Corb Lund and his crackerjack band, the Hurtin' Albertans, lassoed a pen full of awards in the recent Canadian Country Music Awards (and the Western Canadian Music Awards), and for anyone just coming to Lund's brand of ranchin' and ropin' tunes, this album (ironically recorded in Nashville) serves as a fine introduction. The baby-faced Canuck blends a prairie upbringing with 10 years as an indie rocker in his last group, the Smalls, and throws in a smattering of acoustic blues, folk, rockabilly, ragtime, and country-rock to balance his traditional cowpoke leanings. While his subject matter generally hangs around the chutes and the plains, or follows the white line down the highway, Lund is so lyrically and rhythmically inventive that special guests Ian Tyson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Riders in the Sky's Ranger Doug and Too Slim probably begged to ride herd. Put your boots up, pull out a can of chew, and get acquainted with the brightest new star under the western moon. --Alanna Nash