Not only is country singer-songwriter Corb Lund returning with a brand-new album, El Viejo, on February 23, 2024. The rural Albertan hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains just announced the El Viejo Canadian Tour with a two-night stop at Midway Music Hall on March 9 and 10, 2024.
Supporting Lund is 49 Winchester, a six-piece from the southern Appalachia region in Virgina. Proud of their scruffy image, these “badass” mountain boys have created a breakthrough sound that mixes country, rockabilly, folk and soul.
The 11-track El Viejo is a tribute to Lund’s late friend and mentor, the inspiring Canadian icon, Ian Tyson, who passed away Dec. 29, 2022. At its simplest, the album strips down everything and lets the tape roll capturing a singular, organic moment in time.
To get the acoustic tone and lyrical quality he wanted, Lund tapped into the musical influences of American heavy-weights Marty Robbins, Kris Kristofferson, Bobbie Gentry and Jerry Reed. Threading them together is the gambler character, the outlaw who roams from place-to-place.
“It was just a few of us at my house. No studio. No outside producer. No adults in the room. No stress,” Lund said. “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.”
Much like his music, Lund cannot be pigeonholed. He toured for years with the indie-metal band the smalls before turning his attention to Western songs. His music weaves seamlessly between outlaw country, Western and indie-folk with just the right amount of rowdiness thrown in.
Tickets for the El Viejo concert at Midway go on sale Friday, Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. Visit midwaymusichall.com.
