In The Bible, his previous album of original material released in 2022, Kurt Wagner posed those difficult questions that tend to haunt us more insistently once we have lived a long life: he addressed death, the body as it ceases to be young, the ageing of his father, or, put simply, offered us a reflection on time but one marked by peace, without conflict or fear. If we needed an image for this moment in Kurt Wagner’s life, here it is now, accompanying this tour: the American musician gazing back at us with a serene expression and a long beard, as though symbolically telling us that time is a good companion.

Perhaps this is why Lambchop have recently scaled things down on stage, allowing the songs to loosen and expand, to outlive expectations, and to leave valuable room for an intimate dialogue with his collaborator Andrew Broder. Punching the Clown, Lambchop’s new album, offers another chapter of this intimacy, shaped by affection, humour, and a measure of grief, written in a minimal, unadorned vocabulary, closer to our innermost nature. A beautiful achievement for someone who, over more than 30 years, has given us a legacy of songs about the trivialities of our lives and existence – where love, tenderness, community, Nashville, and the grandeur of small things all find their place.