"I'm knee deep in five tours this year," says Lambchop ringleader Kurt Wagner, laughing. "It's great, but it does distract you from the work of actually making new music -- which I'm not used to, but I'm trying to find a way to coexist creatively and this other thing that's starting to happen."

This other thing includes a just-wrapped tour of Europe, the band's third this year. And on Halloween, Lambchop will begin its second 2002 U.S. jaunt, as the densely populated oddball Nashville ensemble continues to plug its latest lovely release, Is a Woman.

The album marks something of an unofficial Phase Two for Lambchop, who cleaned out the closet with an odds and ends compilation (Tools in the Dryer) in 2001. With Is a Woman Wagner and his nebulous ensemble -- which at times flirts with as many as twenty members -- have ditched much of the left-field country bloodline that informed their previous five albums and nearly boxed them into an alt-country cubbyhole. This time out, they've boiled the bones of countrypolitan, rock, soul and jazz down into a tasty stock that never over-commits to one genre. Wagner's lazy drawl, the lightly brushed strings of guitars and tastefully plucked piano chords are the sound of the new Chop, delivered so quietly, you expect to hear the buzz of crickets in the background.

"It's definitely got quite a bit of quiet in there," Wagner says. "When you work with a variety of people over a period of time, you have to try and make things grow in some way or another, otherwise it just doesn't stay very interesting."

According to Wagner, the quieter direction was a natural shift. "We listened to what the songs were about and tried to reflect that," he says. "And we sort of took all kinds of information and spewed it back out. Sometimes we've made attempts to shorten things a little, and we've managed to do it somewhat. But there's always a point too where we go, 'Well maybe that's just the way it's going to be' [laughs]. I guess it's just that I'm such a weirdo, and I never get around to writing songs in the formula."

For the upcoming U.S. dates, the group will be pared down from the fifteen or so regulars on Is a Woman to a slightly more manageable unit of eight or so. "What we've been doing lately is finding ways to present what we do in different kinds of lineups," Wagner says. "Part of the reason we made the record we did, was to make a sound that didn't necessarily have to have fifteen people up there playing it. The sound is flexible enough to where you can get away with three or four or whatever the lineup is that's comfortable for us. These songs lend themselves to that kind of interpretation. Whereas with the songs on [1999's] Nixon, to be presented as it is on the record, you really do have to have fifteen people there."

While the relentless touring hasn't been conducive to starting work on the band's next album, Wagner and crew did manage to cobble together Treasure Chest of the Enemy and Pet Sounds Sucks, a pair of live albums, which he hopes won't be the only tour documents. "It's just a way of generating some income while we're out on the road," he says, "but it's also to hear what we sound like live for those that don't get out. We had this idea of trying to record all the shows and then sell them right afterwards. It'd be kind of cool, if we can find a way to do it. I think there's a way, but we're too retarded to figure it out right now."

The tour will likely be followed by a spell of decompression back in Nashville, where Lambchop will begin writing again. "It's very easy to be ignored here," Wagner says. "There's so many people trying to be noticed [laughs], that it's the perfect place to sit around and do what you want to do, because nobody will pay attention to it anyway."

Lambchop tour dates:

10/31: Chicago, Abbey Pub
11/1: Columbus, Ohio, Wexner Center
11/2: Cincinnati, Southgate House
11/4: Cleveland, Grog Shop
11/6: Toronto, Trinity Chapel
11/7: Northampton, MA, Iron Horse
11/8: Boston, TBA
11/9: New York, Bowery Ballroom
11/10: Hoboken, NJ, Maxwells
11/12-13: TBA
11/13: Carrboro, NC, Carrboro ArtsCenter
11/14: Athens, GA, 40 Watt Club

ANDREW DANSBY
(September 5, 2002)