068: Colter Wall

Episode 068 is with songwriter Colter Wall. We talk about recording with Dave Cobb, cutting class to write songs, murder ballads, his rapid growth after his debut EP Imaginary Appalachia, and his Western Canadian Plains roots.

Interview Transcript

Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.

Thomas Mooney 0:09

Everyone, welcome to Episode 68 of new slang. I'm Thomas Mooney. And on this week's episode, I'm joined by singer songwriter Coulter wall. Like most of y'all, when culture came across my my radar, it kind of blew my mind. It was one of those like, why haven't I heard him before? Like, where is this guy from kind of things. I practically wore out that first EP of his imaginary Appalachia. I'm sure a lot of y'all have or had as well mean Coulter we been I guess for like the last year kind of crossing one another's path on on social media and whatnot. I'd written a few articles on his last record songs, the planes, we have done an interview over the phone. But this was the first time we met. They were down here in Lubbock, this past month, and they were playing a show with the blue light. So naturally, we kind of set up this little last minute podcast, we got an eat net Triple J's right before we did this. And so I guess would like, you know, I guess like with, with a lot of these interviews, I do them right after soundcheck, and we typically just do it inside blue light. Right after because it's pretty quiet in there. And there's just a few bartenders and barbacks. Getting ready for the night. But this was a Tuesday and it was kind of an Early Show, blue light was opening at eight o'clock. And so we ended up doing it inside the their van right in front of blue light. And so, you know, it's kind of interesting sitting in the driver and passenger seat versus, you know, on a, in a corner table or something, or on a corner table. folks were for the most part, and then even say, for the most part, they're like, everyone was pretty courteous and left us alone for a while. But it did kind of have this like Jurassic Park kind of feel, you know, because you, you're just in the car, and you're just watching all these people line up to enter blue light. And, you know, sometimes they'd walk by and they'd just realize that it wasn't just two dudes sitting in the, in the band that it was culture wall and just just some dude. And anyways, I guess it was, you know, a little bit of an interesting dynamic for that kind of atmosphere. I have to say that, like, Coulter is really a personal guy. Sometimes you think of these artists as, as guys who are just going to hold up and wait behind the scenes and just go on stage and then go disappear again. And, you know, really, that's that's understandable. I really get that. But with culture, he was he was just around. He was smoking cigarettes out front. You know, drinking a couple beers at the bar and talking with folks and, and shaking hands, you know, that whole thing? And I'm sure he's like that in a lot of places. But I think for for this show, right here in Lubbock, it was for two specific reasons that night, one eye, I know, he had mentioned that, you know, they they're really been they've been playing a whole bunch of like theater type shows. So it's a different kind of atmosphere. And he said he was really excited to be back inside a bar. And I guess you know, it's it's one of those things where you have these theater shows, you're talking to people at the merch booth, and it's a meet and greet line for for all intents and purposes. But at a bar, you know, it's a little bit more natural, a little bit more free flowing. The second though, is I think that like a lot of these people here in Lubbock reminded him of home, you know, songs, the plains his last record, it may as well be about the South Plains of Texas. You know, you can exchange Toronto for Houston and Saskatchewan for the South Plains, I guess I don't know, the panhandle.

It's a lot of the same kind of work a lot of the same endless horizon. So I think in this interview, we ended up talking about a lot of those similarities. So anyways, um, if you're just now listening to new slang, I'd encourage you to subscribe to on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Give us a five star review while you're at it as well. And while you're at it, go ahead and follow me on Twitter. You can follow me at underscore new slang. You can do so on Instagram and on Facebook. And if for whatever reason, you're wanting to Get a hold of me via email. You can send comments and questions and really just whatever, at Thomas mooney@gmail.com. And yeah, one last thing. As most of you all know, Luke Perry, he passed away earlier this week. There's an article I wrote about Luke and Layne frost and the social significance of eight seconds over on Rolling Stone was put out this last Monday. So I'd highly encourage you to also read that as well. Okay, so now I'm not going to bother you with this intro any longer here is this band conversation with culture wall. One of the things I was wanting to ask you about was obviously these like these two records here, you've done with the Dave Cobb, calm. A lot of his stuff is really vibrant in a sonic way, right? Like you think of kind of more of the spiritual stuff. The Stapleton stuff is both kind of all really, really big. And of course, he comes from like, a more of a rock and roll background. Especially this last record. You guys are like really bare bones. I guess what, what is that? Like? What? I guess what, what's the process with him? To that also, like, kind of drew you into to him? and trying to figure out like, how he's how he would be able to capture your sound, despite it not being necessarily like a really gigantic Sonic palette?

