The dozen tunes on Corb Lund’s latest, Counterfeit Blues, will be familiar to anyone who has been following Corb’s career since the demise of the smalls. But they may be unfamiliar to new fans, especially those who are turning on to the Hurtin’ Albertan(s) act down in Red Dirt country. As such, this is a beauty primer of some of the band’s live staples. But rather than just assemble a “best of” from those early albums, Corb and the boys went into historic Sun Studios in Memphis and cut them all live off the floor. That’s right, live off the floor in Sun Studios, the same way Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins done it. And while the live sound lacks that studio precision, for the most part the songs come off sounding better for it. “Good Copenhagen,” “Hurtin’ Albertan,” and “Five Dollar Bill” are even more rousing than the originals, and the other nine aren’t far behind. “Big Butch Bass Bull Fiddle” even sounds like it could have been cut by Carl Perkins on the flipside of his original “Blue Suede Shoes.” And to make the pot even sweeter, the collection comes with a DVD of the Corb Lund Memphis SunCMT special that was filmed at the time of recording. If you caught Corb’s act at the Winnipeg Folk Fest this year, or Dauphin Countryfest a year back, but haven’t jumped into album ownership just yet, Counterfeit Blues is a great place to start. And if you been following the Hurtin’ Albertans all up and down the Hillbilly Highway for years, well, you won’t wanna miss this, either. Giddyup! (New West, corblund.com) Sheldon Birnie