Artist: Corb Lund
Album: Counterfeit Blues
Bitrate: 185kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: New West Records
Genre: Country
Size: 53.08 megs
PlayTime: 0h 38min 03sec total
Rip Date: 2014-07-08
Store Date: 2014-07-01
Track List:
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01. Counterfeiters' Blues 3:33
02. Good Copenhagen 3:20
03. Big Butch Bass Bull Fiddle 2:13
04. Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland 3:17
Steer
05. Little Foothills Heaven 3:17
06. Five Dollar Bill 2:28
07. Buckin' Horse Rider 4:00
08. Hurtin' Albertan 3:20
09. (Gonna) Shine Up My Boots 2:19
10. Truck Got Stuck 3:02
11. Roughest Neck Around 3:24
12. Truth Comes Out 3:50
Release Notes:
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In his native Canada, Southern Alberta songwriter Corb Lund has a pair of Gold
records and has won 12 Juno awards. On Counterfeit Blues, his eighth studio
offering -- and third for New West -- Lund and his Hurtin' Albertans dig through
their early Canadian catalog to offer a twist on the greatest-hits record. They
re-recorded well-known cuts from 2002's Five Dollar Bill and 2006's Hair in My
Eyes Like a Highland Steer over two nights, absolutely live from the floor
without overdubs at Memphis' Sun Studios. It's essentially a soundtrack to a CMT
special that sought to flesh out Lund's desire to capture his brand of country
in as raw and organic a form as possible. The band -- lead guitarist Grant
Siemens, upright bassist Kurt Ciesla, and drummer Brady Valgardson -- deliver a
kinetic, tightrope-without-a-net walking set where new versions stand in stark
contrast to originals. Lund has written dozens of fine country and cowboy songs
from the agrarian perspective he knows from experience. The title track is
transformed into a distorted, chugging slide-guitar-rocking blues that evokes
the greasy spirit of Memphis and discloses a debt to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean
Homesick Blues." Siemens' slide-guitar wrangling bleeds right through the drums
and bass, which in turn bleed into Lund's vocal. There's just enough slapback
reverb on his voice to keep it above the din. The stomping delivery of "Good
Copenhagen" suggests just how deep its outlaw country roots go, without
posturing. "Big Butch Bass Bull Fiddle" weds rockabilly's immediacy to Western
swing; it's driven by Ciesla's fingerpopping, syncopated slap-groove. The
cut-time "Hair in My Eyes Like a Highland Steer," with its spooky guitar reverb
and Valgardson's skittering snare, walks a wily path between swaggering hardcore
honky tonk and drunken square dance calling. Siemens' killer lap steel playing
underscores "Little Foothills Heaven" and "(Gonna) Shine Up My Boots," while
"Buckin' Horse Rider" is a slow cowboy waltz. "Truck Got Stuck" is a talking
blues that simultaneously recalls the spirits of Woody Guthrie, Hank Snow, and
Dave Dudley. Closer "Truth Comes Out" is high, wide, and lonesome. Rich in
poetic detail and atmosphere, it feels like a storm coming in from the horizon.
It presents the harsh realities of ranchers and farmers living on the Canadian
prairies. For those who come to Lund's work through his previous New West dates,
Counterfeit Blues is a rough-hewn, hardcore country revelation. For those who've
followed him from the beginning, these versions argue that they were always
meant to be presented in this way, and that they endure with deeper, wider
meanings in this context.