It’s Just Corb Lund & These Ponies (For Christmas This Year)
It’s Corb Lund’s strong ties to the authentic agrarian lifestyle on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains that gives his music a lived-in perspective unique to a man who has his calloused fingers deep in what he sings about, and then marries these sentiments with his cunning use of language indicative of the old cowboy poets that has made Corb a country music treasure beyond Alberta and his Canadian homeland. Only a man who’s experienced the rigors and the loneliness of real ranch life can write formidable songs like the aching “September” or the humorous “Cows Around” found on his 2012 studio release Cabin Fever, and now he intermingles the inherent forlornness of life with the very true realities of equestrian duties in the new Christmas song “Just Me and These Ponies (for Christmas This Year).”
Christmas music is such a dicey proposition, and the farther you get away from the festive frau into either the gruffy country gut where sleigh bells sound grating, or the anti commercialization-leaning commoners of independent and Americana music, you tend to find even less reception for the annual December earaches. But none of this deterred New West Records from commissioning many of their own artists like John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Valerie June, and Nikki Lane, along with unwrapping some cataloged material from people like Johnny Cash and The Band to comprise the An Americana Christmas album released for this new holiday season. Corb Lund takes the point in promoting the album release with this new single, and a new video for his particular selection.
“Just Me and These Ponies” is a Christmas song for people who do not like Christmas songs, but still like country music and Corb Lund. And if you do happen to dig on a little ring ting tingling, you might find something to appreciate here too, even if the mood and perspective Corb works in is a dour one. Land locked in snow in the great frozen north, with plans either not laid or canceled for all of his familial cohorts, Corb tells the story of the lonely rancher trying to find some semblance of companionship from his stable of trusty steeds during a frigid Christmas holiday. Though the song is certainly written from some of Lund’s own experiences, the vessel of the story is an 80-year-old man snowed into his wooden ranch home. The music rises to to meet the passive emotional direst in the words with strings and comparably aching chord movements, while any sleigh bells are relegated to the extremities of the very beginning and end, almost as irony, or to further draw out the emotional tinge of the composition.
“Just Me and These Ponies” also utilizes a well-crafted video that contrasts the upper crust tuxedoed appearance of Corb in an antiseptic television studio, while an old man manning the wooden stables out in the cold ponders his lonely Yuletide fate.
It may not give Bing Crosby or Roy Rogers a run for their money, but “Just Me and These Ponies” might find warm company in the hearts of those who loathe such caroling, or don’t have any company of their own. And like all great Christmas songs, it may do so for years to come.
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December 11, 2014 @ 10:43 am
Glad you covered this track. It’s probably my favorite off that Americana Christmas album. I’ve always liked Corb best when he goes right for the emotions (September, Alberta Says Hello) and this one is right up there with the rest of his catalog.
Lindi Ortega put out a Christmas EP(?) last year that was pretty good. Those Canadians sure know how to make some heartfelt Christmas tunes.
I also really like Robert Ellis’s cover of “Pretty Paper” from that record.
December 11, 2014 @ 11:09 am
This works as a Christmas song because while it’s sad it’s not cynical.
When the character says Thank Christ for these horses, he means it.
December 11, 2014 @ 11:26 am
This reminds me I need to call my dad.
December 11, 2014 @ 12:51 pm
Hell, that may be the best song review I’ve read all year right there.
December 11, 2014 @ 4:10 pm
Corb lund is extremely talented, I’m glad I got to see him live at Sam’s burger joint here in San Antonio.
December 11, 2014 @ 7:13 pm
I’ve seen Him live on Cannery Row and I just don’t get it. He is decent but very bland. Don’t get much Soul from his work. Devil makes Three and Ben Miller opened for him. Very anti climactic. I do like some of his writing. And his girl was pretty Hot.
December 12, 2014 @ 11:09 am
Wow. I’ve never heard that criticism of Corb Lund. His musical styles seems really diverse to me, and I don’t know if there is another country or country-ish artist who tackles as wide an array of topics in his songwriting, as Corb does. Unless the song is really something special, I get really sick of the slow, overwrought, emotional love song. Its been done to death. Corb really manages to avoid these torturous exercises on his self-penned tunes. Possibly, you think his voice is boring?
December 12, 2014 @ 9:53 pm
You might think his “voice is boring” but your opinion is thus invalidated, there’s nothing “boring” about Corb, go back to CMT, bro.
December 11, 2014 @ 8:06 pm
Corb Lund is awesome, hopefully we hear news about a new album early next year. Like other’s I really like Corb when he sinks his teeth into subject matter like this, it really showcases how strong of a songwriter he is that can sometimes maybe be “hidden” some with some of his uptempo songs/funny songs.
December 17, 2014 @ 8:33 pm
I talked to him after his show a couple weeks ago. He said he would be working on a new album in the spring.
December 11, 2014 @ 10:05 pm
Hey Thanks. That is a good one, review and song. I am really drawn to “Grateful for Christmas” by Corb’s buddy Hayes Carll on KMAG YOYO. As a recovered southern Baptist, Christ celebrations are limited in my home but I annually turn to REK’s “Merry Christmas from the Family”, DBT’s “Mrs. Klaus’ Kimona” and Louden Wainwright’s “Christmas Morning””¦.I will add this one to the list and hope the album has more.
December 12, 2014 @ 4:32 am
I wrote a song about Christmas once. It wasn’t nearly this good. http://youtu.be/d2Q75fdt5LE.