Independent spirit
Miles Fielder talks to Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner about why his band are far more than just alt.country as they head for T on the Fringe.
‘ ou get together and hay e a good time. and see what kind ol‘ racket you make] l.anihchop lead singer Kurt
Wagner says with a grayelly laugh. Wagner.
who looks like a garage mechanic wearing
Buddy Holly specs and sounds like Tom Waits~
younger hrother. is recalling his teenage years
growing up in his adopted home ol‘ .\'ashyille.
'l‘ennessee. a iiiusic town where there was no
shortage ol l‘olk to jam with. ‘When you‘re
growing up in \asliyille.' Wagner says. 'a lot
ol~ people are playing iiiusic l‘or one reason or
another. It was \ery light-hearted.‘
Wagner's comments on his youtht‘ul approach to music-making hold true today with his inuso-l‘ayourite collectiy e that's ol‘ten and somewhat reductiyely lahelled as alt.county. lndeed. Wagner might equally he talking ahout how he and the hand put together the new alhuni. lhunugvtl. l.anihchop‘s eighth studio recording in II years inine il‘ you count the douhlc disc .-\w ("mini/No. )2)” ("mon as two records). lM/imgt't/ is already heing touted hy music critics as the hands hest alhum yet. which is saying something giyen their discography already contains two suhlime records: Ztlllll's Nixon and 2002's I.\ .-l Woman. It is certainly singer/songwriter Wagner’s most 0\ L‘l'll) personal I‘L‘L‘til'd [0 date.
~That‘s jllst where l CIILlL‘tl up going when l was writing the thing.‘ says Wagner. talking ahout the suhiect in an elliptical manner that matches the nature of his song lyrics. ‘1 realised I was dealing with yery personal stut't'. I'm always thinking ahout interjecting personal
40 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 4
things in what l write. hut I usually do it in an ohsery‘ational way. In this case. mayhe I looked inward lii‘st. II is kind til. direct liit' me. or as direct as I'll eyer he.' he laughs.
Wagner recently got over a nasty cancer
scare. ‘lt was a pretty tough year l'or me.‘ he say s. ‘hut a lot ol' triends seemed to he haying a hard time. too. The world seems to he . . . It‘s a tough time to he around.' he says with another throaty laugh. ‘I pretty much stay ed in my room. to write the record. I get an idea and then the hand gets together and we start arranging my thoughts.’
This is how l.amhchop haye always worked. and with a rolling collectiy‘e ol' anything hetween si\ and 3t) menihers. Wagner and co hay e heen credited with creating the New Nashy'ille Sound. But hilling it as alt.country doesn‘t do justice to Lanihchop‘s experiments with the Detroit Motown (on Nixon). stripped down sound tls .-\ ll'umunl and orchestrations and lilm scoring l.-\u‘ ("mun/No. You ("mo/z. which includes tracks composed for their score to l’W .\lurnau's silent movie classic .S'unri's'el. ey en electronica tin the form of interludes hetween tracks on the latest alhunii.
That latest innoy'ation comes courtesy of Hand ()t'l‘ (‘uha. an outfit composed of three musicians including Lanihchop regular guitarist William Tyler. ‘11 was natural that we would eyentually create things together.‘ says Wagner.
There are two music scenes in Nashy‘ille. The mainstream scene operates in the classic session style tor as Tyler puts it. ‘Peanuts on the floor and ey'ery'hody's trying to he like
l
mbchop operates with hing from six to 20 Members. led by Kurt
l Wagner (below)
‘I REALISED I WAS DEALING WITH VERY PERSONAL ST UF F '
Steye liarl'l and is epitomised hy that hoary old yenue The (irand ()le ()pry. The alternatiye one is wildly eclectic. shot through with the spirit ol' independence and operates on the margins ot‘ the city's music industry. Wagner and the l.amhchop collectiye hclong to alternatiye .\'ashyille.
‘We‘re from Nashyille: we grew up there.‘ says Wagner. 'lt informs the way l.amhchop is. But we‘re not holstered hy the commercial infrastructure. We‘re not answering to labels. We‘re making music essentially l'or ourselyes.‘
That‘d he getting together and making a racket. then.
T on the Fringe, Liquid Room, 0870 169 0100, 5 Aug, 7pm, £17.50.