Western Swings and Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs

 

Graham Craycraft

    The fire crackles and the coyote howls. The men clutch their cigarettes close to them while one lays a rope around the camp to keep out rattlers he says. They pass a bottle of rotgut whiskey and wipe the stinging ash from their eyes. The rope has been laid and the man takes his place in time to wet his throat on the last drops of the bottle. He tosses it into the distance too far to even hear it shatter into stars on the rocks.

    “Well boys how bout a story?” the other three men each tuck a cigarette under their lips and perk up a little to listen. The storyteller pulls out a guitar and begins to strum in a slow but punchy manner. He starts his tale in that parched and pitted voice they all came to know. The fire dances as the flames listen too. One would almost say they were dancin’ western swings and, hell, maybe even waltzes as Mr. Wall played to the men and the wide Saskatchewan skies.

Colter Wall is a 25 year old Canadian born singer song-writer that is making waves with his storytelling, his dedication to the fading Western style of music, and a voice that belongs on a 57 year old chain smoker (in the very best way). Wall’s new album Western Swing and Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs is just 33 minutes, but he packs every minute with great swinging, waltzing, and yes, punching songs. The album is aptly titled. This album is released by La Honda Records, but distributed by Thirty Tigers (Isbell, Williams, Crockett etc.).

The album is split in half between covers and originals. The five covers are various artists including the famous “Big Iron” by Marty Robbins. It hurts a little to see an album with half unoriginal lyrics, but at least Wall nails every one. He makes each one a new story just with his altered musical style and voice. Wall has a real talent in his voice that he has probably already realized. This voice is hypnotizing and I think, hope rather, we see many more albums of covers, because he truly makes them his own. “Cowpoke” has as much spooky soul that the original does, but made even more personal by Wall. As much as I love a good cover, especially done as well as these, the album is filled out by his originals. 

Wall loves his home province and Canada in general and this was a large focus on his previous album Songs of the Plains. He touches again on his home province of Saskatchewan but also surveys the rest of the West, making this an album of cowboy tales absolutely. "Houlihans at the Holiday Inn" is a song of longing for the rough life out in the freedom of the West. The narrator would trade his comfortable life under authority for the true freedom that the West can offer. "I'd trade it all for a double rigged saddle and good pair of chinks."

    The track “Talkin’ Prairie Boy” is a spoken tale of two men out of place. The narrator is out of place by the concrete jungle the world has turned into and the city boy playing cowboy is surely out of place in the narrator’s world. Upon hearing this song I couldn’t help but well up with excitement at the prospect of a young man perhaps becoming the next Clark, van Zandt, etc.. I do not mean to say he is there yet (clearly that would be foolish). I only mean to say that this album carries with it a hope that we are listening to a future great. He is great now, but I believe he could become one of the greats.