Colter Wall
Renee Williams:You were featured as in RS. What’s important to know about you and your music?
Colter Wall: If you were to get it real simple, I would say I am a folk singer. I am pretty new to the scene, relatively speaking. I’ve been doing this for a few years now. It is simple music, nothing real complex or anything like that. It is real simple music inspired and derived mostly from traditional folk songs and traditional music from the North American songbook. I got a new record coming out May 12, it is going to be my first full length record and I am excited about it. and really had a fun time working with Dave Cobb who produced it and everybody who played on the record. we really had a blast so I am excited to put that out. It is self titled and my first full length LP. Some of the artists that played. It is a pretty minimalistic record there is not alot of production or instrumentation on it. We were lucky enough to get some really great players. Robby Turner came in and player pedal steel and dobro on the record. I was really happy to have him be a part of it. We had a really really great drummer by the name of Chris Powell who has worked with some other people that are kinda I think who are fighting the same fight for music that I am trying to fight right now. People like Sturgill Simpson and Jamie Johnson and Mike Webb came in and played a little piano on the record. And of course, Dave Cobb who produced the record also plays all over the record. He plays alot of guitar parts. A blast to have him not only as producer but also as a player, being a part of the collaboration and process of all of it. My friend, and the guy who plays bass in my band on the road who is currently on the road with me now. Jason Simpson plays bass on the record so I was happy to get him in on it and a part of that too.
Renee Williams: You seem to come along at a good time when Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell. How do you fit in with the new country scene?
Colter Wall: I am a fan of all those guys and it is nice to even be brought up in the same conversation or same sentence with them. I think there is obviously a pretty big difference between what I do and what all those guys do individually, it is very unique to their own sound but again I think there seems to be an attitude right now within some crowds of people that are I think are really just fed up with what they have been hearing on the radio, and the kind of music that you may call “mainstream” or “radio country” or whatever you want to call it but it really is just pop music. Some people, obviously not everybody, but some people in some circles are tiring of it and there are looking for something with a little more substance and something more meaningful and real and genuine and all of those names that you mentioned those are all people that are out there today putting the hours in putting the work in for people who are craving more from that realm of music and I am happy to say I am one of those people as a listener and also as a songwriter as someone who is trying to do that as well and I am kinda fed up with it and have never had much of a taste for that stuff they play on the radio so I am really glad that the clock seems to be turning back around and for some people anyway and more and more folks are getting to listen to and being made wise to people who are trying to do it their own way and not the way that any producer or industry has told them to.
I signed to a label called 30 Tigers based out of Nashville a few months back and they will be distributing the record once it comes out.
Renee Williams: Future Plans?
Colter Wall: Right now, we are on tour with Margo Price who is another one of those people who is really putting alot of work in and getting alot of recognition for making just really beautiful music and writing great songs. After this tour we have a few dates with Cody Jenks who is a great Texas songwriter and a pretty traditionalist in the line of country music. We are going to be playing some dates in the UK for the second time. Once the summer rolls around, we will playing all kind of festivals and running around like a bunch of maniacs trying to play.
Renee Williams: You performed at the Ryman, do you aspire to perform another iconic venue on your new tour?
Colter Wall: We are in Memphis, I would really love to play Austin City Limits, that is obviously a legendary gig to book so I would love to someday be able to do that and I do not know if it is still there but there was a little dive in Houston called Old Quarter and one of my biggest heroes in the word was a guy named Townes Van Zandt and he recorded a live record there and Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas is one of my favorite albums and alot of other guys that I look up to have played that room and I don’t know if that place is still standing, I would certainly love to play there. I think that would be a special kind of room to play.
