Lambchop Pairs Justin Vernon’s Banjo with a Six-Part Choir on New Album ‘Punching the Clown’

Lambchop returns in August with Punching the Clown, an album built around the unlikely combination of Justin Vernon’s banjo and a six-part choir. The lead single “Weakened” is already moving through those elements. Vernon’s playing is direct and unhurried, a single chord pattern that holds steady while voices weave around it.

Kurt Wagner traced the spark to a moment in early 2024. A song came on the radio while he was on his way to get gas. Just a banjo strummed minimally and a small group singing. He never identified the track but it pointed him toward lined out singing, an old Scottish gospel form that traveled to Appalachia and settled into American roots music. That style, a spontaneous call and response sung a cappella, became the foundation for much of the record.

Producer Ryan Olson shaped the sessions, pulling Vernon in on banjo and organizing the choir that appears across every track. The credits mark a careful, almost austere gathering of musicians and voices. Merge will release the album on August 21.

“Weakened” offers the first full look at how Wagner’s discovery translated into new material. The song doesn’t reach for complexity. It rests on that repeated chord and a quiet vocal arrangement that sounds less like a performance than a private exchange. The choir slips in and out, unhurried.