I’ve been working late all week
and then going out shortly after getting home, so I’ve once again been slow to
get my next review up. Here it is.
Disc 721 is…. Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer
Artist: Corb Lund
Year of Release: 2005
What’s up with the Cover? Corb lounges in a
chair, bootless and thoughtful. I know this scene is supposed to look very old
school farmstead, but to me it looks more like one of those mini studios you
pose in at a wild west show after they dress you up in ‘old timey’ clothes.
Corb is the real deal, but this picture doesn’t do him any justice.
How I Came To Know It: As far as the artist goes, my
buddy Greg introduced me to Corb Lund on a man’s holiday he and I and a couple
other friends went on a few years ago. This particular album I first heard via
my other buddy Casey (also on that trip) when he played three or four songs off
of it, and I liked all of them.
Despite
all that, it took me a while to find and I only bought it in the last couple of
years during the great Corb Lund binge I’ve been on.
How It Stacks Up: I have seven Corb Lund albums – I haven’t bothered
to get his recent live release yet, but I’ve got all his studio albums. I
struggle with ranking them. There is one clear winner but all the rest have
something different I like about them. “Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer” is
somewhere in the middle. I’ll put it fourth or fifth depending on my mood.
Rating: 3 stars but almost 4
“Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer” (hereafter
“Steer”) feels like a departure for Corb Lund toward a more upbeat, radio
friendly feel. You could argue this was already happening on 2002’s “Five
Dollar Bill” but that record doesn’t quite feel baked yet.
As you may know, I have little to no time for the
radio – satellite or otherwise – so being ‘radio friendly’ is not a positive. I
don’t think an album should be rejected just because it is excessively catchy,
though. Isn’t music often great because it is a little catchy?
“Hair” is definitely catchy, with two of the most ear-worm
worthy tracks Corb has ever recorded starting it off. The title track is a
grand old time with an up-tempo rhythm that is irresistibly good. The lyrics
also hop to, with enthusiastic tongue in cheek.
Track 2, “The
Truck Got Stuck,” is equally fun as it tells the hilarious tale of a bunch
of men trying to get a truck out of the mud, and getting their own truck stuck
in the process. The best of many great lines:
“Well we used a lot of our backs
and a little of our brains
We jacked up the jacks and
snugged up the chains
And we all did our very best to
refrain…from shoveling.”
If you’ve ever ‘unstuck’ a truck you know that last
line is very true. It always feels like you get out when someone finally gets
down there and does some grunt work – after much contemplation of the various
angles, options and varying determinations of “where she’s slippin’.”
These opening tracks stray dangerously close to that
New Country sound that I am not at all keen on. It wisely stays on the “Alan
Jackson” side of that line but not by much. If Corb isn’t slow-dancing with
Nashville, he is certainly in a line dance with her, hooking his thumbs in his
belt loops and chancing a wink now and then on the turn.
However, there are no bad genres only bad songs, and
Corb’s songwriting is more than enough to not only make this sound work, and do
so in a way that instills it with a personal style that never sounds empty or corporate.
It is kitschy at times, but never anything but a really good kitschy.
Not content to explore one style of country, Lund
gets down into old school trucker music, songs about card games and down-home
advice on everything from shooting a gun to warming up your horse’s bit in cold
weather. This is music by a man who loves the traditional styles of country
music and isn’t afraid to update them. More importantly, unlike a lot of modern
country artists, he does so while keeping the soul of the experience intact.
Corb also strays into rock and roll, which isn’t
surprising given his origins in stoner rock band “The Smalls.” “Counterfeiter Blues” and “Good Copenhagen” are both grimy tracks
that mix that earlier rough stuff with outlaw country. In his hands it is a natural
marriage.
The album isn’t without its warts. Lund’s love for the
legends of yesteryear has him doing partnerships with Ian Tyson and Ramblin’
Jack Elliot that don’t really add much to the record (although like Corb, I’d
also never pass up the opportunity to work with living legends).
This is a respectable album and its imperfections give
it character. Corb was on the cusp of greatness here…but more on that when I
roll it.
That’s a teaser, y’all.
Best
tracks: Hair in
My Eyes Like a Highland Steer, The Truck Got Stuck, The Truth Comes Out, Counterfeiter’s
Blues
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