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New Release: Corb Lund “Cabin Fever”
Having just driven across the American West, I was in the mood for some country music. There’s something about rolling through Nebraska that makes one want to shoot things. Or pick up a banjo. Since Corb Lund was set to release his 17th studio album, I thought to myself, “Myself, here is a good opportunity to listen to an album in the very places it was made to be listened to.” So that’s what I did.
Now, confession: I was only vaguely aware of Corb Lund as one Canada’s (yes, Canada) premire country musicians. And I was also raised in a world where country music has been dominated by Christian Rock and Country Pop for the last 30 years. So I was . . . wary, going in. I wasn’t sure what kind of country I was going to get.
Color me pleasantly surprised! This is actual country music. The kind you imbibe along with Jim Bean. I kept feeling like I should turn the car north and head to Deadwood. That’s not to say the whole album is banjoes and ballads. There’s definitely a pop element to this LP (the occasional diso beat as on track #3) but it’s nicely incorporated into a more classic country style. More than that, it’s catchy. The honky tonk guitars and a poet’s ear for lyric.
Can I just say that the lyrics are awesome? I feel like so many times songwriters these days rely on some cheap simulacrum of stream of consciousness in which words are cobbled together in lieu of, ya know, actually writing a song. Not only is Lund a solid songwriter but he’s funny (“I’m going to get the gothest girl I can/ with a pale-white, rock-a-billy tan”), which isn’t so easy to pull off as it seems.
All in all, this is an album you can sing along to whilst driving through Wyoming, which is basically the only thing to do in Wyoming anyway.