Corb Lund announces Vancouver Orpheum show next spring

by Mike Usinger on October 12th, 2023 at 9:17 AM

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What a long and strange journey it’s been, Corb Lund starting out in the grimiest punk clubs as a member of ’90s punk stalwarts the Smalls, and now at the point where he’s headlining some of the country's most fabled soft-seaters.

The journey continues with today’s announcement that Lund will play the Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre on March 5, 2024.

The Alberta renegade country star will be hitting the road in support of his upcoming full-length El Viejo, which finds him paying tribute to friend and mentor Ian Tyson. The record is the follow-up to 2020’s Agricultural Tragic, the accolades for which included album of the year honours from the readers of No Depression.

When writing the songs on El Viejo, Lund also tapped memories of greats like Marty Robbins, Bobbie Gentry, and Kris Kristofferson, all of whom are as much storytellers as they are songwriters.

“It’s a lot of minor keys and gambling songs, is what it is,” Lund has said of the album. “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.”

That idea of capturing a vibe rather than shooting for perfection might sound like the way Lund once did things with the Smalls. While fortunes change, some things remain the same.

A final word to the wise here—you might want to act fast. Lund’s last Vancouver appearance was a two-night stand at the WISE Hall, and it sold out during the presale to the chagrin of many of his fans.