Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner and vocalist Cortney Tidwell will team up for Invariable Heartache, a new album to be released on City Slang this year.

They’ll be doing so under the name KORT, a collaboration that was first realised when the pair performed at Nashville club The Basement in the summer of 2008. The album will consist of covers of tracks from the Nashville label Chart Records back catalogue, a label run by Tidwell’s grandfather Slim Williamson, A&R’ed later by her father Cliff Williamson, and for which her mother Connie Eaton recorded.

Invariable Heartache is, in Wagner’s own words, “not so much a replication [of classic country] 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.”

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.

KORT play London’s Dingwalls venue, Camden, on November 17. You can download Invariable Heartache opener ‘Incredibly Lonely’ over at their homepage.

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)