This is a re-post of the interview with Corb that appeared in the Sherman Herald Democrat in late August, and was lost in the recent technical problems with GoDaddy, web site host on this site. Slightly re-written now.

BY MARY JANE FARMER

Corb Lund said about his songwriting, “Sometimes I put too many words in,” and it rang, in reverse, of the line in the movie “Amadeus” in which the king told Mozart that the composer put in too many notes, that he should take some out. Mozart replied, “Which ones, sir?” That stumped the king and Mozart went on composing. You go, Corb! Keep on putting those words in!

Corb Lund at Loose Wheels Texas, Aug. 2010

About Corb Lund‘s songs, one can only suggest, “Listen in a hurry, because that’s the way he sings.”

Lund‘s songwriting is intricate, woven through and through with history and humor, with devotion and daring, with imagination and imagery, with pride and passion, and if one listens closely enough, one can hear wisdom in there, too. “Truth comes with 10,000 miles in the saddle,” sings the Albertan who spent his life on his family’s Canadian ranch.

“It was my great-great-grandfather who moved to Canada and settled down,” Corb said. “The family has been raising cattle in the western mountains of Canada and in Utah. A lot of my songs are loosely based on or inspired by family history. I was raised in that environment.”

The Canadian performer and his band, The Hurtin Albertans, traveled again throughout the Southwest. It’s a corridor lined with fans from Canada through Texas, and then jumps over to Australia occasionally. They are returning soon on their sixth trip to Australia with superstar Tim McGraw, he said.

He went from Denison and then Grapevine to travel to Nashville in September to perform in the Americana Music Association’s showcase. He was also nominated there as New & Emerging Artist of the Year, not bad for a man who has been on the road for 18 years. He was pitted against one of his co-writers, Texan Hayes Carll, Grammy award winner Ryan Binham, and two others. He was the only international artist on the bill, and he laughed when he said they might have to change the name of it to “North Americana Music Association.”

Corb said, though, that his music is not about the awards. “It’s nice, and it’s good for your career. I’ve got a boat load of them in Canada, but I am hoping to have a boat load of fans at my shows here.”

Although he has recorded some of his CDs in Nashville, Corb said he doesn’t play mainstream music, but rather Americana. And that’s one reason The Hurtin Alburtans keep coming back to Texas. “We enjoy playing down here, because people have an appreciation of songwriting,” Lund said. “People (musicians) don’t have to be on a major label.”

Lund said, “The diffference between me and a lot of artists is that I don’t use relationships as default song material. You have to be careful with them.” And yet, he writes love songs, offbeat from mainstream songwriters. Listening to “Tell Her Alberta Says Hello,” one can feel the ache in a broken relationship.

Passion and pride ring true in “Little Foothills Heaven” with lyrics like “My momma’s daddy’s daddy picked the spot and picked it well.”

History comes alive in “I Wanna Be In The Calvary,” which first describes the glamor of going off to war, what happens in between, and ends with the tragic lyrics, “All I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of me.”

Humor? Well, listen to “I Just Wanna Play Cards,” and try to sing along to these lyrics. “Crib and guts and stook and gin and stud and cowboy pitch. Blackjack, eight or better, draw and hold em, chase the ….., acey deucy, never loosey, hearts, and black mariah, smear, and low chicago, man, the stakes keep gettin higher.” That quick laugh resounded when asked he ever had a gambling problem, especially from the lines in another song, “That old familiar empty feelin of time and treasure lost… now I know the cost.”

“I’ve played cards all my life, and even played in one of the world series of Poker in Nevada,” Corb said. “I didn’t embarrass myself, but didn’t play in the money.” He said one of his great-grandfathers was a road gambler in his time in western Wyoming and Montana.

Lund said that aspiring artists have asked him for advice from time to time, and the only real answer he can give them is, “Work hard and play play play play until you are blue in the face. There’s no easy answer, you just have to build momentum.”

Talking about writing all those words in his songs, Corb said, “I have a bad habit of writing too many words, it becomes … well, if you miss a word or a line when you are singing, you’re, like, running downhill.” He said people in his audience just laugh when he gets tongue-twisted. When one watches Corb‘s audiences trying to sing along to his songs, and they often do try that, they smile at themselves for messing up pretty often, and so forgiveness is natural.

How does he get through them? “Coffee does the job,” Corb grinned.

One unique factor about his music is that, unlike other songwriters, even the greats, he doesn’t find a melody or a beat that works and then adapt and use that same one over and over again. Each song is different from the next. He tries to incorporate the old-fashioned, Sons of the Pioneers-style country music, and even had Riders In The Sky backing him on “Little Foothills Heaven.” There’s talking blues and laments. He admires the old-time greats, “Willie and Hank and Kristopherson. I don’t know why more people don’t get them.”

Corb and the band have played with Don Edwards, Ramblin Jack Elliott, another Canadian, Ian Tyson, some of whom he met at several cowboy music/poetry festivals.

Who does he still want to meet and play with? Willie Nelson.