Punching The Clown - Coloured Vinyl

On Lambchop's seventeenth album, "Punching the Clown," Kurt Wagner returns to his roots. Inspired by a late-night radio encounter with an unfamiliar gospel recording, Wagner immersed himself in the world of "lined-out singing"—a centuries-old Scottish-Appalachian call-and-response tradition in which a single lead singer guides a choir word for word, without embellishment, through hymns. This spirit of raw, communal voices permeates every moment of "Punching the Clown": Wagner spent years studying great songwriters and relearning his craft from the ground up, whittled down dozens of songs to twelve.

Produced by Ryan Olson and recorded from August 25th to 27th, 2025 at April Base, Wisconsin with guitarist Andrew Broder, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) on banjo and a six-part choir, assembled by Blake Morgan and under the sound engineering of Lambchop veteran Mark Nevers, the album is graceful, ironic and quietly disturbing.

The album features Kurt Wagner (vocals), Andrew Broder (guitar), Justin Vernon (banjo) and a six-part vocal ensemble, supplemented by additional choir recordings in London and Minneapolis.