Colter Wall 6:41

Well, it's good question. But the first record, the first record I did with Dave, the, the self titled, it was kind of more of a, I was sort of just awestruck in being in RCA for the first time making a record there. And, and working with Dave, because he's such a, he's such a card man. He's such a interesting fellow, as well as you know, a wizard behind the board. And on any instrument as well. But the thing about it was, and I might have expressed this to you before when we talked for the article, but he was he was Dave was a little more at the reins for the first record. And then I remember pretty early on, he had said something about, you know, stripping down the approach, quite a bit. Just for because I played him some of the songs that I was thinking about recording, and he had figured that that was probably the way to go just based off first listen. And that's kind of what I was after, anyways. But again, where he was sort of more at the helm, with that first record, I sort of let him have a few more, I guess, creative calls or decisions that we were making in the studio, I was sort of letting him lead the project a little more than then, then I might have, you know, other than I did on this, this new record, the songs in the plains one was definitely more, I think I had more of an idea of what I wanted to do, I kind of had more of a grand scheme in my head of what the record should sound like and production wise and sonically where everything should be. So I kind of was a little more

kind of, what's the word I'm looking for a little more in control, I suppose of the production side of things and sort of making more of my own calls, while at the same time, you know, deferring to Dave, in certain situations, but for the most part, I was kind of at the reins for that one. But I you know, the record is the sounds the planes thing is is, is I knew there would have to be a certain amount of space, you know, just to properly capture the theme and everything of it. And the sparseness really sort of lends itself to the the whole, open, wide open sort of thematic planes thing. And I don't know, what was the question? I don't remember what I'm rambling on about. But yeah, it just seemed, it seemed that it made sense. And it worked. It was kind of in a group thing to like, the whole sparseness with verse LP works so well, in RCA that the first time that I figured, you know, if it ain't broke, yeah, we're gonna

Thomas Mooney 9:46

change it, but I feel like I need to. I'm gonna give the listeners a, we're sitting in the vein. So yeah, it's a little distracting with people. But, uh, ya know, I mean, one of the things that obviously Obviously, your vocals are the I think the first thing people notice. For me, I really noticed. It felt like a lot of places I'd been to out here in West Texas, there is that sparseness this space? And it felt like with with the last record, do you guys like, really figured out how to use the space? You know what I mean? I was listening to both the records today. And there's obviously a little bit more I guess instrumentation on that first record. Yeah. That that's going on. It feels like the second record, though. It's you in the band, a little bit of harmonica a little bit of pedal? Yeah. And it's just like those little accents.

Colter Wall 10:48

Yeah, well, even you know, the accompany the accompanying instruments. On the second record, the planes record are, they feel to me, they feel more sort of opened up, and even even more, not held back, I guess, but reserved, I guess. Yeah. And we were using a different sort of method for conjuring up the reverb, we had, we use an old plate reverb unit from the 60s on this record, and that lent itself to especially with the vocals and the other instrumentation on there, but you know, the lead stuff that's going on, on the songs where there are where there is, you know, pedal steel or heart plane in the back, is also, to me, it feels a little bit more like it was intentionally sparse, you know, as opposed to the, the last record. And I hope, you know, hopefully, that's translated. And this is not just me, crawling into the record too much, but and a lot of that has to do with the players on it. You know, like I can't really take credit for, for a lot of this, what's going on in the record, because I just had so many great people around and legendary pickers helping me out, you know, and I think both Mickey and Lloyd, sort of figure it out really quick, just even after a couple listens, because, you know, we bring him in, and then have him listen to the tracks, before playing them. And I think within the first two lessons, they sort of figured out, you know, and those guys are all vets, and there's some of the greatest at what they do in the world. Yeah, yeah. So I think it didn't take them long to figure out that, hey, this is kind of a less is more thing. And that's something that is a little more emphasized on the on the more recent record than in the last one, or at least I hope so.

