101.1 The Farm presents Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans live at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.

See them in concert on Thursday, December 4.

Tickets are available at Ticketmaster (728-9510) on Friday, October 17 at 10 AM.

Listen to The Farm to win tickets.



Biography:

We live in a perpetual state of war. It's an obvious subject, yet a dangerous one. Every songwriter owes it to themselves to confront it, either allegorically or directly.

On his fifth album, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!, Corb Lund writes about warfare via something he knows about first hand: horses. It's been almost a century since most of us pondered the cavalry's integral role in military history. But as Lund points out on the globetrotting title track, you can still find traces of the cavalry in more contemporary conflicts, like the one going on today in Afghanistan.

Armed with plenty of books on military history throughout the ages-as well as some Gabriel Garcia Marquez and tales of the French foreign legion-Lund says he wanted to write about "timeless themes" rather than today's headlines. "I tend to dig around for exotic detail," he says. "Plus, I've never been much of an overtly political writer. I respect that form of art, and I do have very strong beliefs about those kinds of issues. But I also think that there's a place for music that makes people feel deeper things than current events."

Though many of the songs on Horse Soldier! tell tales of foreign lands, Lund has built his career by spinning distinctly Albertan anecdotes for the past decade, on gold-selling albums like 2002's Five Dollar Bill and 2005's Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer. There are more than a few horse stories on those records as well.

Growing up in Taber, Alberta, Lund's lineage boasts over a century of cowboys. And thanks to his keen lyrical pen, Lund's Alberta is ready to take its place in a long line of immortal locales lucky enough to have their own poet laureates who paint vivid pictures, spin mythologies and create memorable characters. Think of any of the following: Bruce Springsteen's New Jersey; Stan Rogers' Maritime provinces; John K. Samson's Winnipeg; Lou Reed's New York City; Stompin' Tom Connors' small town Canada; Lucinda Williams' Louisiana. And yet voices like those are increasingly rare. Mainstream pop music of all stripes-rock, country, R&B, even hip-hop now-ignores regional specifics, to the point where even as gifted a storyteller as Corb Lund once questioned his lyrical outlook.

Only a singer as charismatic as Corb Lund could guide the listener through the stories that populate Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!. And you don't have to be a hardcore country fan to follow his musical path, either. Lund brings in Latin and Celtic influences into his driving two-step rhythms, delivered with an aw-shucks sincerity and refusing to talk either up or down to his audience.

Official Site