Colter Wall has released the new track "Thinkin' On A Woman" from his new album, Songs of the Plains. Recorded at historic RCA Studio A in Nashville, produced by Dave Cobb, backed by an all-star lineup of session players and running on the same trajectory of straightforward country as before, it's bound to turn heads. This track is just further proof the singer-songwriter has a magic touch.
"Thinkin' On A Woman" tells a self-contained story, much like his other work, in a cottony voice over careful acoustic guitar plucks and mindfully placed pedal steel flourishes. The song contains the natural gusto of a 23-year-old musician run through a pedal effect of time-acquired ramblin' wisdom. Meticulously shifting pitch and rounding out every vowel, Wall plaintively speak-sings, "burnin' up the midnight oil / gonna shuffle off this mortal coil / thinkin' on a woman." He approaches subjects like mortality and unfulfilled desire in candid manner.
To describe Colter Wall as alt-country is almost gratuitous, as he's not straining against any sound in particular. He's making uncomplicated cowboy songs. There's no gimmick behind his roughened exterior; Wall doesn't need to bank on one with a voice like his. It all comes from a place of earnest and natural talent.
The troubadour's music carries the same weighed-down energy of Townes Van Zandt's work. This makes sense as he covered "Snake Mountain Blues" from Our Mother the Mountain on his self-titled record released last year. His grit and ode to tradition with incorporation of yodeling, harmony and Western topical lyrics would make even Hank, Sr. proud. The previous singles from Songs of the Plains touch on his upbringing in Saskatchewan, Canada. Wall is true to his experiences, simply making music as desolate as those plains themselves.
Colter Wall and his band are on tour through January, hitting everywhere from Dallas to Canada. Songs of the Plains comes out Oct. 12, via Thirty Tigers and Young Mary's Record Co.
Songs of the Plains Track List:
1. "Plain to See Plainsman"
2. "Saskatchewan In 1881"
3. "John Beyers (Camaro Song)"
4. "Wild Dogs"
5. "Calgary Round-Up"
6. "Night Herding Song"
7. "Wild Bill Hickok"
8. "The Trains are Gone"
9. "Thinkin' on a Woman"
10. "Manitoba Man"
11. "Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail"
