The 25-year-old Saskatchewan, Canada traditional country singer/songwriter Colter Wall follows-up the excellent 2018 release Songs of the Plains with his third full-length release Western Swing and Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs. Moving away from the Dave Cobb production of first two records, Western Swings and Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs finds Wall moving away from original producer Dave Cobb and landing down in Texas at the Yellow Dog Studios, cutting tracks in a more loose recording environment. This shift culminates in a set of intricately crafted and fully immersive tracks, some with lonesome harp and yodels and others more austere and stripped back. Notable tracks include: a cover of the Stan Jones’ song “Cowpoke”; the Marty Robbins track “Big Iron”; the cowboy poet and rancher Lewis Martin Pederson III’s ode to a legendarily tough bronco “High and Mighty”; Ramblin’ Jack Elliot’s “Diamond Joe”; the Johnny Cash-esque mid-tempo paced “Henry and Sam”; the witty “Talkin’ Prairie Boy”; a take on the 1927 Carl Sandburg song ” I Ride an Old Paint”; and the contemporary trail song and closing track “Houlihans at the Holiday Inn.” Colter Wall’s Western Swing and Waltzes captures the talent of one of country music’s most promising up-and-comers whose preservationist approach to each of the songs gives the entire record an authentic quality that transports the listener back to a simpler time. – Written by JFelton
SIMILAR | Brent Cobb, Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton