Album Review – Colter Wall’s “Memories and Empties”

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Traditional Country (#510) on the Country DDS.

We can now officially crown Colter Wall as a master craftsman of both types of music—country and Western. The Saskatchewan native is famous for taking archaic cowboy tunes and making them massively appealing to modern audiences against all odds. Many musicians owe their fame to a feature in the soundtrack of a Taylor Sheridan franchise. In the case of Colter Wall, Sheridan finding appeal for his neo Westerns might be just as much Colter Wall’s fault for stoking the appetite in all things Western.

Though the general approach and instrumentation of a traditional country album compared to a Western one might sound the same to the untrained ear, the distinction between the two is not trivial. Colter Wall and trusty co-producer Patrick Lyons make sure the subtle but important distinctions of these respective disciplines are deftly explored in the ten songs of Memories and Empties.

Western music loves to extol the wonders of nature, and the virtues of hard work and honesty. Country music is more interested in affairs of the heart. Cowboys are too proud, too guarded to be caught sharing weepy particulars about some love interest gone wrong. In country music, heartbreak is the manna that makes the steel guitar weep and the fiddle sing. The little dogies can get along themselves in country. There’s beer to drink and sorrows to drown in a bar in town.

Memories and Empties isn’t just Colter Wall’s first stab at a dedicated country album. It’s really his greatest and most purposeful effort at songwriting in his career, not just from including so many original songs instead of traditionals and covers, but in the way Colter clearly wanted to express himself in a different manner, yet in accordance with the traditions of the traditional country genre.


Colter does this most brilliantly in the second song on the album, “My Present Just Gets Past Me,” cleverly utilizing the disorienting notion of time that grips one when nursing a broken heart and pining for past experiences. The song “Memories and Empties” is a gorgeous vessel for displaying the contours of Colter’s one-in-a-million voice. This is the kind of song and performance that could make someone like Merle Haggard jealous.

The playful title of the up-tempo “It’s Getting So (That a Man Can’t Go into Town Just to Have Him a Drink)” is a homage to country writing of the past itself. There are no big “bangers” on this record, or anthemic choruses, or infectious beats. It’s the subtleties that make the moments, like the faraway tone of the piano at the end of the title track, or the way the almost Gospel-like “4/4 Time” revisits the melody at the end, making you appreciate it that much more.

The reason Colter Wall has become so wildly successful with Western music is because he doesn’t just play the music, he champions it. He embraces it. He sells its virtues to the audience. That’s what Colter does for traditional country songs on Memories and Empties. Like we’ve seen from other artists lately, this album is Colter Wall proclaiming “This is country music.” The opening song “1800 Miles” and it’s kiss off to Music Row is the perfect way to commence this exercise.

Despite Colter Wall’s wild and improbable success, some have found his music boring ever since he put three rounds into Kate McCannon, including maybe some who dig the voice, but could do without all the wind-swept prairies and tumbling tumbleweeds. But the magic of his entire career has been taking conventionally boring music, and exposing its appeal. Colter extends that legacy with Memories and Empties, and into the realm of traditional country to the delight of many.

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8.3/10

Purchase/stream Memories and Empties

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