Singer/songwriter Corb Lund’s “ag-trag” opens Pine Creek summer music series
Award-winning underground country artist Corb Lund has his sights set on the American West, bringing his “Western Destinations” tour to Paradise Valley’s beautiful Pine Creek Lodge on June 1st.
“I’ve been wanting to do a tour like this for years and years, so I’m thrilled that it is finally happening. We’re playing a bunch of places we’ve never been before and it’s long overdue,” says Lund. “I grew up in a rodeo and ranching family and I write songs about Western life, so it makes sense for me to do a tour focused on this part of America. My band and I are really looking forward to these shows.”
Lund embraces his Western heritage through his music, touching on a range of cowboy themes past and present – from rough-and-tumble tales of lawless frontier saloons, to the somber realities of running a modern family ranch. “When you come from generations of ranchers and rodeo people, you can’t help but be influenced by the West,” he says.
The Canadian native has been praised by Rolling Stone Country, NPR, and The Washington Post, among others. Backed by his longtime honky-tonk band, The Hurtin’ Albertans, Lund’s live show is a force to be reckoned with.
“Like Willie Nelson before them, they bring out the shitkickers and hipsters in equal measure,” writes a reviewer for Vegas Seven.
Lund’s latest release, Things That Can’t Be Undone, was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson) and further cemented his status as one of the best country singer/songwriters in the business.
In anticipation of the upcoming Paradise Valley show, The Rolling Zone hopped on the phone with Lund to talk Western influences and life on the road.
RZ: You’re set for a number of Montana shows in the coming months as part of your “Western Destinations Tour,” including a stop at Pine Creek Lodge to open June.
CL: Last time I played there, I played solo. It was really fun, but that outdoor stage will be perfect with the band.
RZ: You’ve toured exhaustively with The Hurtin’ Albertans. How do the guys round out your performance?
CL: They just make it more of a party. If I play solo, it’s more of a listening kind of thing and works better in a theater or seated venue. Outdoors in the summer where everybody’s drinking beer, it’ll be way more of a band show. A rockin’ honky-tonk show.
RZ: Your latest album was 2015’s Things That Can’t Be Undone. Because Cobb’s production helped to diversify your sound, do you think you’ll work with him on a future release?
CL: It’s been a couple years since that, but I’m writing a bunch of new stuff now. I gotta finish writing the songs [before] we figure that out, but he’s great. He was really good. I’d like to work with him again. He was kind of hot since we used him, but since then he’s become really hot, so it might be hard to book him [laughs].
RZ: Funny. So, you’d say you’re in the initial creative stages of maybe a new album.
CL: Yeah, I’ve written a ton of stuff, right up to my neck in it. Lots of horses and grizzly bears like usual.
RZ: I feel like alt-country is the genre you’re most commonly associated with, but “ag-trag” has also been thrown around. How would you categorize your music?
CL: “Agricultural tragic.” I just made that up, my sub-genre. [People] call it all kinds of things – alt-country, red dirt country, or underground country, roots or Americana. I don’t really care, frankly. I call it old fashioned country – something like that, I guess. But there’s an element of truth to that ag-trag thing because a lot of my stuff has really rural content in the lyrics, which is pretty rare these days. There’s not much of that left, singing about buckin’ horses, cows and ranches.
RZ: How does life on the ranch influence the music you’re writing and performing?
CL: My family are all cattle people, so I grew up that way. I think there’s a lot of that if you listen to it. There’s a lot of family history and ranch-ey stuff in there. I don’t have time to live like that much anymore. I don’t have any cows – I can’t even have a cat, I’m on the road all the time. My family’s still up there [and] I get to the ranch when I can to recharge my batteries.
RZ: I imagine you’ve got some eclectic tastes. What genres and/or artists do you consider most influential to your music?
CL: All kinds of stuff. My favorite record to this day is Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, from my youth. But I like Jerry Reed and I like Guns N’ Roses and everything in between. I like the Evita soundtrack – not the Madonna one, the original one.
RZ: You’ve done plenty of touring in our neck of the woods, but you’ve played overseas as well. Do the crowds differ on an international scale?
CL: They don’t really understand all the cowboy references in Europe, but they still like it. When I play in the Western US or Canada, I’m singing to people familiar with the lyrical content, people who live the lifestyle I’m singing about. Overseas, they find it kind of interesting and romantic, but it’s not familiar to them. So it’s a little bit different.
RZ: So with the music you’re writing now, are you writing about anything in particular?
CL: Whatever comes to mind, it’s all over the place. A lot of it has a Western theme running through it, but it’s pretty diverse. I’ve got one about grizzly bears and I’ve got one about fixing fence. I’ve got one about selling your last horses, a couple love songs.
RZ: When you’re in this brainstorming mode and writing stuff down, how do you decide a story or subject is song-worthy?
CL: It usually just starts with a couple lines that are catchy. If they have some promise and you can build a story out of it, that’s kind of how that works. I’ve always got eight or ten songs I’m mucking around with at any given time. Sometimes they don’t work out, but you just keep doing it until you get a bunch that do.
RZ: Do you have a favorite memory from your career thus far? You’ve been going quite a while now.
CL: There’s too many to pick one, but my favorite thing all year is when I get to play a festival with my friends. A lot of times we’re friends with other bands but we don’t get to see them that much because we play the same clubs on different weekends. One of the best parts about last year was playing two or three festivals my friends were at.
RZ: You’ve got a busy spring and summer of touring ahead, then what? Where do you go from here?
CL: I’m doing a bunch of American stuff until the end of summer, all the way down to Texas and Oklahoma. We’ve got six or eight Montana shows this summer. Then in the fall, I’m doing some shows with Ian Tyson in Canada – he’s a Western singer. But most of fall is going to be writing and working on music.
RZ: Well thanks, Corb. Do you have a final message for your Southwest Montana fans?
CL: I’m really looking forward to playing in Montana. We’re basically neighbors – our ranch is just about 5 miles north of the border, near Glacier Park. I spent my youth coming down there. And I’m not bullshitting – Montana’s by far my favorite place to play in the States. I love it there, love the people. It feels like home.
Corb Lund and his Hurtin’ Albertans take the stage Friday, June 1st at Pine Creek Lodge with local help from Jason Wickens beginning at 7pm. Advance tickets are $25 at www.pinecreeklodgemontana.com, $27.50 in store at Cactus Records and www.cactusrecords.net (plus fees), or $30 at the gate, depending on availability.
Check out Corb Lund at www.corblund.com or find him on Facebook for complete tour details and performance announcements, @CorbLundMusic. Lund’s latest album, Things That Can’t Be Undone, is available now. •
