Kurt Wagner and Cortney Tidwell - Incredibly Lonely
“Not so much a replication, but more of a study in reclamation. We were into the idea of making a record of the type of country that we all seemed to hold in high regard, not for the kitschy-ness or the retro-ness, but for the beauty and simplicity it could impart to the listener” – Kurt Wagner, July 2010.
INVARIABLE HEARTACHE is an album inspired by a shared love of Nashville and its musical traditions. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner – a long time champion of the city’s history and charms – and Cortney Tidwell – whose family have, for decades, played a significant part in the city’s (country) musical life – are both fervent admirers of the music that has emerged from the city.
It was an early collaboration on Cortney’s Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up album that led to the two of them performing together at Nashville club The Basement in the summer of 2008. Such was the crowd’s overwhelming response that evening that the idea of a duets album was born, and though work didn’t begin for well over a year the concept was never forgotten. It was discussion about Cortney’s family history that led them to the Chart Records catalogue, a label run by Cortney’s grandfather Slim Williamson, A&Red later by her father Cliff Williamson, and for which her mother Connie Eaton also recorded.
The result of their subsequent fascination with what they discovered on dusty forgotten vinyl is an album that pays tribute to art of the duet and the classic songwriting that lay behind many of the albums and singles released by the label, a tribute on a grander scale to the forgotten sounds of ‘Music City USA’. cityslang.com
‘Incredibly Lonely’ is a cover of a song recorded by Gene & Rod for Nashville’s Chart Records in 1968. Although the song is available for free, those downloading it are encouraged to make a donation at their own discretion to the Community Foundation Of Middle Tennessee. Kurt and Cortney were in the middle of recording when, at the start of May 2010, Nashville and other areas in Tennessee became victims of appalling flooding caused by well over twenty inches of rain in less than two days. The tragedy went almost unreported: ‘bigger’ events such as the attempted bombing of New York’s Times Square and the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico meant that the significant loss of life and the destruction of homes and buildings throughout Tennessee remained almost ignored.
Grants from the fund will be made to nonprofits supporting relief, restoration and clean-up efforts in the Davidson County area in the aftermath of the flooding and storms.
The album was produced by Wagner, and recorded by Cortney’s husband Todd Tidwell and Roger Moutenot, who’s worked for Yo la Tengo and Lambchop in the past. It features a cast of Nashville musicians, and will be released on October 18 2010.
Tracklist:
Incredibly Lonely (recorded for Chart Records by Gene & Rod, 1968)
Eyes Look Away (recorded for Chart Records by Tom Tall, 1964)
A Special Day (recorded for Chart Records by Karen Wheeler, 1972)
Picking Wild Mountain Berries (recorded for Chart Records by LaWanda Lindsey & Kenny Vernon, 1970)
Yours Forever (recorded for Chart Records by Neil McBride, 1963)
He’s Only A Memory Away (recorded for Chart Records by Dawn Glass, 1974)
She Came Around Last Night (recorded for Chart Records by Wes Helm, 1967)
Penetration (recorded for Chart Records by Three Heads, 1968)
April’s Fool (recorded for Chart Records by Tony Martin, )
I Can’t Sleep With You (recorded for Chart Records by Charlene Davidson, 1973)
Let’s Think About Where We’re Going (recorded for Chart Records by LaWanda Lindsey & Kenny Vernon, 1970)
Who’s Gonna Love Me Now (recorded for ABC Dunhill by Connie Eaton, 1975)
