Corb Lund – “Long Gone Saskatchewan”
Posted on | October 5, 2009 | 1 Comment
I talked to Corb a few weeks ago about the music he loves. Read that interview here.
1. To call Corb Lund’s music “country” is absolutely appropriate, if not a bit of an understatement. However, with his fixation on horses, steers, and ranch life, his music might be more accurately labeled as rural. Corb comes from a family of ranchers — both of his grandfathers were cowboys, he grew up listening to them (and Marty Robbins) sing handed-down cowboy songs. On his latest single “Long Gone Saskatchewan” from his first New West release Losin’ Lately Gambler, Lund shares in near-technicolor the joy of leaving the unforgiving city and galloping back to the wide open plains of home.
2. With a click-clack rhythm straight out of Cash’s Tennessee Three, Lund tackles two lost arts at once: humorous country music and the talking blues. Leaving behind the idea of melody for the verse, he packs this rambling yarn full of wordplay, rattling on about leaving his woman (so he can have room for smokes) and heading back to where he can have five times as much land for the same price. The gift of wit is elusive — Robbie Fulks and Rhett Miller seem to have it down, and Corb proves his own aptitude here. Often taking a lighter approach to his music (his last album was a concept record about the horse cavalry), he avoids being corny, recalling Roger Miller and Buck Owens with his droll, tongue in cheek delivery. Lund’s cowboy heritage bleeds through to the countrier-than-thou twang of his music. His fine-tuned band the Hurtin’ Albertans backs him here, with guitarist Grant Siemens pulling together Luther Perkins and Don Rich to narrate the journey back home.
3. Corb Lund continues to define himself as an absolute individual, willing to take chances and follow his muse down any path. “Long Gone Saskatchewan” is a wholly entertaining slice of music that shows no variation from that career trajectory — a refreshing stance in a time where many seem willing to pander to gain an audience.
Corb Lund – Long Gone Saskatchewan
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November 27th, 2009 @ 1:35 am
Corb is brilliant. I just heard his NPR interview. He reminds me of Bob Dylan before his muse left him. Way d go Corb, eh!