Thomas Mooney 12:41

Right? It's interesting, how Miki Rafi, like, has such an iconic sound like, you just hear it, you know, it's like he's able to adapt. Obviously, that's why he's been playing with all these people all these years is his ability to I guess, like fit into whatever mold.

Colter Wall 13:02

Yeah, it was cool man, we Mickey sent over a bunch of different you know, just different tapes of him playing different sort of styles of harp. But we I kept going back because being that the record supposed to be a Western, you know, there's a very particular style of harmonica playing that you hear that's, to me is just, you know, the essential Western harmonica, and it's that really fast by Bravo, sort of, you know, like, you're lucky, if you're watching real Bravo, Walter Brennan playing that, you know, harp that he plays in that movie, he's got that really quick vibrato, and it's long, sort of drawn out on some notes. And to me, that's, you know, and Mickey does a bunch of different stuff on the record, but he kind of always, we kept going back to that take on each track where he was playing where he's sort of doing that style stuff like plainsmen and Calgary, round up specially he's really driving home that that Western thing. But yeah, he sent over a bunch he sent over stuff that was sort of more rhythmic and stuff that was a little busier and stuff that was more open ended and he's just don't pro man. It was a it's kind of a treat to have both him and Lloyd and and everybody that played on record come in, and you know, lend their talents is for for 23 year old kid from Canada. I was sort of just, you know, blown away by it. But But yeah, Mickey's great. Talk about him forever. And he's such a sweetheart, too. He's, like one of the nicest people you could possibly meet. And, you know, my opinion, best harmonica player in the world. So yeah, there's that.

Thomas Mooney 14:38

You know, obviously, this is like a Western record. And we've talked about the not being a country record or a Western record. And there being a difference that a lot of people these days, obviously you just kind of it's the same thing.

Colter Wall 14:54

Yeah. But I think people are really, people don't differentiate as much as maybe used to back when Hmm, Western music was a little more prevalent, I guess, in our culture, or in on the radio and stuff like that, you know, but yeah, well, like what?

Thomas Mooney 15:10

Obviously, I don't think like anyone ever necessarily sets out to make a record to, quote, I'm gonna bring this back or something like that, but like, what do you do to show maybe like a side of music that people aren't necessarily that they're just not familiar with, you know that the maybe they're just familiar in these little just touchstones of you know, just like knowing who ramblin jack Elliott is. But obviously, a lot of people don't even know that, you know, like, I guess like, everyone would know, Marty Robbins, most people would? Well, I guess what is it to be able to sound a specific style and take you back to a certain era of music, while also I guess, like keeping that foot in, in modern relevancy.

Colter Wall 16:01

Yeah, that was sort of the, the big challenge of this record was trying to keep it from being a total throwback album, you know, which it is, in a lot of ways, you know, I cover a couple traditional cowboy songs, which not a lot of people that I know, of put on their records anymore, you know, that sort of, to music. And obviously, a lot of the way I sort of approach my songs, my music is steeped in a lot of tradition and a lot of old school stuff, because that's just what I like. And that's what I'm passionate, most passionate about, all my favorite records are old records. But the big challenge was trying to sort of have that and not let that overpower the whole project. And sort of allow for some, some sense of, Hey, this is a record that was made and in 2018, you know, and it shouldn't, you know, that should be somehow relevant, no, eight, a lot of that came through the songs and the stories, you know, having, having the traditional cowboy stuff, and then also doing, you know, something like john Byers, which is a lot more modern, you know, it's, it's a modern story about a couple of guys in their Camaros, you know, so sort of balancing, timelines out and all those, there's a lot of reoccurring themes in traditional music, no matter what, you know, whether it's Western music, or whatever, there's reoccurring themes that you can pretty easily spot if you're, you know, a student of it. And just finding ways to, I guess, take those really important themes of, of traditional Western music and what makes Western music Western, right, and sort of place that into these, these more modern stories, you know, and right, and hope that they match, right, and hope that it's, it doesn't feel like kind of a juxtaposition, sort of, like,

