Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

COWBOY CULTURE IS ALL THE RAGE THESE DAYS, BUT TODAY’S COWBOYS aren’t like the Lone Rangers of old, thanks in part to Lil Nas X and his record-breaking country-trap hit “Old Town Road,” fringe-masked crooner Orville Peck, and critically acclaimed, cowboy-channelling efforts by the likes of Mitski and Solange.

So what’s a born-and-bred high plains drifter like Corb Lund, who grew up on his family’s sixth-generation-strong ranch near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, to make of cowboy culture becoming en vogue?

“My cousin’s a Western Canada Wrangler rep, and he says Lil Nas X has exploded the Wrangler jeans market. So I guess it is good for that,” Lund says with a chuckle.

Kidding aside, Lund calls the ongoing rise in cowboy culture part of “a cycle that happens every 15 years. I remember in the ’80s, Urban Cowboy was huge,” he says in reference to the John Travolta movie that practically spawned a lifestyle, not to mention a slew of radiofriendly hitmakers including Kenny Rogers and Johnny Lee.

“I have the luxury of having that background. So to me, it seems ridiculous. It doesn’t bother me. It just doesn’t seem that genuine,” Lund adds about the latest country fad.

If Lil Nas X and Orville Peck are indeed gateway artists, then the newly country-curious will find plenty of authentic details and gleefully irreverent asides to delve into on Agricultural Tragic, the latest album by the Albertan alt-country vet.

Take “90 Seconds of Your Time,” on which Lund bellows, “Horse thieving ain’t quite gone outta style” over one of the hardest rocking rhythms of his career. Halfway through, you’ll also hear “Dance with Your Spurs On,” which requires no further explanation.

Best of all is the heartfelt and downcast “Raining Horses,” which Lund co-wrote with friend and “very successful horsewoman” Jaida Dreyer. It features lines like, “‘Round here it ain’t cats and dogs but colts that hit the ground,” with lyrics that explore what “we in the West call ‘horse poor.’ Like, not enough money, and too many horses,” according to Lund.

While Lund has been known to co-write with artists like Dreyer and fellow alt-country songsmiths such as Evan Felker of the Turnpike Troubadours and Hayes Carl, his writing process is usually a solitary one, featuring plenty of burrowing into the gold mine that is his rural lineage.

As he puts it, “My family’s place is in southwestern Alberta. Both sides of the family were raising cattle in Utah and came to Canada around the turn of the century. It’s a long line of cattle people and rodeo people and outlaws and bootleggers. All kinds of things.”

Lund says those familial details have been a wellspring for his lyrics over the years.

He adds that some of his lyrics are all but “verbatim, and some are just inspired by” his family history. There are no official archives for him to thumb through. Instead, says Lund, “You know how every family has a couple of people who are keepers of the lore? I’ve got a couple of aunts like that who I always turn to for stories.”

He adds, “I think I’m probably that guy now, too.”