I am spending my Friday afternoon with Colter Wall and his new album "Little songs". It was released today and I must say this must be one of his better albums. I like it. :-) Great music. I now could wish my name was Evangelia and some handsome man was looking for me, searching for me, missing me. Sigh! Where are those men when you need them?
Colter Wall came into my life one grey and ordinary afternoon and wow what a voice and he writes good songs too. I am glad I found him. He's got so much music going on inside his soul. It's a joy listening to him.
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What has been done to us is muddled with the fears
of what could have been done.
Valzhyna Mort, from “Little Songs,” Music for the Dead and Resurrected (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)
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Colter Wall - Little Songs
Colter Wall is one of the most interesting figures in modern country music. Whether it’s for his deep baritone that sounds like Johnny Cash, or for his cowboy aesthetic that looks and sounds like he’s from the 1800s, he’s very much an outlier. He sounds like belongs in the 1950s, versus the 2020s. Hell, I was on Apple Music looking up some 1950s country music, and under the RIYL of Marty Robbins, Colter Wall was there and he was the only modern artist. It makes sense, though, as he covered a Marty Robbins on one of his most recent albums. That’s the thing, too, he covers songs that are old enough to be his grandfather or great grandfather, versus more recent songs. He covers a lot of standards and traditional songs, which I’ve always found interesting, but I can’t say that I’ve liked the last couple of his records that much. Not that they’re bad, but they’re not that interesting.
Let me back up a second, because I remember finding Colter Wall in 2015 or 2016, a bit after his debut EP, 2015’s Imaginary Appalachia, came out. The song “Sleeping On The Blacktop” was featured in the movie Hell Or High Water around that same time, and that led me to check out the EP, which was and still a great outlaw country, folk, and Americana record that showcases Wall’s deep and booming voice, along with a gift of poetic and timeless lyricism. His self-titled debut from 2017 was just as good, featuring Tyler Childers of all people, but I haven’t cared for anything that much since, although 2018’s Songs Of The Plains is pretty good, but his last LP I just didn’t care that much for. I’ll be honest, too, I didn’t originally care for this album, Little Songs, but it took me a few listens to sink my teeth into it.
When I did, though, Little Songs, is such a fun record, because it fully embraces Colter Wall’s cowboy aesthetic, and you can just picture him singing these songs on a ranch. He does have a pasture, I believe, so he doesn’t just talk the talk, he is a cowboy, and he’s talked about how he loves being outdoors and being on a ranch. This record is great, though, especially for how short and to the point it is. This album has a good mix of slower songs, such as “For A Long While,” but songs like “The Coyote & The Cowboy” and “Honky Tonk Nighthawk” are more upbeat and a lot of fun.
Wall’s voice is very expressive, and very distinct, which helps both this record and his sound quite a bit. You know it’s a Colter Wall record, and you know what you’re getting, but the key is, everything is so well-written and/or well-performed, and he also made sure that his backing band gets the spotlight throughout this record, so the instrumentation is top notch throughout it. I said this in my review of Tyler Childer’s Rustin’ In The Rain, but in any given year, this might be my favorite country album, at least if the former album didn’t come out, but it’s a tough call, since so much came out this year that I really love and there’s more to follow. Little Songs is a fantastic record, and if this is your introduction to Colter Wall, it’s a damn good one.
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It never fails when the world ails you
And throws you to the ground
Some old song forgotten long ago
Comes back around
Picks you up and dusts you off
In an old analog style
Colter Wall - For a long while
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Motivational Music in the Morning ... #ColterWall, #HonkyTonkNighthawk ... From the Album #LittleSongs [Official Audio Track] (2023) #MMitM1
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