How I Quit Smoking (CD - 1996)

Lambchop: Kurt Wagner (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars); Jonathan Marx (vocals, clarinet, alto saxophone, cornet); Deanna Varagona (vocals, alto & baritone saxophones); Bill Killebrew (acoustic & electric guitars); Steve Goodhue (guitar); Paul Niehaus (double-neck lap steel guitar); Hank Tilbury (banjo); John Mock (tin whistle, recorder); John Delworth (Farfisa organ, Hammond M-3 organ); Mike Doster (acoustic bass); Marc Trovillion (electric bass); Allen Lowrey (drums); C. Scott Chase (percussion).

Additional personnel: David Davidson, Pamela Sixfin, Clara M. Olson (violin); Kristin Wilkinson (viola); John Catchings (cello).

Recorded at Sound Vortex, Nashville, Tennessee in 1995.

Personnel: Jonathan Marx (vocals, clarinet, alto saxophone, cornet); Deanna Varagona (vocals, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Kurt Wagner (guitar, electric guitar, classical guitar); Steve Goodhue (guitar); Hank Tilbury (banjo); Pamela Sixfin (violin); John Delworth (Farfisa); Allen Lowrey (drums).

Recording information: Sound Vortex, Nashville, TN (1995).

Unknown Contributor Role: John Catchings.

With the band's second album, they perfect the sound introduced on their impressive 1994 debut I HOPE YOU'RE SITTING DOWN. The Lambchop sound is at once self-mocking and quietly intense, achieving the sort of dichotomy usually reserved for Leonard Cohen records. Lambchop had yet to incorporate the funky R&B influences that would come to the fore on THRILLER and WHAT ANOTHER MAN SPILLS. HOW I QUIT SMOKING is a more sedate affair, filled with hushed vocals, shimmering, reverb-drenched guitar and elegant string and horn lines that support Kurt Wagner's wry, often dark, lyrical observations. However quirky Wagner's vision and delivery there's still undeniable warmth to the sound, making HOW I QUIT SMOKING as undeniably pretty as it is subtly subversive. minimize