Thomas Mooney 17:59

you know, right now, I think in music, there's a lot of talk about, like authenticity and stuff like that people love that word, right? Yeah, well, I think I was talking with a friend. And we, I think, like authenticity goes, a little bit of authenticity goes a long way. And what I'm probably more concerned about from an artist is, like, where is it coming from a genuine place, because it's obviously really easy to, you know, write a certain way to make a quick buck shirt. Like, is somebody being genuine about it, you know, and I think that's more the key to everything here. And it's hard to necessarily, like, it's hard to be like, you know, I'm gonna write a song about the 1800s. And, like, have that firsthand experience, you know, so I think like, you got to give somebody the, I guess the room to mean, the, you got to suspend some, some belief every wants to

Colter Wall 19:04

absolutely know, you know, that's, that's something that I deal with a lot to, on account of my age and, and where I come from, you know, people, I think some people might be skeptical just because, you know, the here anybody that's in their early 20s, doing traditional music and trying to make a certain kind of, you know, trying to achieve a certain thing with this kind of record, they'd probably, you know, it'd be it'd be really easy to sort of have a certain level of disbelief, I guess, or a certain you know, skeptical ism. But I don't know I try to think about that all that stuff too much. I always figure you know, a lot of great songwriters will tell you just write about what you know, and, and that's what I try to do with, that's what I've tried to do with all my projects and a lot of the times it's it's You know, if I'm doing like period stuff, like you're talking about songs about guys like Wild Bill or songs that are setting them in a different time, then you know, then you have homework, then you got to do some research can't just, you can't Freebase that stuff, you know, cuz I wasn't around back then. But I do love history. I'm kind of a history nerd myself, which is has a lot to do with why I love these old songs and, and I'm enamored by old stories. So, you know, I'm happy to have that kind of work, that kind of homework to do for songs, right? Because, I mean, you gotta you just gotta know your stuff, then. Yeah, right about what you know. And I tried, I guess I subscribe to that belief. I tried to do that as best again,

Thomas Mooney 20:43

right? That's, that's like in Saskatchewan in 1889. Right. The. And when I came across it, I was, I feel like I just walked across the whole Martin farm thing, right? Like that being like a real thing. To me. I love those little pieces that ground a song in an actual reality, no matter. Like, I think when I was writing about it, I said it could be like, 1981, or,

Colter Wall 21:06

yeah, for sure. I mean, that song too, is it's, it's kind of it was intended to be a humorous song, with the, you know, the whole idea of, yeah, it's, uh, I mean, it's, it's, it's not as much of a period piece of something like while bill because I'm kind of having more fun with it. And, and there's a bunch of historical discrepancies in there that, that people have pointed out to me because the second, the second you do that, the second you write historical song people, there's gonna be people that jump down your throat about certain things. That's the conversation I have with Corbin, OCO, actually, because he's, he does much of that kind of writing too. But, you know, with that sort of thing, there's lines in there that, you know, like that thing, that joke about men and lights, and you know, how cold it is, and stuff like that, you know, it's still, despite, you know, supposed to be 1881. Right? Despite all that, I think folks back home, it's all that stuff's just as relevant today as it ever will be ever was. So, so, um, yeah, it's it goes back, that whole thing of grounding it all in some kind of reality, and grounding it all with some kind of some sort of real experience. You know, I'm writing stuff that's strictly fictional. I try to draw on actual experiences and actual things that I know, to sort of, you know, bring it to life and give it that sense of, you know, like, obviously, this is a song. This is a story that I've made up, but hopefully, hopefully, people are able to hopefully take somebody somewhere. And they're not just sitting there going like, Well, yeah, likely. Sure. But I don't know a lot of that depends on listening to I guess. Yeah, I just tried to do my job as Miss again, it comes to those stories and tell him well, you know,

Thomas Mooney 22:58

right. The I really love the ID, I guess like the the device used in Cape mccannon. Like, as far as far as like, how that song starts out with just like the raven is working. Like, I guess where did that come from? And like, how did you, I guess get the decided to kick the song off that way.

