06.25.06
Talking to Corb Lund, cowboy musician
Vindication is one of the best feelings in life. I have a history of liking artists who later turn out to be Scientologists or who do things like insult their fans while black-out drunk. So the fact that Corb Lund is dryly hysterical, not full of himself, and an actual, honest-to-God cowboy makes my month.
When I talked to him about what it means to be a Canadian cowboy, Corb was spending a week or so of downtime at his home in the Edmonton area (Edmonton is a city in Alberta, which is a province in the western part of Canada. Canada is the country north of America on maps—just to be clear.). He’s been touring pretty solidly for the last couple of years in Australia, Europe and the States. Cricket and I saw him in Nashville a week before I talked to him, and you can tell that they’ve (The Hurtin’ Albertans) worked the kinks out of their routine. [Yes, it was very smooth and totally unkinky.—Cricket]
If you’d like to see the guys for yourself, you have two options in the next couple weeks. Either you can carry yourself to D.C. for the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and see Corb and the band on June 30, at 3 p.m. on the Jubilee stage. Or you can haul your ass to the Calgary Stampede and see the boys headline the rodeo on July 13 at 9:30.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is showcasing Albertan culture this year (why they chose to do this is not completely clear), and Corb’s father, D.C. Lund, will also be exhibiting his paintings (he’s a cowboy artist, y’all, come on!). Come out and see the whole family.
Harvest Ghosts by D. C. Lund
The Calgary Stampede (and I can’t believe I am actually explaining this to people) is a HUGE rodeo. It’s The Rodeo for a large part of the continent. Corb’s family has a long history with the Stampede. In Corb’s own words, “My grandpa, Clark Lund won the all around championship at the Stampede in 1938. He was also a rodeo judge there for many years after he retired from competition. His five brothers, my great uncles, all competed at the Stampede back then also. My other grandpa, Ivins, competed at the Stampede. My mom, Patty (Ivins) Lund, won the ladies barrel racing in 1959, which was the first time it was offered as a major event. She is now a ‘Pioneer of the Calgary Stampede’. She won the barrel racing in ‘60 also. My dad competed there for many years when he was a pro steer wrestler. I won some day money there in the steer riding when I was a kid in the early ’80s.”
Yeah. You already like him, right? His family ranches near the Montana border and have been doing that since the 1890s. Like Corb explains in his shows to American audiences unfamiliar with Canada, Alberta is the Texas of Canada—all the oil and most of the cattle. Their culture is solidly western, and within Canada this is a source of a lot of cultural conflict since the Canadian population is centered in Quebec and Ontario (central Canada).
Corb’s sound is all his own and completely unique, but you can hear his firm rooting in the foothills of the Rockies in his new, Harry Stinson produced album Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer (as previously mentioned, not set to be released in the States until September of this year, but available on CDBaby and iTunes or as an export on Amazon).
Corb hasn’t broken through in the States yet, so get your hipster groove on and like him before he’s popular so you can say “Oh, I used to like him, before anyone knew who he was.” In Canada he pretty well-known, with heavy rotation on the Canadian CMT. He’s got some big fans north of the border–Corb appears with his band in the movie Slither starring actor Nathan Fillion (who is also a proud Albertan). He also won the Juno Award this year for best traditional album.
So why is he not more popular below the 49th parallel? The same reason people drink whiskey—stupidity? We know he has at least a few pretty hardcore fans in the States already, like me and Cricket and the guy who got this tattoo of some of Corb’s lyrics on his arm:
[With what appears to be Hank III's three bars. How odd.—Cricket]
Corb’s take on this is: “I wouldn’t fucking get my lyrics tattooed on myself. They’re not that good.” He’s wrong about that, but since humility is in short supply in the music industry, he gets a pass there.
Talking to Corb Lund, I found him as bright and funny as his music, which is a relief. Maybe if we haven’t convinced you previously of this, knowing he’s a real cowboy will help? C’mon, everyone loves cowboys.
RSS Feed
lulu said,
June 25, 2006 at 7:31 pm
Can’t wait for Folklife! (FYI, he’s also playing at 2:00 on July 2 on the Jubilee Stage and at 4:00 on July 3 on the Northern Lights Stage).
Yay for him being bright and funny as his music! Our friend met him in Chattanooga, and found him to be awesome.
Knoxvegas said,
June 26, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Aw, I’m kinda fangirling him now, and I’ve not even heard any of his songs.
Cricket said,
June 26, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Knox, it’s hard not to fangirl him. He’s incredibly charming! Even translated through phone lines, to writing to the internet!
I do believe there’s sample songs to download at http://www.corblund.com/discography.cfm
Mimi said,
June 27, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Lulu,
Buy me one of his dad’s paintings.
He is so awesome that it’s hard not to turn this blog into the Corb Lund Promo Hour.
Mimi
Tangles said,
June 28, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I heard a sample on another blog, then got my hands on more, and this guy is like aural crack. Cannot stop listening to him. Their site is pretty decent too for a musician’s site.
sarita said,
July 3, 2006 at 6:01 pm
damn, mimi, we just now saw that post! But we have one of his dad’s business cards…
we told him you said hello, and he replied, “Oh yah, they’re crazy, eh?” he meant it as a compliment, i do believe, and he told us twice to tell you he said hey. so there you go.
my life has turned into the corb lund promo hour, and i’m strangely okay with that.
lulu said,
July 3, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Dang. What Sarita said. We didn’t get a chance to talk to his dad, because he was busy teaching kids how to throw a rope or talking to folks about his art.
We did talk to his mom for a while today, though. She’s incredibly nice. We heard all about how she and DC were paid to go to Zambia for a month back in 1974 to put on a rodeo to help them celebrate their 10th anniversary of their independence, and how they went to rodeos all over Australia for 6 months back in the 60’s. She even explained what chewing tobacco was to us. (She didn’t know that North Carolina’s economy was built on tobacco.) We told her that we had driven up to see Corb play, and she was amazed that we knew his music.
She came back later and said, “Did you get to meet Corby?” I said that I did, and then she told me to put on more sunscreen.
neilvis said,
July 21, 2006 at 7:59 pm
you girls outta get out of town a little more often. Next summer, f’rinstance, you might want to head up toward (but not all the way into) Canada, and check out Roots on the River (aka Fredfest, as in badass Ontarian singer/songwriter/guitarslinger Fred Eaglesmith). It’s too late this year, but you can read about it here: http://www.fredeaglesmith.com/press/bf06reformer.html
(props to Miles C of Seattle for telling me about your site & for pimpin’ Lucero out on this coast… not a bad job on the website design, neither!)
Cricket said,
July 23, 2006 at 11:17 pm
neilvis - it’s ironic that you should suggest that, as Miss Mimi just came down here from Canada.
We are working on getting out as much as we can. Next year will surely be full of travel for shows.
And Miles is the man, indeed. Without him we’d be nothing!
neilvis said,
July 26, 2006 at 6:59 pm
do tell–just what was she up there listening to–Rush? Bachman-Turner Overdrive? Chiliwack? (O Canada, despite your gifts to the world in the form of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young, you have much in the way of musical offense to apologize for…)