Corb is a tall, charming, Canadian cowboy, Alberta specifically (that's just north of Montana if you're wondering). He is a real life cowboy and has a long family history of ranchers and rodeo people. That family serves as inspiration for much of his songwriting in which he unfolds rich stories about his way of life and his fathers before him. Although country comes by him honestly he did not always showcase that side of his musicality. In prior music endeavors he was actually quite a bit more rock-n-roll with a stint in (what he refers to as a modern Black Sabbath) The Smalls from 1989-2001 although he had already began playing country gigs in about 1993 and did both for quite some time. In his current musical incarnation he's on his 6th album though it's his first American release. Corb Lund and his band have received high praise from many critics as well as accolades from the Canadian Country Music Association as well as Canada's JUNO awards.
In my opinion Corb Lund has three great things going for him (he has quite a bit more but let's keep it short)-
-Amazing presence
-Awesome band
-Fantastic songwriting
Corb Lund is probably six feet tall maybe a few inches more with curly hair usually topped by a large cowboy hat. He stands on stage with his guitar and his voice and he has you immediately!
His awesome band named The Hurtin' Albertans is comprised of
Kurt Ciesla on the upright bass who's so good his got a song dedicated to him and his bass.
Brady Valgardson as the band's drummer keeps time with the best of them and and naturally he comes from a family of drummers. Lastly sharing the stage is the 2008 CCMA Guitar Player of The Year winner Grant Siemens as lead guitar, lap steel and banjo player. I don't think Lund could ask for better guys to be on stage with!
And his songwriting, which is always the area that excites me most. He tells stories straight from his heart, straight from the daily news and straight from Canadian folklore. I asked him via twitter if song writing came easy and he replied no
though that's hard to believe and you wouldn't be able to tell from all the songs you hear from him filled with stories that keep you hanging on. Some of my favorites are "This is My Prairie"(below) which is off the latest album.
"Horse Soldier Horse Soldier", "Brother Brigham, Brother Young" off the previous record and his take on the classic "Rye Whiskey" which is probably my favorite uptempo song of his called "Rye Whiskey/Time to Switch to Whiskey" (seen below) though he's been playing it for a while it's just now made an appearance as a live recording on the newest album.
For his Hotel Cafe show Corb did lots of material off his new record which I'm instantly a fan of including "Devil's Best Dress" and "Long Gone to Saskatchewan". His set wasn't very long but as usual he didn't disappoint. Although I was sad this was my first and last show at the Hotel Cafe for the foreseeable future but I had a good time.
Corb is just wrapping up his tour so I'm sorry I wasn't able to get this review to you sooner but do check him out on the interwebs, myspace, twitter and iTunes!