Colter Wall 23:21

That's, that's actually a good example. We're just talking about when I wrote that song. I was living in a little apartment in Saskatoon, which is kind of like the big city in Saskatchewan. It's sort of like our Lubbock, I guess. It looks like love it actually looks pretty similar. But anyways, Saskatoon is our biggest city, we haven't sketch and I was taking, I took two years of university up there. And at the U of S University of Saskatchewan, I was living in this little apartment. And this is before I really done this is long before I've had, you know, a bunch of shows and had a bunch of jobs between that period to anyways, but the point is, we had one little window in the apartment and there was a big tall pine tree outside of it, sort of standing by itself. If you looked at it, right, it was kind of centered with like a picture frame almost in the window. And one day, I wasn't in class, go figure. And sitting there with a guitar, just looking at the window and a big black bird. I don't know if it was a raven, but some kind of big black bird flew up on top of the tree. And that's sort of where the first line started to develop. And that was one of those songs where it all kind of just toppled out really fast. After the first line came the rest of it, not as listened to a lot of murder ballads at the time. And a lot of you know, kind of, again, the reoccurring themes in a lot of traditional murder ballads, you'll find them there's you know, it seems like there's always a river at some point and, and there's a lot of things that just keep popping up. So I sort of tried my Best to pay homage to all that as well as you know, tell my own kind of story, right? Yeah, that's where the first line came from is from, from a bird, I watched one day fly up on on top of a tree while I was skipping class. And then the rest of it sort of just fell out.

Thomas Mooney 25:17

Yeah, when it when did you decide to have the, you know, like the snare gun shots.

Colter Wall 25:23

That was a well, when I wrote that song, I was still playing with a kick drum bass player, the kick drum for a while, because I play in noisy bars on weekends, and no one would listen to a guy with acoustic guitar. So I figured I'd seen other people do that. And I thought now give that kick drum thing to try. So I'd kind of done that three stomp thing at the, at the part of the story where he's, you know, doing the killing, and eventually got tired of the kick drum and get rid of it. And sort of just went back to playing acoustic because I had people that were actually listening, and then you know, eventually got a band, but when we recorded it, it was, you know, the song sort of turned out differently. I've listened to a lot of people with that song in particular, you know, talk about just how it's changed from the record, as opposed to videos of me playing it from right around the time I wrote it, and a lot of things change, and I sing it different. It's my whole style of singing is different now, because I've been working on that. And, and but in the studio, you know, things sort of shift. And I was, I was, you know, sort of welcoming that. Because again, that was that first LP where I'm sort of letting Dave have a little more of the control over the production side of things. So the sort of, you know, that the song kind of took a different shape, and I'm very proud of it and love the way it sort of turned out I know a lot of people kind of like the the original arrangement better, but you know, that's, that's how songs are meant. Sometimes they change, you know,

Thomas Mooney 26:54

yeah, the, I'm sure. I'm sure it's been done a whole lot before. But the only other song I can really think of is an Amanda Shire song that has the same little snow. Yeah, trick. Yeah, she's from around here. Yeah, she from here. Yeah. Great. Yeah. But that's what I always love those little, little things in songs like, yeah, you go.

Colter Wall 27:16

Well, you know, at that point, it's, you talked about production and arrangement in the studio and on a song and using it as a device installed in the storytelling and the songwriting, you know, and that's, that's a good example of that. That's something that a lot of my heroes in law, my favorite records, you'll sort of hear that kind of thing and hopefully, you know, I don't think everybody picks up on it, but obviously, you have so it's, it's cool in that it's a rewarding thing, when somebody does figure that out the little nuances. Yeah,

Thomas Mooney 27:46

I tweeted about it the other day, the if you guys ever had to do like the music video over should be with Kate McKinnon.

Colter Wall 27:55

Oh, yeah. I've gotten a lot of a lot of talk about about her too. Yes. I didn't realize at the time, I don't think I wouldn't watch an SNL at the time when I wrote that. But once I think probably subconsciously heard her name and thought it's gonna get a little twist on it. I just want you know, I was looking for something that sounded really Irish. Here you go.

Thomas Mooney 28:13

Now, the obviously, you're from Canada. I know. Like there has, I feel like we always just kind of generalize places that you've, you're never from, you're not from where you're from. You never really visited so I think we like everyone thinks that Canada is like, just one place. Yeah, like wherever. Currently Think of it as one big state. Yeah, like where everyone knows everyone, that kind of thing. And I think a lot of people would have done that with like, Tennessee in Nashville and born in Texas and whatnot. Sure. You've obviously like the last song on the record. You've mentioned corba already. Blake is on that song. There's a lot of other stuff coming out of Washington Canada. Belle Plaine. Like we're where all these people coming from? Is there a lot of like underbelly of of Canadian music that of a song singer songwriter, variety that?

