Hard-working country folk.

Part of the attraction of a career in music is an escape from the nine-to-five. But, as any Stone Roses fan will tell you, sometimes a little discipline wouldn’t go amiss. Having worked as a carpenter until the success of 2000’s Nixon LP, Kurt Wagner is no stranger to hard graft, however. And last year the Lambchop lynchpin sat himself down on his Nashville porch with the aim of writing a song a day. The end result was two new albums - Aw C’Mon and No, You C’Mon - so richly textured and fully realised it seems obvious that what most bands need isn’t succour for their tortured muses but a kick up the arse.

“I’ve always tried to maintain a work ethic about music,” says Wagner. “But the song-a-day idea was a way of becoming a better writer, since I’m not a naturally gifted songwriter.”

Undue modesty aside, the other catalyst for these albums’ creation came when Lambchop were asked to write a soundtrack for F W Murnau’s silent film, Sunrise, and many moments have a newfound cinematic scope. Whereas previous Lambchop albums, like How I Quit Smoking, were largely hushed and fragile affairs, Aw C’Mon and No, You C’Mon are more like warm summer breezes than whispering zephyrs, as sweeping string sections buoy aloft rather than blow away Wagner’s delicate vocals.

“The rhythm which pervades them makes these upbeat records,” Wagner opines. “The difference is that Aw C’Mon is designed as a flowing listening experience, while No, You C’Mon is a collection of stand-alone songs.”

Lambchop has a fluid membership of up to 13 musicians, yet their records have always sounded strikingly intimate. And, although they bear the musical hallmarks of their Nashville home, the images they evoke are more universal than the ten-gallon hats of the mainstream country music industry. Its roots may be in country but this music has grown beyond borders, eschewing “me doggone died” clichés for mordant observational humour which has more in common with the wry literature of Jonathan Franzen and John Updike than Garth Brooks.

“Our music relates to the fact that we’re from Nashville, but that this is 2004 rather than 1964,” Wagner elaborates. “We try to reflect the experiences involved in that and, if viewed from that perspective, what we do makes sense and becomes a unique example of sound unto itself.” Unlike those album titles, there’s no argument there. Paul Clarke 30 January 04

Lambchop – Aw C’mon / No, You C’mon, released 09 February 04 on City Slang.

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