Hearts on Fire by Michael Barclay

Author:Michael Barclay [Barclay, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781773059068
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2022-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

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The Smalls’ music didn’t fit into easy boxes, nor did Lund’s solo material. By the time he landed in Austin, he had already put out two albums of solo material that tapped into his country and folk roots—albeit with his own twist. “My loose intentions were to make the most of the Smalls and see how far we could take it,” he says, “but I was never into playing speed metal into my 50s. That’s young people’s music. I don’t begrudge people doing it at an older age; if it works for them, great. I always assumed I’d move into some kind of roots music when I was older. I figured the sooner I could get good at it, the better.”

His debut, 1995’s Modern Pain, “was a lark,” says Lund. “I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing.” Nonetheless, three of its songs later reappeared on some of his strongest albums. There’s also a song in French, an instrumental waltz and a live Stompin’ Tom Connors cover. The follow-up, 1999’s Unforgiving Mistress, features an uncommonly large dose of Spanish guitar. “I was experimenting,” he says. “I also deliberately didn’t want to blend a bunch of rocky Smalls stuff with it. I wanted it to be a departure. Two distinct sounds.” Both records were barely heard outside of Edmonton, though they suggested that Lund would be right at home in Austin, the spiritual home of the storyteller songwriters he admired most.

It was there that he wrote his third album, Five Dollar Bill. Though he was inspired musically by his Texan surroundings, the lyrics were the most distinctly Albertan he’d written to date. “There Are No Roads Here” is about his Danish ancestors migrating across the continent from Texas. “Short Native Grasses” follows an Albertan to the streets of Montreal, where “you can do what you want / on Boulevard St. Laurent.” The title track is about Albertans running booze over the border during Prohibition. “Roughest Neck Around” is about the oil riggers of Fort McMurray “pulling dragons from the ground.” “Buckin’ Horse Rider” is an ode to Lund’s beloved rodeo culture.

The common thread is the level of detail and local vernacular that place Lund in the tradition of cowboy poetry; he’s a frequent performer at the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. Lund is also careful to separate country music from western music; he plays the latter, which was a more regional genre until Nashville DJs started conflating the two in the 1950s.

Most important: even without the lessons in history, geography and musicology, the dozen songs on Five Dollar Bill are a master class in songwriting in terms of melody and the use of jazz chords in folk songs, delivered via meticulous, muscular band arrangements with swing and a punch. Lund staked his claim as one of the great Canadian songwriters—precious few of whom have ever delivered a single album as strong as Five Dollar Bill. He felt liberated, and not just musically. “The Smalls were very democratic,” he says, “which made it problematic.

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