Colter Wall 29:14

I think there is, I mean, it's just like, down here, there's a lot of garbage music that gets put out on the radio, especially in the world of country and western music, where you hear a lot of terrible radio pop stuff, you know. But on the other hand, there's also you know, folks, like the ones you mentioned, that are really you know, their intention is doing it right. We're all trying to fight the good fight and and bring that sort of genre back to its its roots. So just good storytelling, and there is quite a few of us. It's funny, Western Canada, it's such a spotty sparsely populated area. I mean, Canada in general is pretty sparsely populated country, but where I'm from sort of right in the middle of the prairies, they call it Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta. It's incredibly sparsely populated. There's very few people that live out there a lot of it looks like West Texas, it's flat and a little bit of Hill Country here and there sort of before you hit the Rockies and stuff, but it's, you know, it's all a lot of small agrarian communities, farmers, ranchers, people working learning stuff like that. So there's really not a lot of there's not a ton of places to play. I mean, you can find places to play but not there's no really big markets. Right? You know, if you want to play a really big market, you kind of have to either do Toronto or Vancouver and you know, there's, there's some bigger cities now, Alberta, there's Calgary, and we have a couple. Saskatoon is, like I said, the biggest city we have scattered, it's really not very big, but space when we got, but it's just tough. You know, in the end, if you're touring up there, it's tough to because cover a lot of distance to get from one place to another. But, man, I'm so proud of everybody back home, because it hasn't stopped anybody from making great music. You know. There's so there's so many folks back home that that I think should have more recognition than they do. And then some better like Belle, Belle Plaine, who this year is really kind of started to her newest record. I feel like got a lot of good attention.

Thomas Mooney 31:16

Yeah, you're on it, too.

Colter Wall 31:18

Yeah, I did a little singing on there. But yeah, there's a few of us. I don't know if I'd call it an underground or whatever, just because that's sort of tentative about, you know, that kind of, it's like this, like the whole outlaw thing. You know, I tried never to use it, because nobody really knows what it means. And everybody, you know, kind of throws it around. Like it's like it. Like, you know, I don't even know, I just tried to steer clear of it. But yeah, there's there's plenty of folks out

Thomas Mooney 31:46

there. I feel like we all started using these. And I understand that being a journalist like you, like, I hate the term American or like own country, or it's all very, but very catch all, but I can, I can see why you would have to use it in an article to to try to describe someone if you only have a word, you have a word limit, you know what I mean? Where,

Colter Wall 32:07

yeah, core. I keep referencing them. But I just saw recently at that cowboy poetry thing in Elko and he was part of his live banter was he was saying that you never know what to call my music. Because, you know, to me, it's catchy and Western, but you don't want to call it country because then people will think you're one of those people, you know, one of those assholes on the radio playing that garbage that you hear. And then he said, What did he say? He said, I've decided the common music, agricultural tragic hectoring that was pretty good. might adopt that. But yeah, that's the thing about titles and when people are trying to, you know, come up with whatever new thing for genre to sort of, you know, describe it, I guess it's like, everything means something else to everybody, you know,

Thomas Mooney 32:56

exactly what's that. And anytime I describe anything, I'm like, I felt like I have to put an asterisk next to it, and then that asterisk ends up getting an asterisk, because it is always an exception to

Colter Wall 33:06

it's kind of a sticky business. I try to, I always, you know, to me, I play my music that I've played Western music, especially nowadays, but I've made records that are, you know, closer to honkytonk, or to me or foci, or whatever, but I don't bother telling anybody that because I always figure you know, they're the ones listening, they're gonna come up with whatever they want to call it on their own. They might call it catchy in western they might call it Western they might call it out while they might call it alternative country they might call it Americana god there's, you know, 100 different things that they could call it and to them, you know, that's what it is. And that's that's fine. You know, it's all very subjective.

Thomas Mooney 33:44

Yeah, you How did you I guess, like, get into a lot of these these folks around here from Texas like that, that are probably I don't know, like, I always think that a lot of the the classic guys around your like towns and guy and they didn't get bigger until they passed away. And then like even then you feel like you know, they're not necessarily like that big in comparison to you know what I mean? Like, he went to the bar here and asked everyone who towns was a lot of them would know if you asked everyone you know, down this damn Street, maybe not. Yeah, you know, so I guess like one was what's your first experience? Finding the singer songwriter?

