Corb Lund has always traded dandruff with history. Raised on his family’s homestead near Taber, Lund hit the rodeo circuit in his youth, gaining intimate acquaintance with Alberta’s endangered grain elevators and well-used railway tracks. His Edmonton-based band, The Smalls, experienced Canadian heritage through van windows as they re-crossed the country during chains of tours.
That intimacy with the past cast a transparent veil over Lund’s career, from the catchy bootlegger tale that was the title track to 2002’s Five Dollar Bill album to trading vocals with Woody Guthrie’s travel mate Ramblin’ Jack Elliot on “The Truck Got Stuck” from 2005’s Hair in my Eyes Like a Highland Steer.
While his first-hand knowledge of horses gallops through Horse Soldier’s arteries, Lund has also armed himself with books on military history and read Gabriel Garcia Marquez in lieu of living the battles that inform the songs. This parallels research in which novelists engage, and, indeed, some tracks feel more like they’re penned by a Giller Prize-winner than a rodeo brat, with not a squandered word.
The album is a jaw-dropping document that shines flashes of light between the dark ribs of war, then easily juxtaposes those images with mirthful tales of modern love, tools and kin. Somehow, Lund pulls this off without seeming like he’s trying too hard, or being disrespectful to his themes. It is a fearless collection of songs that will challenge fans who love Lund for radio-friendly novelties like “Hair in my Eyes Like a Highland Steer.” While catchy tracks like “Hard on Equipment” and “Family Reunion” bounce familiarly along, Lund seems more eager to guide listeners through a Blakean menagerie of innocence and experience than serenade them with ditties, however delightful some of those ditties may be.
It’s a challenge to explore topics like war and politics without sounding preachy, but Lund pulls it off, mainly because he tells tales through his bewildered characters’ voices. Standout track “Student Visas” has a prosaic title, but is written from the point of view of Contra soldiers in Nicaragua who are not sure what their mission is, who their enemies are or whether or not they exist at all in the eyes of the U.S. government. The music underlining the story is sparse, dark and powerful.
There are many stunning songs, like the reprise of the first single “I Wanna Be in the Calvary,” where the initial lust for glory is reincarnated in a starvation-filled dirge, a Tyger’s experience devouring the Lamb’s innocence. Smalls fans will shiver through a penetrating, horn-filled version of the previously rockin’ “My Saddle Horse Has Died,” while the regret-filled mirror of “Especially a Paint” invites questions about the choices we make.
In spite of the depth of these songs, Horse Soldier’s most daunting challenge to listeners may be shifting mental gears between ebony moments and lighter songs. It is a technique used with impact by writers from Shakespeare onwards, but demands a lot of listeners during a 45-minute CD. Still, for a guy who once said “I ain’t never had no book larnin’” – you dun good, Corby, you dun good.
