Corb Lund has today shared ‘I Had It All’, the latest preview of his forthcoming album, El Viejo, releasing February 23rd, 2024 via New West Records. The album is already being met with critical acclaim and has been deemed the ‘Americana Album of the Month’ by Uncut Magazine.
“’I Had It All’ is a fun romp about western gambling stuff that feels good to sing. It’s kinda swampy and I dig the harp on it. Reminds me of something my buddy Hayes might write. And it has a couple of my favourite lines from the whole album, the one about cowboy pasts and speed metal futures. Might have to put that on my tombstone, “ says Lund of the track.
Lund last week announced additional UK and European headline tour dates to support the release of El Viejo, when he returns to support The Dead South in May 2024. Lund will kick off his European headline run with two shows in the Netherlands on May 28th and 29th. He will then play in Austria’s Kalsdorf town on June 7th and finish the run in the UK, playing in London on June 19th, Manchester on June 20th, Birkenhead on June 21st and Kilkenny on June 23rd.
El Viejo was produced by Lund and recorded entirely in his living room in Lethbridge, AB with his band The Hurtin’ Albertans. El Viejo is Lund’s first album of original material since 2020’s critically acclaimed Agricultural Tragic, which was named an album of the year by the readers of No Depression. Gathering around his living room, Lund & Co. tapped into his most cherished musical influences of acoustic tone and lyrical aptitude — Marty Robbins, Kris Kristofferson, Bobbie Gentry, Jerry Reed. There is a common theme — possibly even a character thread — of the gambler, the outlaw who roams from place-to-place with no direction home.
“It’s a lot of minor keys and gambling songs, is what it is,” Lund says. “It was just a few of us in my house. No studio. No outside producer. No adults in the room. No stress.” He continues, “There’s not a single electric instrument on the whole thing, just acoustic sounds and singing. In terms of having a vision, this is a record I’ve had in my sights for a while and it came out exactly how I’d hoped. We cut all the songs live in the same room with lots of bleed. A bunch of the songs we captured in one take, first time through.”
The album pays tribute to Lund’s late friend and mentor, the famed Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Tyson, who passed away 29 December, 2022. With El Viejo, he has also created an ode to the notion of stripping everything down and letting the tape roll — simply capturing a moment of pure vulnerability and organic inspiration in real time.