Colter Wall 34:30

Yeah, well, you know, I grew up listen to plenty artists from Texas that are just a lot more well known. I guess. Like the willies Yeah, the Willie's in the woodlands. My dad's he massive Waylon fan. So I've been hearing his records ever since I was really young, you know, and grateful for it because I'm also a massive Wayland fan, and I love I love those guys. But as far as you know, you talk about people like towns and people like guy that are a lot more sort of fly under a lot of people's radars. I guess I can't have started to discover a lot of those guys through. I got into Steve Earle at a pretty young age, and obviously, you know, he was running buddies with all those guys. So I can remember, you know, just listen to Steve records and looking online about, you know, his sort of story and then find him you know, one day stumbling across the town song and I'd heard punch on lefty before from you know, Marlon Willie have in there hit with it. So I'd heard some of his songs already. And I knew that there are town songs. But I don't know I can't remember exactly how I first discovered or what the first song might have been that I discovered that those those kinds of guys but I was also a big Dylan fan. Who sort of falls especially the early 60s stuff is very Woody Guthrie, folky singer songwriter stuff. So naturally, you know, if you're, if you can dig on that stuff, you're probably gonna like a lot of towns as catalogue because it's sort of a lot of, you know, the same foundation I guess, as far as influences and styles guys, and just, you know, acoustic traditional derivative songwriting stuff, you know. So it was kind of a pretty easy progression getting into those guys because I was already listened to. to a lot of folk your stuff, I guess, and more singer songwriter stuff. But yeah, I guess probably through Steve that I've discovered towns, I'm pretty sure and then guy, consequentially afterwards, but yeah, I'm pretty sure you think the first song might have been? I'd heard punch in lefty and I heard dead flowers because I've seen The Big Lebowski right but never bothered taking the song go find out who's singing it. But the first song I might have heard is probably waiting around to die where I actually was aware that it was town singing. Yeah. Which is a pretty I'm pretty sure that's one of the first ones he wrote to.

Thomas Mooney 36:56

Yeah, that's a heavy voice heard. Like, it's the song that he said like this is the first serious song. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, Oh, shit. Okay, everyone else? Yeah, pick it up. Exactly. Yeah, might as well quit at that point. The thing about Dylan though, he mentioned Dylan. He's got like a careers in one.

Colter Wall 37:16

eight different people. And you know that he's one of those guys. That was so every decade he seemed like he was a different person than he was. His music changed. Yeah. Do you have a favorite Dylan? Probably. Probably the 60s Dylan. But you know, I love a lot like Nashville skyline. JOHN Wesley harden records like that. Or even highway 61 revisited. Like I like a lot of that kind of Dylan era stuff, too. But the first Bob Dylan songs I fell in love with raw, early 60s just starting up in Greenwich Village, Dylan, you know, and I just love the rawness of those recordings and the songs. And you know, he's so he's so young. And he's not Bob Dylan yet. You know, he's, he's just some kid. He's just some big kid running around Greenwich Village, and he does a lot of great old folk songs and they love there's a lot of recordings of him and demos and stuff him doing that. Yeah, back then. So that's he that's probably my favorite. I also like the way he's saying back then. You know, his voice has changed a lot with him over the years. And I really like his work the way his vocal sound in those early recordings.

Thomas Mooney 38:22

Yeah, those those bootleg albums Yeah, it was a series of it's just such a if you have the time, like you know what I mean, like and you can go through them all. It's such a it's really cool to see the map, I guess, of how the songs how he became who he was as different periods right. Some of these bootlegs recently I've not listened to like the last couple because it's it's almost overwhelming of how much

Colter Wall 38:51

man I feel like every year they they release board baseball tapes. It seems like there's an ending amount of those that just keep coming out of the woodwork but I mean, it's cool. I get you know, it's always like when when something from way back in the day that's been hiding somewhere and pops up. It's always fun to go back and discover something new.

Yeah, definitely is gonna go get a beer. Yeah, sure. You got enough. That's good. Yeah, it's good for me. Cool, man. Thank you for coming on. No worries, buddy.

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