corblund.jpgThe first show I ever went to when I moved to Seattle was at the Sunset: Ms. Led, the Butchies, and maybe some kind of Team Dresch reunion? Either way, it was hardly country music. Considering most of the roots/country/folk shows take place further down Ballard Avenue, I haven’t had a ton of opportunities to erase that first impression of the Sunset from my head. But Tuesday night, glued to a jacked-up bar stool for three hours, I witnessed some darn good country music.

Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Garth Reeves got things started, backed ably by local multi-instrumentalist Jeff Fielder on dobro and guitar. Fielder was the finest feature of this set. It’s hard to argue with that level of skill, and few pickers in town can rival Fielder’s sheer dexterity. However, though Reeve’s original songs were well-instrumentalized and provocative, they were also unfortunately forgettable.

Luckily, local country chanteuse Zoe Muth was up next, with her band the Lost High Rollers. Most notable among her selections was a heartbreaking turn on “You Only Believe Me When I’m Lying,” and the more upbeat “Hey Little Darlin’.” The former’s pedal steel solos did exactly what pedal steel solos are there to do: instrumentalize crying. The latter was heavy on tight, understated harmonies, punctuated by the fluttering strum of a well-played mandolin and the soft, skippy rhythm of a barely-there snare. Muth’s whole set was a superb display of restraint, allowing the songs to practically sing themselves. This is the way country music is supposed to be played—or at least the way it used to be played.

Headliner Corb Lund played another kind of country music—the kind that gets blasted from jukeboxes at truck stops. In fact, he kicked his set off by announcing, “This is a trucking song.” And, with that, the dancers hit the floor directly in front of the stage. The room was hardly packed but, for the duration of Lund’s set, it was a country roadhouse party. The dancers never let up as he moved through selections from his many albums, including a collection from his latest, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

Canada has always churned out some excellent country singers and Lund holds his end of that bargain well. He is full of charm and presence onstage, with songs that are both largely verbose and infectious, but his band is possibly his greatest asset. Bassist Kurt Ciesla delivered some of the more impressive bass fiddle solos I’ve seen in some time—alternating, often from phrase to phrase, between bowing and plucking. Multi-instrumentalist Grant Siemens also delivered plenty of remarkable runs on both guitar and lap steel. By the time the band had played its way to their “traditional parting song,” they’d won the small crowd over enough to sing along with “It’s time to switch to whiskey, we’ve been drinking beer all night.” Honestly, if there’s a better way to cap off a night of country music at the Sunset, I don’t know what that is.