Colter Wall - Thirteen Silver Dollars

from his "Colter Wall" debut 2017. Young Mary's Record Co.
Colter Wall is one of country music’s most exciting young voices. His debut album is strange and stirring, rarely ever rising above a gentle rumble.

During the mid-1990s, a new back-to-basics movement swept through country music. Johnny Cash kicked off his fruitful American Recordings partnership with Rick Rubin; Willie Nelson released the sparse, unadorned Spirit; and—in the city of Swift Current in Saskatchewan, Canada in June 1995—Colter Wall was born. Blessed with a curious, slurring baritone that burbles like smoke from a chimney, Wall writes country songs as stark and traditional as they come, accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar. To call him wiser than his years would be an understatement: veteran songwriters go to great lengths to sound so gruff and world-weary. The 11 tracks on his self-titled debut are strange and stirring enough to make him one of the genre’s most exciting young voices.

Rarely ever rising above a gentle rumble, Wall’s songs zoom in on haunting scenes and resolve in unexpected ways. They gain their intensity from his vivid, fragmented storytelling. The album begins with “Thirteen Silver Dollars,” a spirited ramble that finds our narrator lying in the snowy streets of Saskatchewan before a cop comes to take him away. Wall never explains how he wound up there (“For now we’ll say I had no place to go,” he offers) or what happens next—there’s not even a second verse. Instead, he closes with a rousing repetition of the chorus, proudly naming the few possessions he owns. It’s a fitting introduction to an album built from small details, conjuring larger pictures with what’s left out.

Wall’s aversion to narrative spans the record and makes these songs a lot more hallucinogenic than their earthy arrangements suggest. “Kate McCannon” is told through one of folk music’s oldest tropes: the dual love song/murder ballad. But Wall offers little time for reflection, fading out shortly after the cathartic and inevitable round of gunfire in the song’s final couplet. “I ain’t in the business of making excuses,” Wall sings earlier in the album, and he doesn’t. As often as he references guns and drugs and death, Wall is too plainspoken for his stories to ever feel glamorized or romantic. Like Springsteen on Nebraska, Colter Wall surveys mankind in its most fragile states—betrayed, lonely, desperate, dangerous—as a means of addressing how much we have to lose, how easily it can all fall apart.

“You Look to Yours” offers the album’s most useful (and timely) bit of advice: “Go about your earthly mission,” Wall sings, “Don’t trust no politicians.” Tellingly, the wisdom doesn’t arrive from Wall himself but from a series of women eloquently turning him down in various seedy bars, their kiss-offs echoing in his head as he stumbles home alone. Hummable and warm, it’s one of the album’s most upbeat songs, effortlessly summoning the honky-tonks Wall sings about with a lazy swing. “Motorcycle” is another moment of levity with a cheerful melody that masks the death wish driving its lyrics. The friction in Wall’s delivery highlights the genre’s ability to blend pain and joy past the point of differentiation: a power he seems to harness intuitively.

The album was produced by David Cobb—the go-to guy for breakthrough acts like Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, and Chris Stapleton. But Cobb takes a decidedly unmodern approach, letting Wall’s songs speak for themselves. The two songs on the albums that Wall didn’t write (Townes Van Zandt’s “Snake Mountain Blues” and the traditional “Fraulein”) slip seamlessly into the tracklist: an indication of just how gloriously out of touch his writing is. In the slow, ominous “Me and Big Dave,” Wall revels in his outsider mentality while conceding to the dangers of a life spent alone. “This whole world’s full of ghosts,” he concludes, “I believe that most people can’t see.” It’s one of the album’s most powerful lyrics, sold with a fierce and frightening conviction. For 40 minutes, Colter Wall brings you face to face with his ghosts until they’re so familiar you can hardly remember life without them.

Sam Sodomsky /Pitchfork June 28 2017

[FlawlessRhythmGG]

I just found this man from a suggestion on Facebook and he reminds me very much of John Prine. What a wonderful musician.

[caarrtteerr]

Being from speedy creek, this song rings true.

