW: Oddly engaging Lambchop grows on you (Louisville Courier-Journal)

Lambchop is the kind of band that slips quietly into your life...The music is familiar, but not quite; like an aunt who shows up for Christmas with an unannounced nose job. You want to call it country, but you know that's wrong, alt- or otherwise, and it in no way explains the splashes of Burt Bacharach or Earth, Wind & Fire.
Read more...

11-6-2008 REVIEW: Lambchop, Union Chapel, London (The Independent)

"...the strong, mysterious songs on 10th album OH (Ohio) are his best since Nixon. ...After a pass through old favourites, this perfectly judged gig finishes with Don Williams's "I Believe in You."
Read more...

11-4-2008 REVIEW: Lambchop - Glasgow Oran Mór (ExtremeListeningMode.com)

"As gigs go, though, it’s pretty special...The sound is perfect, absolutely crystal clear - a kaleidoscope of interlocking parts forming a musical jigsaw of something really quite beautiful."
Read more...

11-3-2008 REVIEW: Lambchop at Union Chapel (Music OMH)

Lambchop can lift the roof off of any venue when they get into full swing.
Read more...

10-31-2008 REVIEW: OH (Ohio) (Aversion)

"'Ohio' borrows a dusky mood from Leonard Cohen, and, though piano, guitars and backing singers cluster into the mix, they're spaced out thin enough to let the atmosphere stay on board...Juggling a lot of instruments is relatively easy. Juggling a lot of instruments this fluidly and artfully, though, is another matter altogether.
Read more...

10-27-2008 PREVIEW: Lambchop: still doing it their way (Reading Evening Post & Wokingham Times)

Now, almost two decades later, Lambchop return with their 10th album, OH (Ohio). The musical landscape could hardly be more different.
Read more...

10-13-2008 REVIEW: Mutton Doing (New Yorker)

"'Slipped Dissolved and Loosed,' the lead single, is one of the most beautiful love songs Wagner has ever written..."
Read more...

10-10-2008 REVIEW: OH (ohio) (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

"'OH (ohio)' closes with a cover of Don Williams' "I Believe in You" that does the countrypolitan veteran more justice with its whisper than most of its C&W contemporaries can accomplish with bellows.
Read more...

10-9-2008 REVIEW: Music Review (Paste Magazine)

"...you just cherish the man, and his work, for the illogical, indescribable blips that they are."
Read more...

10-9-2008 REVIEW: Music Review (Tiny Mix Tapes)

"...Lambchop are able to project an air of intimacy of which few bands are capable."
Read more...

10-9-2008 INERVIEW: Random Rules (Onion AV Club)

Kurt does the Ipod shuffle. Don't miss the comments.
Read more...

10-8-2008 TINY DESK CONCERT: Lambchop's Kurt Wagner (NPR)

"His performance was full of wonderful surprises, starting with a Bob Dylan song from Blood on the Tracks called 'You're a Big Girl Now.'...Wagner gave us his solo take on these songs, and we've captured those on video for you here....'National Talk Like a Pirate Day'...'Sharing a Gibson with Martin Luther King Jr'...'I Believe in You" by Don Williams...'
Read more...

10-8-2008 INTERVIEW: with Kurt Wagner (Pitchfork)

Their best work since 2000's still-underrated Nixon, the new album ranges from the ethereal folk of "Slipped, Dissolved, and Loosed" to the gentle seductions of "I'm Thinking of a Number (Between 1 and 2)" to the coda jam of "Popeye"....I caught up with Wagner recently to get his thoughts on Lambchop's new direction.
Read more...

10-8-2008 REVIEW: OH (ohio) (Pitchfork)

Let's see: A release date one month before the presidential showdown, an album named after the electoral-vote caboodle that Diebold "delivered" to Bush in 2004, a cover-art painting called "New Orleans Police Beating", and a concluding rendition of a 1970 jam rhyming "gasoline's in short supply" with "the rising cost of getting by": This Nashville collective has finally up and gone politico, right?
Read more...

10-7-2008 REVIEW: A Singular Sound Sustained (Boston Globe)

Lambchop may be evolving, but its capacity for sounding like nothing else remains intact.
Read more...

10-7-2008 REVIEW: OH (ohio) (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

OH (Ohio), Lambchop’s tenth proper album, finds the band in masterful form; Kurt Wagner and his seven accompanists...bring a dazzling sense of grace, balance, and drama to the melodies, and while one senses the size of the ensemble while listening to these songs, there’s no clutter or waste in the arrangements, and Lambchop is able to generate a compelling emotional immediacy no matter how broad their musical canvas.
Read more...

10-7-2008 REVIEW: OH (ohio) (JamBase)

"OH (ohio)...preserves their trademarks – lush melodies, hushed sing-speak vocals, magically beguiling lyrics – while they explore new, genre-bending, sonic landscapes.
Read more...

10-6-2008 REVIEW: OH (ohio) (OC Weekly)

"...Wagner maintains his thick, mournful whisper and deadpan sense of humor as he guides a handful of skilled musicians through these lush country/soul marvels."
Read more...

10-6-2008 INTERVIEW: The Dude Abides (The Skinny, Scotland)

When it comes to his music, however, there's a firm self-assuredness lurking beneath the modest exterior.
Read more...

10-6-2008 REVIEW: Lambchop pares lineup, finds focus (Tennessean)

It’s Lambchop’s brightest, warmest effort in nearly 10 years, and one that should excite longtime admirers while providing an inviting entry point for new ones.
Read more...

10-3-2008 REVIEW: OH (ohio) (The Sun UK)

OH (ohio), the tenth album in a 14-year recording career, is a glistening, fluid reminder of just how good the band (now stripped down to seven) can be.
Read more...

10-2-2008 INTERVIEW: Dissolved and Loosed (Nashville Scene)

Not unlike the legion of Lambchop albums before it, Ohio (OH) often offers serene, soothing music with surprisingly unsettling lyrics, unique conceptions of an examined, yet otherwise commonplace, life.
Read more...

9-19-2008 CELEBRATE: National Talk Like a Pirate Day (NY Magazine)

The festive folks at Merge generously drop this peppy track...
Read more...

9-18-2008 REVIEW: "National Talk Like A Pirate Day" (Steroegum)

Tomorrow's International Talk Like A Pirate day, everybody...any excuse to pause and appreciate new Lambchop is a good one,
Read more...


View archived articles from