Corb Lund To Toast Peers in New Album “Songs My Friends Wrote”
Like any true country cowboy troubadour, Canada’s Corb Lund spends his days herding cattle and bucking hay, and then spends his nights scratching out tunes around the kitchen table in dirty Carhartt’s with callused hands. It’s been his combination on keen cowboy insight and cutting wit that has made him a legend of Canadian country, and earned him a few fans south of the border and other faraway places as well.
Corb Lund is know for handing his own songwriting for the most part. But for his next project he’s chosen to pay homage to some of his best buds and towering forefathers in a work he’s titled Songs My Friends Wrote. Out on April 29th on New West Records, it will include songs from folks like Canadian country legend Ian Tyson, fellow Canadian wordsmith Fred Eaglesmith, Tom Russell, Todd Snider, and Hayes Carll, who Corb famously recorded a duet with in 2012 on the cross border carol “Bible on the Dash.”
“’Songs My Friends Wrote’ is an album I’ve been threatening to make for years,” says Corb Lund. “In most cases I’ve picked relatively obscure songs that have always spoken to me, even though many of them won’t be so familiar to people. The best part about recording all these tunes was that they reminded me of all the people who I haven’t been able to hang out with for the past two years because of the plague we’ve all been dealing with. All of these tunes bring a smile to my face and I hope they do the same for you.”
The album comes on the heels of Corb Lund and his last album Agricultural Tragic winning the 2021 CCMA (Canadian Country Music Association) award for Alternative Country Album of the Year. He’s also finally getting ready to make his Grand Ole Opry debut later this year. Ahead of the album, Lund has released his version of Hayes Carll’s “Highway 87.”
“I’ve known Hayes forever,” Lund says. “We met at a card game in Dauphin, Manitoba, many moons ago and we both lost all our money to my ex, Debbie. Hayes and I have toured together, written together, drank together and he’s one of my best friends in music. This song is one of his that’s older and not as widely known, but my guys and I have been playing it for years. I love it.”
Songs My Friends Wrote will be released digitally on April 29th, with CDs and vinyls available on June 17th, including a limited smoke colored edition signed by Corb. The album is now available for pre-order.
Track Listing:
1. Highway 87 (Hayes Carll)
2. That’s What Keeps the Rent Down, Baby (Geoff Berner)
3. Montana Waltz (Ian Tyson)
4. Blue Wing (Tom Russell)
5. Pasa-Get-Down-Dena (John Evans)
6. Spookin’ the Horses (Fred Eaglesmith)
7. Little Rock (Hayes Carll)
8. Road To Las Cruces (Ian Tyson)
9. Big American Headliner (Mike Plume)
10. Age Like Wine (Todd Snider)
January 19, 2022 @ 7:15 pm
Excited for this. Also, the CMAs should adopt the CCMA’s “Alternative Country” category.
January 19, 2022 @ 7:20 pm
1000% agree. There should be some sort of Americana category, and categories for Best Traditional Country and Best Contemporary Country.
January 20, 2022 @ 7:58 pm
“Album of the Year” is one of the CMA’s core awards and they’re not going to break the chain that goes from Jack Greene’s “There Goes My Everything” in 1967 to Stapleton’s “Staring Over” in 2021. And whether we like most of mainstream commercial country or not, they’re going to keep that award.
If you’re saying that they should add both an Americana category and a Traditional Country category on top of that, I say that would be slicing it too thin, especially since “Americana” or traditional albums are stil eligible to win the main award. Maybe a single alternative category would have some merit, though it might just be the CMA intruding on the Americana awards.
January 20, 2022 @ 3:22 am
My thoughts were: if Corb Lund is Alternative Country, what could possibly be country?? Especially Agricultural Tragic, its very straight up.
I’m sure its a typo and they meant Best ACTUAL Country album
January 19, 2022 @ 7:32 pm
Corb is Brilliant!
This album sounds like a blast.
How cool, that he is going to be onstage, at the Opry 2022. Hopefully.
Ok, going to listen to Highway 87 now, with he and Hayes.
*Agricultural Tragic is fabulous
January 19, 2022 @ 7:40 pm
Solid shit-kicker music. I’m a fan.
January 19, 2022 @ 8:00 pm
Hell yes! Corb is one of my favorites. Love the choices especially “Road to Las Cruces.” That’s a great Ian Tyson tune I love!
January 19, 2022 @ 8:44 pm
I am sure this will be great! I always enjoy Corb’s music, and seeing there are some Ian Tyson songs on here, know there will be some good stuff here too.
January 20, 2022 @ 6:21 am
I’m always happy to get some new Corb Lund. I wish he’d tour around these parts.
January 20, 2022 @ 6:54 am
Hopefully he ditches Carhartt. No one likes a Woke Cowboy
January 20, 2022 @ 9:56 am
For fucks sake! We can’t have one fucking article on here without some sort of divisive comment???
