El Viejo

Last time around, Corb Lund covered a pair of Ian Tyson tunes on Songs My Friends Wrote, an album saluting his singer/songwriter friends. Tyson passed a few months after the records release in September 2022, leaving Lund to dedicate the subsequent El Viejo to his friend and unofficial guru of Americana. The albums title -- "Old Man" -- is a nod to Tyson; hes referred to elliptically in the lyrics and his presence is felt throughout these tales of rounders, ramblers, gamblers, and other assorted tales of neer do wells. The character sketches and short stories are modest and well-etched, the kind of songs that charm upon the first listen and gain resonance with repeated spins. The same can be said of El Viejo as a record, too. Produced by Lund in his living room, El Viejo features his group the Hurtin Albertans lying back on acoustic instruments, swinging between ballads and boogies, and making stops at places in between. Theres an intimacy to the interaction between Lund and the Hurtin Albertans that gives El Viejo a warm, weathered vibe thats every bit as appealing as the songs themselves. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine