Today, I decided to discuss Corb Lund. He’s a very underrated Canadian country artist. I love Corb Lund’s music, because he can be funny, serious, and tell you a good story. He does this all on Cabin Fever, his release from 2012. I chose this particular record both for this reason, and because it’s the one that got me into Corb Lund’s Music.
Release Date: August 10, 2012
Style: Traditional Country
People Who Might Like This Album: Fans of quirky songwriting, people who love story songs
Standout Tracks: “September,” “Drink It Like You Mean It,” “Priceless Antique Pistol Shoots Startled Owner,” “Pour Em Kinda Strong”
First off, this album is really diverse in its songs. Corb Lund is funny on tracks like “Cows Around and Bible on the Dash”, heartbroken on “September”, and tells an amazing story on “Pour Em Kinda Strong”. I love how his music has a lot of cowboy themes. He is very witty in some of his lines, too. There is something here for everyone, that’s for sure.
Cabin Fever made a great introduction for me when I was first getting into his music. It’s not all doom and gloom, but there are some really good stories here too. “Pour Em Kinda Strong” may possibly be my favorite song in Corb Lund’s whole catalogue. It tells the story of an arrogant outlaw who ends up getting killed by the bartender he started out the song being a jerk to. The lyrics go “pour em kinda strong cuz I won’t be here long”, which is ironic given that he ends up dying at the end of the song. It’s pure genius. “September” is all about how much he misses his girlfriend who left him for New York City. He states that “there ain’t nobody in New York City who could need you half as bad”. I love the guitar on this song. “Priceless Antique Pistol Shoots Startled Owner” tells the tale of an expert gun owner who is killed by a man to whom he was showing said gun. The thing I like about this song is that it’s instrumentally quieter, so it really lets the lyrics shine, which is very important on a track like this. Finally, “Drink It Like You Mean It” is just a very fun drinking song. It’s got some good steel guitar, and it’s a well-done honky tonk track. He says “Drink it like you mean it, like the serious people do”. I just really love the instrumentation and lyrics here.
I could write many paragraphs detailing Corb Lund’s lyrical genius. He’s ironic on “Priceless Antique Pistol”, hilarious on songs like “Cows Around” where he details the blessings and curses of having cows, and just generally unique in his approach to song writing. I definitely think this is a great place to start getting into Corb Lund’s music. If you like cowboy stories, fun songs that aren’t cliche, and some interesting themes you don’t really hear in songs today, I definitely recommend Corb Lund and all of his albums.
I’ve never listened to a single song from him, guess I’m starting now lol. That title “Priceless Antique Pistol Shoots Startled Owner” is intriguing, I’m starting with that 🙂 cool read by the way!
Thanks. I’m happy to hear you liked it. If you check out his music, I hope you like it. If you listen to “Priceless Antique Pistol” and get scared off by the yodeling, I think that’s the only song he does that in throughout his whole career. Haha.
Nice post! Corb Lund is one of my favourites and “September” is one of my favourite songs of his (it just came up on my Spotify playlist, which reminded me to comment). You can’t go wrong with any of his albums and if you get a chance to see him live, do it! He and his band are excellent and he has a great stage presence (great stories, great sense of humour). Being in Canada allows me the opportunity to see him live quite often, but he tours down in the southwestern USA fairly regularly, if I’m not mistaken.
Another cool thing is that he’s experienced a lot of what he writes and sings about (rodeo, ranching, etc.). (Of course, it isn’t necessary to experience what you’re singing about in order to sing convincingly about it, but I always find the back story interesting).
Another great Canadian singer/songwriter to check out is Tim Hus. He’s a friend of Corb Lund and they’ve done some writing together. He’s a modern-day Stompin’ Tom Connors and, in my opinion, should be just as popular as Corb Lund because he’s also excellent.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it. He’s one of my favorites as well. I, too, like that he has experienced a lot of what he sings. He seems to be really intelligent about a lot of subjects. He does FaceBook live videos, too, where either he’ll play some of his songs and talk about what inspired them, or he’ll have a friend on to play their songs. It’s great. .
I’ll have to check out the other artist you mentioned. I think I remember reading his name somewhere.
To each his own but he wasn’t for me. His song writing is better than his singing but I just didn’t care for his voice.
That’s okay, his voice is definitely one you have to get accustomed to. Then again, not every artist is for everyone. 🙂