Corb Lund, a roots-country performer and tunesmith from Canada, first drew widespread attention with his third full-length release, Five Dollar Bill (2002), which won over reviewers and Americana listeners throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe. His singular approach to the style draws heavily from the Western Canadian frontier and the daily realities of its ranch workers and cowboys. Beyond creating and tracking his own material, he champions prairie literacy initiatives and champions other songwriters, a commitment highlighted by the 2022 covers collection Songs My Friends Wrote. His full, reedy baritone carries echoes of both 1950s rockabilly and the traditions of Hank Snow and folk, qualities showcased on The Weight of the Gun (2015), Agricultural Tragic (2020), and the loose, living-room acoustic set El Viejo (2024).
Raised on his family’s farm near the Alberta hamlet of Taber, Lund relocated to Edmonton for music studies at Grant MacEwan Community College. In 1990 he formed the Smalls alongside college peers Mike Caldwell (vocals), Dug Bevans (guitar), and Terry Johnson (drums), with Lund himself handling bass; the group issued its self-titled debut that same year. The Smalls followed with To Each a Zone (1992), Waste and Tragedy (1995), and My Dear Little Angle (1999).
While still active in that band, Lund started the Corb Lund Band, enlisting Kurt Ciesla on bass and Ryan Vikedal on drums. What began as a roots-country outlet yielded Modern Pain (1995) and Unforgiving Mistress (1999). Once the Smalls disbanded in 2001, the Corb Lund Band became Lund’s primary focus. The group signed with Stony Plain Records and headed to Nashville, where producer Harry Stinson helmed Five Dollar Bill (2002); the album achieved gold status in Canada and garnered critical acclaim.
Lund reunited with Stinson for Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer (2005), another strong seller that earned the Canadian Country Music Association’s Album of the Year honor in 2006. Stinson also produced the subsequent Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! (2007) and Losin’ Lately Gambler (2009), the latter marking Lund’s first release on New West Records. After the 2009 concert document Live at the Edmonton Coliseum, Lund issued Cabin Fever, captured inside a cabin he constructed north of Edmonton. In summer 2014, Counterfeit Blues emerged on New West, presenting fresh studio renderings of earlier catalog songs cut live to tape without overdubs at Memphis’s Sun Studios alongside his road band.
Lund resumed writing new material for Things That Can’t Be Undone (2015), tracked with Dave Cobb at the producer’s Nashville facility. The ten-track album was introduced by the internet single “Weight of a Gun” and arrived in October, peaking at number eight on the Canadian Albums chart and inside the Top 40 on U.S. country listings. He spent the following year touring extensively across Europe and North America. In 2016 Lund co-hosted and topped the bill at the “Fire Aid” benefit held at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, raising funds for Fort McMurray wildfire survivors.
He returned to the studio in fall 2019 for the eight-song Cover Your Tracks EP on New West, a set of interpretations drawn from favorite artists across different eras of his life. Lund explained the project as a way to clear those influences before focusing on original songs; co-produced with John Evans, the EP features his versions of material by Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, AC/DC, Nancy Sinatra, and others, with guest turns from Hayes Carll and Ian Tyson backed by his band the Hurtin Albertans.
Lund remained with New West for Agricultural Tragic (2020), whose title reflects his own characterization of his sound and which includes a duet with Jaida Dreyer on “I Think You Oughta Try Whiskey.” Two years later he issued Songs My Friends Wrote, a spare, informal gathering of compositions by peers including Todd Snyder, Ian Tyson, and Hayes Carll. Tyson loomed large on the follow-up El Viejo, released two years after the songwriter’s passing; the album is dedicated to Tyson and finds Lund honoring him by chronicling characters reminiscent of those in Tyson’s work, all recorded at Lund’s home with the Hurtin’ Albertans.
