Roots radical
Former punk establishes himself as one of Canada’s premier alt-country/roots musicians
John Kendle

Times sure have changed for Alberta country singer/songwriter Corb Lund.

Only a few years ago the former bassist with long-serving Alberta punk/metal group The Smalls was struggling to be considered a legitimate alt-country performer.

In 2003, with a trio of well-polished albums to his credit, Lund had won over music critics and managed to cobble together an audience of indie misfits and roots music fans to the degree that he could play clubs all over Canada.

He had what’s known as ‘good buzz’ in music circles, and he was a favourite of CBC programmers and college and community radio stations — but he was still playing places such as Winnipeg’s wonderful but relatively tiny Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club.

Then the video channel CMT came sniffing around his door, intrigued by his 2003 album Five Dollar Bill and videos for the songs (Gonna) Shine up My Boots and Roughest Neck Around. When the Canadian music station began to air Lund’s clips, audience response was tremendous and immediate.

And Lund’s fortunes soon began to change.

Canadian country radio from coast to coast — rather than just in Alberta and the West — quickly became interested in Lund’s material, and anticipation for his fourth album, Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer, was such that Lund was able to step up to a sold-out tour of small halls and clubs across the country. In Edmonton and Calgary he was able to sell out both the Francis Winspear and Jubilee auditoriums.

He then headed to Australia and the U.K. last winter and made good headway while, back home, a pile of awards and accolades began to roll in. Lund and his three-piece band, The Hurtin’ Albertans, were named best roots act at the 2005 Canadian Country Music Awards and entertainer of the year at the 2005 Western Canadian Music Awards. They outfit won a Juno for best roots/traditional album in Halifax in March and earlier this month they picked up album of the year and best roots act honours at the 2006 CCMAs.

And so it is that Lund is on the cell phone from Oshawa, Ont., headed to yet another sold-out gig, musing on how his musical life has altered for the good.

“It has been a long ride,” he says. “But now it seems like it’s paying off. I’m mostly running into people who haven’t heard of my old band, and in the last couple of years country radio has gotten on (the music), which has really helped.

“I’m a rural kid myself, and I know that sometimes in those areas all the radio you can get is the local country station and the CBC, and so it’s great to know that people in those areas can hear my songs now.”

Born and raised on a ranch near Taber, Alta., Lund comes by his country leanings honestly, which is probably why his clever songs ring with authenticity. He also has a knack for telling musical stories that crackle with language picked up by what is obviously a keen ear for dialogue.

Despite these sensibilities, Lund feels as though he doesn’t identify much with mainstream country artists.

“I feel much more in common with indie punk bands,” he says. “Most of those mainstream country artists don’t write their own songs, and my experience is that the indie world rewards uniqueness whereas in the corporate country world it’s almost the opposite.”

That’s why Lund says he was “shocked as hell” that Highland Steer won the best album category at this year’s CCMAs.

“I was surprised that they would make that statement,” he says. “So it really is kinda cool that we won it… because I think we’ve able to do it writing our own songs and about our own cultural happenings.”

Also just recently, Lund and bassist Ken Ciesla, guitarist (and Winnipegger) Grant Siemens and drummer Brady Valgardson were rewarded with gold albums for sales of Five Dollar Bill and Highland Steer — but now is not the time for the group to sit back and relax, Lund says. The latter album is about to be released in the U.S. , so the quartet will spend a lot of time this winter touring down south.

“It’s actually refreshing, at this point, to go down there and play,” he says. “We’ve been really encouraged. At first you think, ‘Oh man, there’s gonna be good bands under every rock,’ but it’s not quite the case. And, like I said, it’s refreshing to have to work to win people over.

“And then there’s England and Australia, which we want to go back to every eight months or so.”

All the roadwork means Lund hasn’t found — and won’t find, for a while at least — much time to write songs for a new album, which he knows is due next year.

“There are a few new tunes, but it’s getting to be about the time factor now,” he says. “I’d like to take some time from January on and have a record out in the fall, but it depends on the songs.

“I have a severe sort of inner filter that doesn’t let too many out at a time.”

Plus there’s all this work to do — and Lund’s nagging (but basically positive) fear that the other shoe may drop at any moment for him and his bandmates.

“I have a healthy pessimism, I call it,” he says “Every time something good happens for us I say, ‘OK, this is it. This is as far as we can go.’ But it never quite turns out that way.”