Colter Wall’s Debut Album Is A Much-Needed Storytelling Masterpiece

Depending on who you ask, to say country music isn’t dead is quite the proclamation to make given what’s in rotation on Country radio today. However, if you’re Colter Wall, you say it with strong conviction. Not only because he knows of those who are “doing it right” (as discussed in his interview with Rolling Stone) but he’s also got the chops to back it up personally. On May 12, Wall released his self-titled debut album and within the first few seconds, you know this 21-year old from Saskatchewan, Canada is the real deal; an old soul with many stories to tell and the voice to match.

Some of the best storytelling songs from greats like Bob Dylan (“Hurricane,” “The Ballad of Frankie Lee & Judas Priest”),  Johnny Cash (“Folsom Prison Blues,” “Cocaine Blues”) and even older classics such as Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons” and Jimmy Dean’s “Big Bad John” come to mind as one listens to Wall’s stories. His lyrics are visual and his two-pack-a-day voice adds a warmth and depth that creates a sense of validation to the story told. For example, the lead single “Thirteen Silver Dollars,” which also kicks off the Dave Cobb produced album (Cobb also lent his musicianship on the record), is about getting arrested and it oozes a sarcastic wit that hasn’t really be felt since the days of Cash and Co.:

And then out jumps this old boy
About twice the size of me
He asked me for my name and where I dwell
I just looked him in the eye
and sang ‘Blue Yodel Number 9’
He didn’t catch the reference, I could tell.
Then the old, familiar click
In the handcuffs bind and grip
Should have left me in the snow, where I laid
He just laughed and touched his gun
And turned to me and he said Son
I bet you don’t own a damn thing
To your name

Wall, who spends most of his time between Saskatchewan and Kentucky, popped up on the radar after his song “Sleeping on the Blacktop” from his equally impressive 2015 EP Imaginary Appalachia was featured in the 2016 movie “Hell or High Water” and fans quickly latched on.  At his NYC debut show at Rockwood Music Hall (a mere 3 days after the album dropped) you would have thought he had played the Big Apple before, as not only was the place packed but the entire room was singing along, especially to fan favorite “Kate McCannon.”  The murderous track solidifies Wall with the best of the storytellers, as a raven speaks to him from his prison window, and he tells the story of how he killed his girlfriend in cold blood after finding her with another lover.

Well the raven is a wicked bird
His wings are black as sin
And he floats outside my prison window
Mocking those within
And he sings to me real low
‘It’s hell to where you go..
For you did murder Kate McCannon’

Of the album’s 11-tracks, Wall wrote nine of them, each a classic and personal tale in its own way.  “Motorycle” was inspired by yet another master storyteller – Arlo Guthrie’s “The Motorcycle Song” off his timeless album Alice’s Restaurant  (Well, I figure I’ll buy me a motorcycle / Wrap her pretty little frame around a telephone pole / Ride her off a mountain like old Arlo / Figure I’ll buy me a motorcycle). “You Look To Yours” tells the story of meeting women at bars who were not willing to leave their pride for a one-night stand. The melancholy “Transcendent Ramblin’ Railroad Blues” is simple in its construction – an acoustic guitar with some steel – but its lyrics paired with Wall’s voice echoes a loneliness that transports the listener back in time with rustic nostalgia.

Wall has said that if he’s going to be a folk singer then he needs sing some folk songs. Well, the two covers selected for the album definitely help him qualify as one: Townes Van Zandt’s “Snake Mountain Blues” and Lawton Williams’ “Fraulein,” where Wall is joined by Tyler Childers for a nice one-two vocal punch.

It’s hard to disagree with Wall’s claim that country music isn’t dead after listening to this masterpiece of a debut album; he gets back to the roots of Country/Folk/Americana that has been trying to poke its head through today’s trends in country music. Hopefully country radio catches on, for if Wall doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, the fault will not fall on his end.

COLTER WALL TRACK LIST
1. Thirteen Silver Dollars (Colter Wall)
2. Codeine Dream (Colter Wall)
3. Me and Big Dave (Colter Wall)
4. Motorcycle (Colter Wall)
5. Kate McCannon (Colter Wall)
6. W.B.’s Talkin (Colter Wall)
7. Snake Mountain Blues (Townes Van Zandt)
8. You Look To Yours (Colter Wall)
9. Transcendent Ramblin’ Railroad Blues (Colter Wall)
10. Fraulein (feat. Tyler Childers, traditional folk song)
11. Bald Butte (Colter Wall)

For tour dates and more information Colter Wall, visit his website at colterwall.com.