Thank you all for the suggestions! I was able to buy a couple of dwarf Alberta spruce for about $9 each on sale. I haven't had a chance to do any work with them, but if anyone has any advice or tips on working on them, I'm all ears!
I mostly am afraid of chopping too much and turning it into a Charlie Brown tree. I'm not sure if chopping too much is the problem or if the shape of the branches would be more the issue!
I've worked Alberta Spruce. Had them for years. Not easy, or mostly even worth the trouble. I ultimately got rid of them. Chopping them leads nowhere, as they're too slow to make a new apex. If you have to shorten them, jinning the tops works.
As for branch placement, wire is of little use to hold the branches in a more horizontal orientation. Branches on AB will mostly always try to spring back up to vertical. Best way to hold them in a more natural looking position is to deeply scar the underside (or topside) of the branch where it meets the trunk, THEN wire the branch down. Let it set for three or four years, before removing the wire. The resulting scar tissue will hold the branch horizontally permanently (mostly).
AB are tough trees and can take a lot of abuse, but in the end they're really not worth the effort.
