(2023) Colter Wall - Little Songs        


Review:
Colter Wall has been described as a traditionalist and while his dusty country tunes pull from the legends of the genre almost as much as Wall’s life story, the artist is creating his own tradition. Wall has been steadily receiving praise from country gods like Steve Earle since his 2015 debut put his stunning songwriting and fireside-chat-style melodies on full display. Today, we find Wall with a few more albums under his belt and a collection of simple truths that are stretched to their furthest extent when realized in the Canadian countryside. Little Songs features 10 tracks drenched in vivid imagery and intimate arrangements that play on each other to create the stirring balladry of Wall’s latest. His first album since 2020’s Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs, Little Songs plays like a long, lonely walk, the slow-burning songs on this tracklist continue to prove Wall’s prowess as an artist while also seeing him evolve through his imaginative storytelling and natural sense of melody. Colter Wall’s songwriting plays in the middle ground of history and imagination, spinning the harshness of reality into enticing stories. The artist is able to build entire universes in his simplicity and it’s his baritone vocals that anchor everything down. Wall’s melodies seem to carry an extra potency on his new album, whether he’s singing about how common man and beast can be (“The Coyote and The Cowboy”) or simply expressing the sorrows that come with a troubadour lifestyle (“Corralling The Blues”), there is always a sense of experience in the notes Wall belts out. His tone of voice is tinged with a lifetime of experiences but his lyrics say otherwise, penning songs that center around a lost soul. This creates a conflict within Wall’s art, one that can only be resolved by the man creating it and his outlet to do so gives us music that is warm yet troubling. Hearing a man with such confidence in his art tell stories of downtrodden wanderers humanizes the otherworldly talent needed to make a dusty trail sound so poetic. Little Songs is a moving set of compositions that puts humility and vulnerability above all else, although his words are only put to motion once the guitar strings get plucked. The music that elevates Wall’s songwriting adds just as much to the story of Little Songs as the album’s picturesque lyrics. The album finds its consistency outside of tempos and song structure, allowing Wall to switch from full-band party jams to gentle balladry. A moment like “Honky Tonky Nightmare” breathes life into the LP while still allowing the characters in Wall’s universe to freely tell their story. The stand-out track “Standing Here” is able to separate itself from the pack with its stoic melody that adds depth to the wistful strumming. Everything about Little Songs feels direct but not forced, the simplicity in his approach creates a sense of relief and allows the most nuanced elements to feel all the more impactful. — glidemagazine


   


Track List:
01 - Prairie Evening;Sagebush Waltz
02 - Standing Here
03 - Corralling the Blues
04 - The Coyote & the Cowboy
05 - Honky Tonk Nighthawk
06 - For a Long While
07 - Cow;Calf Blue Yodel
08 - Little Songs
09 - Evangelina
10 - The Last Loving Words


Media Report:
Genre: country
Country: Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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