There aren't many country artists other than Corb Lund who would open an album with a song as apocalyptic as "Gettin' Down on the Mountain." But challenging the stereotype of the cowboy singer has always made Lund unique. He continues to do just that on Cabin Fever, Lund's seventh album with his Hurtin' Albertans. As the title suggests, Lund conceived the album in isolation while dealing with the end of a long-term relationship, along with the death of a close family member. It all adds up to Lund's most well rounded album to date, with an equal appeal to country and rock fans alike.
This is the first album in ten years that you didn't record with Harry Stinson in Nashville. Was it time for a change?
Yeah. We did four albums with Harry, which is quite unusual, so there was really no other reason to do something different, other than it felt like it was time. The studio we recorded at, Riverdale Recorders in Edmonton, is a place where we've hung out for years. Since we were looking to do a record that showed off the band more, it made sense to do it there. We didn't use a click track and there weren't any overdubs.
There seems to be an "outlaw" resurgence in Nashville, with Zac Brown and Jamey Johnson. Have you been paying attention to that at all?
Not really. My management does and they try to capitalize on it but, to me, it just kind of comes and goes every few years. Acoustic songwriting is never going to go away. There's always a core audience for it, no matter what it's called. The same thing happened with my old band the Smalls. We were called everything from speed metal to grunge. None of that matters as long as you're doing what you want to do.
Read a review of Cabin Fever here.
This is the first album in ten years that you didn't record with Harry Stinson in Nashville. Was it time for a change?
Yeah. We did four albums with Harry, which is quite unusual, so there was really no other reason to do something different, other than it felt like it was time. The studio we recorded at, Riverdale Recorders in Edmonton, is a place where we've hung out for years. Since we were looking to do a record that showed off the band more, it made sense to do it there. We didn't use a click track and there weren't any overdubs.
There seems to be an "outlaw" resurgence in Nashville, with Zac Brown and Jamey Johnson. Have you been paying attention to that at all?
Not really. My management does and they try to capitalize on it but, to me, it just kind of comes and goes every few years. Acoustic songwriting is never going to go away. There's always a core audience for it, no matter what it's called. The same thing happened with my old band the Smalls. We were called everything from speed metal to grunge. None of that matters as long as you're doing what you want to do.
Read a review of Cabin Fever here.