Corb Lund Band – Hair in My Eyes Like A Highland Steer

Like ice fishing and snowmobile racing, Corb Lund is huge in Canada (if not so much in Texas). The former frontman for Edmonton punk-rock footnotes the Smalls consistently sells out 1,000-seat venues in the Great White North. Hair In My Eyes Like A Highland Steer leaves no doubt that the country convert bleeds maple syrup and Molson Canadian; the disc’s thirteen rollicking dusters are littered with references to Calgary cowgirls and British Columbia buckaroos.

Musically, the Corb Lund Band is at least partially rooted in American soil. The cowbell-propelled title track hews dangerously close to Nashville-brand new country, and the saloon-boogie shuffler “Always Keep An Edge On Your Knife” sounds like an artifact from the California gold rush.

Lund’s weakness is that too many of his songs play out like novelty tunes. “Hurtin’ Albertan” is a CB radio tribute that won’t make anyone forget about C.W. McCall’s immortal “Convoy”, and “The Truck Got Stuck” could easily be a reject from Jason Ringenberg’s A Day At The Farm With Farmer Jason children’s disc. Everyone suspects Canadians are kind of simple, but Lund doesn’t have to prove it with sing-song rhymes like “It was truck after truck/We all got stuck.”