Alt-country cowboy Corb Lund tells tales of the cavalry on latest disc

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This article was published 14/11/2007 (6629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Alberta cowpunk Corb Lund has war on his mind.

The quirky alt-country crooner, whose lighthearted ditties and raucous party tunes draw frat boys and cowpokes alike, takes on tales of the cavalry on his latest disc, “Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!”

“It’s a little darker than the last one,” Lund admits in a recent interview, long wavy blond hair hanging over his eyes while he nurses a soda in a downtown pub.

“Despite my last couple of records, I often gravitate towards sort of darker themes in my songwriting, so, it just seemed like the honest truth, really.”

A loose narrative follows an eager cavalry recruit looking for glory in war. By the end of the disc he’s sick, cold and hungry and all his friends are dead.

The title track surveys more than a century of military horsemen, with the narrator celebrating horseback battles evoking Waterloo, Custer’s Last Stand, a frozen Mongol steppe and Afghanistan.

Lund says he’s always been fascinated by the cavalry and military history and was inspired by their grand stories rather than any urge for social commentary.

“It’s not meant to be a political statement really, I try to keep politics out of my music for the most part,” says Lund, who along with his band The Hurtin’ Albertans has been described by turn as alt-country, roots, old-fashioned country and Americana.

“There’s a place for music that reaches people on a different level, like a different human spiritual level that doesn’t always have to be about current events, and doesn’t always have to have an axe to grind politically.”

Nevertheless, he’s dismayed by what he perceives as a waning of support for Canadian Forces from the government and the public at large.

“A lot of people in the public, especially in the younger generation have sort of lost touch with the idea that we do have war heroes and do have a really strong history,” he laments.

“Despite the poor example we’re being shown by (U.S. President George W.) Bush in Iraq right now, there are times when you have to sort of defend your country.”

“It was pretty clear that there were camps, terrorist training camps that were directly involved in the (Sept. 11) attacks,” he says of Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan.

“I think that was warranted to go out and root out those people. But beyond that, it’s tough.”

Lund jokes that he comes off as a redneck when he’s among his big-city hipster friends and is branded a hippie when he’s back home in rural Alberta.

For his new disc, he sticks to presenting romantic character studies, with the noble steed a constant hero.

Lund’s love for horses runs deep. The lanky singer grew up on a farm outside of Taber, Alta., and both his grandparents had ranches in southern Alberta. His paternal grandfather raised Arabian horses and there were “plenty of bangs and bruises” when all the grandkids were put to work taming the colts, he recalls.

These days, Lund says constant touring prevents him from keeping a farm of his own. He makes do with a cabin in the woods north of Edmonton on the Pembina River.

It’s in a region teeming with moose and just the other day this modern-day cowboy chased one beast down by motorcycle, he says.

“He went through the fence and I went after him – I’m probably lucky he didn’t turn around and decide to stand his ground because he’s a big old bull,” Lund says of the ill-advised escapade.

“He was just hanging around in the meadow and I just wanted to go look at him because they’re neat looking beasts, right? So I got closer to him and he’d kind of lope away and pretty soon he’d be running away. I was just kind of following him and pretty soon we had a high speed chase.”

Lund notes that such days in the country are getting fewer and fewer as his popularity rises, but he’s not complaining. An upcoming show has the Edmonton-based singer at Rexall Place, performing for some 5,000 people.

Lund says he’d like to start an annual alt-country festival in Alberta that features other underground groups like Toronto’s the Sadies, Vancouver’s Ridley Bent and Winnipeg’s D. Rangers.

He’s already got the name picked out: Corb Lund’s Cabin Fever Music Festival.

“Despite the quirkiness of my stuff they’ve been playing me on country radio and CMT so I’ve kind of got the ear of those people,” says Lund, who’s also musing about reuniting his old punk band the Smalls.

“I actually think that country fans have more interest and taste than they’re given credit for.”

Lund is set to play a string of dates in the Maritimes this month.