[TheDreadedWhiteDevil]

Verse 1]
It was a cold and cruel evening
Sneaking up on Speedy Creek
Found myself asleep and in the snow
One or two odd reasons
I ain't too proud to repeat
For now we'll say I had no place to go
There was a rustle and a humming
Just hauling down the street
I drew myself up from my icy bed
Painted on that shiny car the letters 'RCM and P'
I can feel a little aching in my head

[Verse 2]
And then out jumps this old boy
About twice the size of me
He asked me for my name and where I dwell
I just looked him in the eye
And sang 'Blue Yodel Number 9'
He didn't catch the reference, I could tell

Then the old, familiar click
In the handcuffs bind and grip
Should have left me in the snow, where I laid

He just laughed and touched his gun
And turned to me and he said
Son, I bet you don't own a damn thing
To your name

[Chorus]
Well, I got my health
My John B Stetson
Got a bottle full of baby's bluebird wine
And I left my stash
Somewhere down in Preston
Along with thirteen silver dollars and my mind

Well, I got my health
My John B Stetson
Got me a bottle full of baby's bluebird wine
And I left my stash
Somewhere down in preston
Along with thirteen silver dollars and my mind

[bigpharmasux]

Reincarnation sound & soul of Johnny ca$h - Amen! Praise Jesus we need this music

[idontusethischannel]

That description is pretty fantastic. Also Colter Wall's new album is going to be awesome!

[gordonc]

Why isn't he on the radio..? Nevermind, radio sucks.

[huebdoo]

As someone who was a hell raiser growing up in Rural Canada ... let's just say you learn at an early age that Mounties dont F around and they are a reason why Canadians are so polite.

[theguy]

Even thirty seconds of Colter's music in this one song are infinitely better than all of the albums combined of any florida georgia line or Luke Bryan album. Your opinion is irrelevant, fight me.

[DrWizardMother]

I like the live version with the fiddle better…but this is still good.

[erroldeskin]

It was a cold and cruel evening
Sneaking up on Speedy Creek
Found myself asleep and in the snow
One or two odd reasons
I ain't too proud to repeat
For now we'll say I had no place to go
There was a rustle and a humming
Just hauling down the street
I drew myself up from my icy bed
Painted on that shiny car the letters 'RCM and P'
I can feel a little aching in my head

And then out jumps this old boy
About twice the size of me
He asked me for my name and where I dwell
I just looked him in the eye
And sang 'Blue Yodel Number 9'
He didn't catch the reference, I could tell

Then the old, familiar click
In the handcuffs bind and grip
Should have left me in the snow, where I laid

He just laughed and touched his gun
And turned to me and he said
Son, I bet you don't own a damn thing
To your name

Well, I got my health
My John B Stetson
Got a bottle full of baby's bluebird wine
And I left my stash
Somewhere down in Preston
Along with thirteen silver dollars and my mind

Well, I got my health
My John B Stetson
Got me a bottle full of baby's bluebird wine
And I left my stash
Somewhere down in Preston
Along with thirteen silver dollars and my mind

[bryanwilliambloom]

Country music in America is pretty darn bad, sold out to politics and pick up truck commercials many years ago. But there is one true country musician left - Canadian Cowpoke Colter Wall. Colter is the last hope that country music is not dead. He's the real McCoy.

[travismorgan]

Its the exact same tune in the beginning as "Talking Miner Blues" by his hero, Ramblin' Jack

[janlaser]

It was a cold and cruel evenin' sneaking up on Speedy Creek
I found myself sleepin' in the snow
For one or two odd reasons I ain't too proud to repeat
For now we'll say I had no place to go

It was a rustle and a hummin'
Just a haulin' down the street
I drew myself up from my icy bed
Painted on that shiny car
The letters R, C, M and P
I could feel a little achin' in my head

And then out jumps this ol' boy about twice the size of me
He asked me for my name and where I dwelt
I just looked him in the eye and sang "Blue yodel number nine"
He didn't catch the reference I could tell

And then the old familiar click
And the handcuffs bindin' grip
He should have left me in the snow where I lay
He just laughed and touched his gun
And turnin' to me he said
"Son, I bet you don't own a damn thing to your name"

Well, I got my health, my John B. Stetson
Got a bottle full of Baby's Blue Bird wine
And I left my stash somewhere down in Preston
Along with 13 silver dollars and my mind

Well, I got my health, my John B. Stetson
Got me a bottle full of Baby's Blue Bird wine
And I left my stash somewhere down in Preston
Along with 13 silver dollars and my mind

Übersetzen in: Deutsch

[Brandonthesnifferofall]

Wonder how many Joe Rogan fans will end up here