Canadian country singer/songwriter Corb Lund has carved out a singular niche for himself as an arch auteur of modern cowboy songs. Born in 1969 in Alberta, Lund grew up immersed in farm and ranch life, and he eventually began writing about it, adding plenty of quirky humour to the mix. He started out playing heavy rock with The Smalls in the early ’90s, but the Corb Lund Band’s 1995 debut, Modern Pain, found him embracing his roots and adopting a rootsy country sound shot through with dashes of blues, rock, jazz and whatever else the moment demanded. In the late 2000s, the band (then dubbed Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans) signed to Nashville label New West and started expanding their audience into the U.S. Along the way, Lund has racked up honours on both sides of the border, including a 2006 Juno Award and a pair of nods in 2010 from the Americana Music Association.