January 20, 2022 @ 7:32 pm
Show us on the doll where Eric’s comment hurt you Hillbilly.
January 20, 2022 @ 11:53 am
I could give a rat’s ass what clothes he wears. Seriously, who the fuck cares?
January 20, 2022 @ 1:09 pm
Yeah, but Everybody loves Carhartt.
Their product can take it standing up or rolling around in the mud
January 20, 2022 @ 8:39 pm
If these comments sections continue to veer into political back and forths that have nothing to do with the music, especially on articles that have everything to do with music, then they will go away, and we all lose. It is embarrassing, it is irresponsible, and it is disrespectful to this website.
January 21, 2022 @ 8:02 am
Ease off the melodrama dude. It was a joke. Maybe stop watching so much Yellowstone. It’s a soap opera, not a western.
April 8, 2022 @ 9:22 am
It’s “woke” and un-American for a private company to do as it sees fit to protect its workers and customers? To make its own decisions in service of its business interests?
Eric, what color is the sky in your world?
January 20, 2022 @ 8:53 am
I was introduced to Corb Lund though Hayes Carll. I went to see Hayes at Cheatham street on a wed night (07ish). Hayes played about 5 songs and then said he’d let his Canadian friend play some songs. Corb didn’t leave the stage and I was sold.
January 20, 2022 @ 8:58 am
Nothing quite like some Corb Lund. “The truck got stuck” was a staple of Canadian country radio during the 2000s.
January 20, 2022 @ 9:09 am
“I Want To Be In The Cavalry” might be one of the catchiest songs ever.
And any country artists who sings about cavalry regiments is a legend. The best thing to ever come from lockdown Canada. Not saying much, of course.
Can’t wait for this new album.
January 20, 2022 @ 10:07 am
Man shut up
January 22, 2022 @ 4:13 pm
Shut up about great country music?
Why would I do that on a country music website?
Corb writes great songs about grown-up topics. I won’t be quiet about that.
January 20, 2022 @ 10:30 am
I agree. One of the best things about Corb Lund’s writing is the diversity of topics. Its why I like guys like James McMurtry, Robbie Fulks, Chris Knight, and Jason Boland, as well. So many albums are mostly or all love songs. Write about something interesting. I don’t need 9 love songs out of 13 tracks. In fact, unless you have some real unique take on it, don’t put any love songs on your album. Whatever you think you’re saying has already been said a million times. I’d much rather hear about your blood feud with the neighbor on the other hill, the Copenhagen ring on your jeans, big game hunting, running a seine off the sand bar, or slitting a hog’s throat.
January 20, 2022 @ 1:35 pm
Or Cemetarial Engineers.
January 22, 2022 @ 1:34 pm
Ok, i’ll bite.
What the heck is a cemeterial engineer?
Can see cemeterial landscapers, the guys who use the backhoe to dig the graves, etc.
Think am missing the entire point.
And, don’t want to look it up.
Want to make you explain it.
: D When you get a minute
January 22, 2022 @ 1:55 pm
Fictitious euphemism for a gravedigger
January 22, 2022 @ 2:22 pm
Knew it had to be too easy.
Thanks
(will try to keep up)
January 20, 2022 @ 4:27 pm
Damn right. Let’s go.
January 22, 2022 @ 4:17 pm
I haven’t checked out any of those guys yet except for Boland. I will do so.
I agree with you (I can’t wait for my stalkers to say I am brown nosing! Haha) about love songs. I enjoy the rare good one but it is a played out topic. Songs with stories are far superior.
Boland is a certified legend. It is criminal that he isn’t a superstar. A true bourbon legend.
January 25, 2022 @ 6:45 am
You’re absolutely correct. Boland is a legend and should have been a superstar for the past 20 years. He’s good live too. The first couple of times I saw him, it was a five piece and he played rhythm. The last time I saw him, on the Pearl Snaps tour, it was a four piece and he was playing lead. He was impressive.
January 20, 2022 @ 5:24 pm
This is awesome – Blue Wing from Tom Russell is an amazing song, can’t wait to heal Corb sing it.
January 23, 2022 @ 7:44 am
” He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder, might a been a bluebird, i dont know. Well he’d get stone drunk and talk about Alaska, salmon boats and 45 below.”
EPIC line. EPIC song.
January 23, 2022 @ 7:16 pm
Probably the only country song that namechecks the great Northwest, and a Canadian wrote it.
January 22, 2022 @ 12:14 pm
I like how he used the term threatened to make this album for a while now. Quite amusing. Might very well check him out. Anyone with that sense of humor might be interesting to listen to.
January 25, 2022 @ 3:38 pm
Corb Lund is amazing. We saw him Huntsville (Ontario, Canada that is). The video of “I want to be in the calvary” is powerful and worth checking our if you haven’t seen it.