Corb Lund’s Lonley Christmas Song

Aside from I'll Be Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams), traditionally Christmas music is very happy. Of course, the music tends to more often be about spending time with friends and family, singing chipmunks, mommy kissing Santa, reindeer and love; as opposed to loneliness. And, really, even the sadder songs feel happy. Not this one.

This year Corb Lund took a darker, deeper, lonely and intriguing look at Christmas with his song Just Me and These Ponies (For Christmas this Year).

You may know Lund, here in Texas, from his 2013 collaboration with Hayes Carll, Bible on the Dash, but he is a fixture in the Canadian music scene. Last year he stopped by Radio Texas, LIVE!, listen to our conversation.

The literal narrative of the story is kind of an amalgam of a few people I know, people who lead lonely lives," Lund tells Rolling Stone Country. "Christmas tends to be an extra sad time for them. My personal pick for the low point of the song mood-wise (high point art-wise) is when the old guy has gone to the trouble of buying and wrapping gifts for his loved ones, just on the slightest chance they might show up, but knowing they are almost certainly not. The theme of being old and alone resonates with me personally too, as I’ve spent 110% of my adult life building a career, not a family.

The song can be found on An Americana Christmas compilation, which also features Robert Ellis, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, the Band and more doing classic holiday odes.